Why is BBC radio so much more interesting?

[GorillaMan]

I’d always assumed that the World Service had always been broadcast throughout the UK, but it appears not. (Being in the south-east, I hadn’t discovered I was on the edge of the reception.) Most people who have encountered it will have done so during its nighttime appearance on Radio 4’s frequency. The World Service is traditionally very separate from the main part of the Beeb, being funded differently, directly from the Foreign Office, and so the programming is quite separate from other stations.

[sciurophobic]

@Usram

But the BBC also produces a lot of that. This thread would be better titles “Why is BBC Radio 4 so much more interesting?” Radio 1, for example, is not terribly different from commercial pop stations, at least not in peak listening hours. On the TV side, the main channel BBC1, which consumes one third of the BBC’s entire budget, makes a mockery of the idea of public service broadcasting. It’s entirely ratings-driven, in direct competition with commercial channels.

In the US you have commercial-free radio in the form of Sirius and NPR. Here, that role is taken by the BBC. The difference is, you have to pay for BBC radio regardless of whether you like it. That does mean that it will throw up some gems that a free market would fail to support, but it also means you’re being forced to pay for a lot of dross, as QuizCustodet noted.

I usually pick my BBC shows by subject rather than station, but it’s probably true that most of them are either BBC4 or BBC7. I was looking at the XM and Sirius channel lineups and they do have some interesting stations, but I’m really not in the mood to pay another monthly fee.

[QuizCustodet]

@fishbicycle

The NPR station where I work carries the BBC World Service, seven days a week, from 11 PM or midnight until 6 AM.

Is World Service also available in the UK? Which of the Beeb stations does it correspond to? Is it running its own programming, or does it run in tandem with a regular BBC outlet?

The World Service is available in the UK, but not on FM during the day - you need DAB digital radio, satellite or cable TV, or a shortwave receiver. (And I’m not sure about that last - haven’t had one in years.) Between about 1 AM and 5 AM, Radio 4 broadcasts the World Service instead of its own output.

As far as I’m aware, the World Service is a completely independent entity - looking over today’s schedule, I see only one program (From Our Own Correspondent) which also runs on Radio 4. There will probably be some duplication in the news bulletins, but I haven’t listened to a World Service news bulletin so I couldn’t tell you.

Tuckerfan, thanks for the information - that actually supports what I meant to say (though perhaps not what I actually said). I meant to say that both countries had about the same proportion of people interested in intelligent talk radio, but that it was easier to find it in the UK. This page suggests a 2005 audience of between 22 and 25 million people for NPR - that’s just under 10% of the US population, whereas Radio 4 is reaching between 15 and 20% of the British population. So hopefully with podcasting and so on, access to NPR is getting easier and so we’ll see its audience figures continue to increase!

jjimm - I actually missed it because I was distracted by typing out my earlier post - doh!

On preview, GorillaMan has covered most of the salient points about the World Service, and given a link. Nevermind…

[fishbicycle]

Thanks for the information. Much aprreciated.

[Ximenean]

@GorillaMan

Are you saying you really can envisage the BBC still producing the quality stuff, and continuing to do so long-term, without any of the prominence the organisation and some of its brands have as a whole?

Well, yes I am. The BBC didn’t always blow its own trumpet so hard, and seemed to get by then. I think there are now good alternatives to many aspects of public service broadcasting, and I think the BBC knows it. If they need to rely on such vulgar ideas as “brand prominence”, you have to ask how they are different to a commercial operator.

[GorillaMan]

@Usram

Well, yes I am. The BBC didn’t always blow its own trumpet so hard, and seemed to get by then. I think there are now good alternatives to many aspects of public service broadcasting, and I think the BBC knows it.

I don’t follow. When there was less variety of commercial media, the BBC had less need to use its commercialised features to support (both financially and in terms of status) other parts of the corporation. That makes sense. You seem to be saying that now there’s an increase in profit-making media, there is even less need for the BBC to find a way for the public sector voice to be heard.

If they need to rely on such vulgar ideas as “brand prominence”, you have to ask how they are different to a commercial operator.

The difference is in the ‘some of’. It’s not that it has to rely on brand prominence, it’s simply a fact of life that such ‘vulgar ideas’ are a necessity.

[Lust4Life]

@An Gadaí

BBC Radio 4 has some amazing stuff on it.

Totally agree,I can be doing the most boring job in the world and be quite happy if I’ve got R4 to listen to but a hell of a lot of my colleagues would quite happily kill me if it meant that they could go back to banal music and verbal diahorrea .

[Surbey]

While I do agree that the BBC is aweasome, I wouldn’t say it’s better than our NPR.
I do love listening to the BBC on my NPR station while I sleep but I wouldn’t give up NPR to have the BBC all day. I think they are best in combination.

Atleast we can ALL agree that no matter which one you pick, they’re a hundred times better than the rest of the crap out there…

[Lust4Life]

Must add as well some fucking idiot wanted to turn R4 into a news only station a few years ago.
Popular outrage ensured it didn’t happen.

I personally believe that R4 is unique in the world for its programme ( U.S.program)content and its level of excellence.

[MJinks]

Nobody has mentioned ‘Old Harry’s Game’ yet. Definitely my favourite radio comedy program and coincidently on BBC Radio 4.

BBC Radio helps my days at work fly by. I will say, although I love most of the comedy, I can’t stand the drama on BBC Radio 7.