Re: [Swprograms] World News Blog - Sigh of relief at the Department for International Development - cry of anguish at the Foreign Office.

[Joe Buch <josephbuch@xxxxxxxxx>]

If I remember correctly, back in the good old days of Goon Shows, live "silly" football matches, and Ted Heath music, the foreign office did not fund BBCWS.  It all came from the license fee.  It was pressure from license fee payers who forced the foreign office to pick up the tab.

Today BBCWS is on MW 648 kHz and I am told it has quite a domestic following around SE UK.  I heard it quite well recently in Germany, Holland and Belgium on the coast in the daylight. So if BBCWS has a big domestic audience they might be willing to have some of their TV license fee go for international news and features.

Joe Buch

--- On Thu, 10/21/10, Sandy Finlayson <sfinlayson@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Sandy Finlayson <sfinlayson@xxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Swprograms] World News Blog - Sigh of relief at the Department for International Development - cry of anguish at the Foreign Office.
> To: "Shortwave programming discussion" <swprograms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Thursday, October 21, 2010, 3:34 PM
> I certainly hope you guys are right.
> 
> SF
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------
> Mr. Sandy Finlayson
> Director of Library Services &
> Professor of Theological Bibliography
> Westminster Theological Seminary 
> Philadelphia, PA
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: swprograms-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:swprograms-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> On Behalf Of jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2010 1:37 PM
> To: Shortwave programming discussion
> Subject: Re: [Swprograms] World News Blog - Sigh of relief
> at the Department for International Development - cry of
> anguish at the Foreign Office.
> 
> One dynamic mentioned in The Guardian was how the everyday
> Brit would react to having some of the license fee go to an
> Urdu or Arabic service.  
> 
> I'd posit that we might--once again--hear more domestic
> fare (e.g. from Radio 4) on the WS in English.  
> 
> But, in the main, I think this is good at first blush (and
> certainly much better than it might have been).  If you
> remember back to some of our other discussions, one of the
> laments with VOA and to a lesser extent RCI is that these
> stations had no domestic constituency to fight for them
> during the budget wars et al.  WS definitely has this
> going for it at least.  I agree with Rich--there is
> pride on the street in the UK over the WS.  And that's
> not a bad place to start.
> 
> BTW, the switch doesn't kick in until 2014.
> 
> John Figliozzi
> Halfmoon, NY
> 
> ---- Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote: 
> > The World Service and domestic operations were in the
> process of
> > consolidating their physical locations; already much
> of what the World
> > Service "spends" is simply to reimburse the domestic
> operation for
> > programming and services.
> > 
> > So, one expense that should be avoidable is the cost
> to maintain the
> > intra-BBC accounting.
> > 
> > Those of us interested in preserving the World Service
> should monitor
> > the activities of the BBC Trust, as that now becomes
> the entity
> > responsible for WS oversight.
> > 
> > In the "Newshour" segment I mentioned, Sir John Tusa
> stated his
> > opinion that the World Service has built up
> substantial goodwill
> > amongst Brits and he believed that goodwill would help
> keep an
> > organizational focus on the World Service.
> > 
> > I would think that "Over to You" and "World Have Your
> Say" would be
> > interesting programs to monitor over the next few
> weeks as this
> > continues to play out.
> > 
> > Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA  USA
> > 
> > On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 10:13 AM, Sandy Finlayson
> <sfinlayson@xxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> > > What remains to be seen is how much of the BBC
> World Service will be left after the dust settles.  It's
> hard to imagine that the BBC is going to want to spend a lot
> of money on the World Service.
> > >
> > 
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