The situation, thankfully, isn't as dire as Jonathan portrayed it, but nonetheless that's why I captured the audio for much of this output today - thankfully much of it remained available 8 days later, though it could disappear at the drop of a hat. I have converted it to MP3 audio for my own use.
That 7-day availability policy is not uniform. Some material is maintained for longer periods. I have suggested in times past that key stories from the news magazines (World Today, Newshour) should be individually indexed and archived because they are often mini-documentaries unto themselves. And the John Tusa audio is elsewhere because it was not aired on the 80th Anniversary itself. The Attenborough program must have been a special, and did not air in the usual "One Planet" program slot...so that is likely one reason it isn't available as part of the MP3 podcast series for One Planet. And while the MP3 archive is only 4 weeks long, there are 184 editions of One Planet available through the BBC Radio Player. Lest I sound like a Bush House apologist, the BBC has cut way back on the level of effort that is put into maintaining the World Service website. As a result, special programming like that done for the 80th Anniversary gets caught between the cracks...and you have to then get creative in looking for it. Where this is most problematic nowadays is the general lack of upcoming program information -- in the good old days of "London Calling" and "BBC On Air", you knew more than a month in advance what subjects and themes were likely to air on the specialist programs. The on-air advance publicity for the 80th Anniversary programming was reasonably comprehensive, but the online publicity was middling at best. As for that Newshour special, I'm roughly 40 minutes into the first hour, and what's alarming is that their distinguished panel consists of TV news brands, such as CNN, Russia Today, and Al-Jazeera, with no regard for the unique specifics of radio newsgathering. Humbug. RC in PA On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 7:42 PM, Daniel Say <[email protected]> wrote: > > And Jonathan Marks laments the loss ob BBCWS audios > after seven days of the event. > > Disappearing before your eyes (and ears) > > http://criticaldistance.blogspot.com/2012/03/disappearing-before-your-eyes-and-ears.html > > It's a week ago since the BBC World Service broadcast from a special tent > inside Bush House. 7 days is a magic time in UK public broadcasting, because > after a week a lot of content expires and is no longer available. And that's > started to become the case already with the programmes from the tent. Yes, > they are still up there as streams, but the Mp3 version of the interview with > Attenborough has gone. And why is the two part programme on Bush House with > John Tusa on a different page altogether, mixed with the infamous > announcement of the drastic cuts to World Service in January 2011? BBC World > Service has great content. But you have to really consume it on the day of > transmission. Finding stuff, in context, especially a few months later is > difficult, if not impossible. In fact a lot of useful stuff (like extended > news bulletins are not available as an archive). That's where a rewind button > on the digital radio is rather useful. > _______________________________________________ Swprograms mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.
