Happy 80th Birthday British Broadcasting Corporation

[BigV]

I'm listening to "The Nine O'Clock" the meeting of the heads of all the different services that takes place each day at 9 am where they discuss what stories will be covered during the day for the 225 million listeners, viewers, and readers.

Very exciting!

Happy Birthday!

The BBC World Service - which marks its 80th birthday on Wednesday - was broadcast only on shortwave back in 1932. Today, audiences on FM, digital radio and the internet are growing fast while shortwave is in decline, but for millions it remains a lifeline.

[Lamplighter]

BBC is one of my favorite news sources
... likewise the Canadian radio (when we lived in Buffalo, NY)

Somehow world and US news take on a completely different,
and believable, flavor when not tainted by the US political biases.

So, Happy Birthday BBC from me too.

[Undertoad]

where they discuss what stories will be covered during the day for the 225 million listeners

This is the old model, where a group of elites decides what is newsworthy.

[ZenGum]

... and thanks for all that Dr Who!

This is the old model, where a group of elites decides what is newsworthy.

As opposed to the new model, where a few plutocrats decide what they want you to panic about this week.

Or the new new model, where a billion hairless monkeys click on whatever is flashing the brightest.

[Sundae]

Oddly, they don't seem to be making a big deal of it here.
I rarely watch TV these days - this will change tomorrow as the 'rents are going on holiday! - but I listen to BBC radio seven days a week. I haven't heard anything about the anniversary.

Perhaps they think it would be cheeky given 80 isn't special compared to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Or the Olympic Year.

[DanaC]

Radio 4 has been doing some stuff.

They've been rerecording newcasts from various points through the historyu of the World Service. And World Service has also been doing stuff, natch.

[Big Sarge]

I didn't know they had TV in Great Britian? Do you put an antenna on your turret roofs?

[Rhianne]

We've had television for ages and as soon as we get electricity I'm sure it's going to be really popular. By the way, the only antennae we have here are on butterflys and moths, we've got aerials for our tellys...!

[ZenGum]

Properly done, thatching will bring in quite a good signal.


Seriously, in northern Thailand, I visited villages of bamboo huts with thatched roofs, where about half the huts had a solar panel, a satellite dish and a TV, all government issued. These were recent refugees from Burma and/or Laos, this was part of helping them integrate into their new country.