Re: [Swprograms] OT: I said good-bye to Sirius...

[Daniel Say <say@xxxxxx>]

> That's true -- one loses the "immediacy" opportunity.  Your analysis
> is sound, and I took that into account when I decided to pull the
> plug.
> 
> However, for example - anything that's on WRN isn't necessarily
> immediate, though it is the same day.  The BBCWS is truly "immediate"
> 5 minutes an hour, plus Newshour, World Briefing, The World Today,
> World Business Report and Europe Today.  CBCR1 is "immediate" for the
> hourly news, World Report, and The World At Six.
> 
> If I have a need for "immediate" during my normal drive times, there's
> NPR or Philly's KYW or NYC's WCBS for that.
> 
	Yes, where are the cultural and current affairs, as distinct
	from news!?

	BBC WS tends to be all news these days.  Drama, culture?
	Wotzat!

	As for immediate, I tell my oft-told tale of trying to
	find news, huddling in some cold rainon an old Chinese 
	riverboat at 6 am on the Yangtze in the 3 Gorges trying to hear
	RCanadaInt's plug-in programming of the World At Six
	for Canadian news and freezing on the upper deck with 
	the radio against my ear straining to hear Canuckistan
	news that didn't show up until 20 minutes into the news
	and then only four items.  
	  The French side of RCI at least produced their own 
	news (mainly about Quebec/Ottawa but that's where the
	language group is).  RCI in English relied too much 
	on plugging in CBC stuff (for 25 minutes until freq. change)
	than doing their own thing for very overseas.
	  The vernacular (Chinese, Japanese,Spanish) were better,
	but you could tell they were sight-translating newspapers
	and wirecopy mush of the time.
	  You might miss Texas news when away and be tired of 
	Norway-and-IWC, Fighting-in-Palestine, In-Brussels-today
	before they mentioned a school strike in Harrisburg, recovery
	from a tropical storm in Philadephia etc. etc.

> I tend to value "immediacy" relatively lightly, because to me the only
> radio that needs to be immediate is traffic alerting, severe weather,
> or some other civil unrest that affects a decision I make then and
> there.  Local radio is the most efficient way to deliver that content
> in a mobile sense...today, anyway.
> 
> My motivation for listening to current affairs from international
> broadcasters is to gain a perspective built on analysis that requires
> a lag time by its nature, as the analysts gather facts, solicit
> opinions, research, and draw conclusions.
> 
> Much of what's on international radio has a shelf life of days, or
> even weeks, months or years in the case of documentaries.  For
> example, yesterday I listened to an April "Crossing Continents"
> (BBCR4) on the Mauritanian rural culture that praises obesity in
> women.  The program held my interest yesterday just as much as it
> would have back in April.
> 
> Once the dust settles on XM/Sirius, and their offerings are
> (potentially) redefined, I'll take another look.
> 
> Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA

	There have been enough murmurings that not even 
	a merger will save the U.S. form of Sat radio.
	  What was Jonathan Marks comment about some
	other service the other day on Critical Distance blog?

				Daniel Say
				getting localish news out of
				Vancouver, Canadaistan
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