BBC 7: New Comedy Radio Channel

December 19, 2002 12:20 AM

Britannia BBC Rules The Radio Waves and no other broadcaster in the world comes close. Radio 4, The World Service and Radio 3 are simply the best radio stations for news, commentary and classical music there are. Now, their sparkling new channel, BBC7, is full of comedy and drama greatness. The League of Gentleman, Rory Bremner, Stephen Fry, Griff Rhys-Jones... nobody does comedy or radio like the British and when the two come together, it's bliss. Bless 'em! [Specially for us non-license-paying foreigners listening in on the Internet... Real Audio required, nonetheless.]
posted by MiguelCardoso (32 comments total)

Bloody freeloader!

The only radio station I ever listen to in my car is radio 5 live, a news and sports channel. I look forward to digital radios coming down in price, as I would like to listen to 5 Extra, 6 and 7 as well. Local radio is a complete joke in Britain. Every channel sounds exactly the same, full of absolute pap.
posted by salmacis at 12:38 AM on December 19, 2002

Freeloaders' Heaven!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:42 AM on December 19, 2002

The Sunday Times now charges non-UK residents an annual fee for it's online edition. (Although I understand it's trivial to circumvent for anybody with a bit of technical knowlege.) It's about time the BBC got round to something like that as well. I'm tired of subsidisng the Portuguese! (Just kidding, MC..)
posted by salmacis at 12:59 AM on December 19, 2002

Agree with all that you say there Miguel, but you must mention that Radio 3 is also the unlikely source of the best in new and innovative music. It carries concerts from the best and most civilised festival in the world (WOMAD) for months after the event. And has at least 2 excellent "world music" programmes. I cannot recommend "Late Junction" highly enough, though you should keep your credit card out of reach while listening, it can get expensive. It is also good for jazz aficionados.
I also agree that 5 live is brilliant, the breakfast and tea time shows anyway.
posted by Fat Buddha at 1:03 AM on December 19, 2002

Whoops, forgot to mention that most programmes are archived, online, for 7 days after the broadcast, complete with playlists and links.
posted by Fat Buddha at 1:19 AM on December 19, 2002

Radio 5 Live on my car radio all the time, except on Friday evenings when I get my dose of the latest banging tunes from the Radio 1 Essential Selection.

Quality through and through.
posted by Frasermoo at 1:35 AM on December 19, 2002

Midnight means the BBC World Service, through SBS here. It is just fantastic.
posted by emf at 1:59 AM on December 19, 2002

Fat Buddha is right. Radio 3 is not a 'classical music station'. It's technically an 'arts station', although I admit that when I skip over it, they generally have classical on, although I prefer Classic FM for that anyway.

I admit I'm more of a Radio 1 person though. Chris Moyles is keeping the art of the true 'comedy radio show' alive and well. And John Peel is one of the most influential people in music ever, and holding down a radio show for 35 years is no mean feat.

Radio 1 is certainly the most musically diverse of all the BBC stations though, if not any station anywhere. Where else can you hear old 78s of Noel Coward alongside pounding techno and then Britney Spears?
posted by wackybrit at 3:22 AM on December 19, 2002

>Where else can you hear old 78s of Noel Coward alongside pounding techno and then Britney Spears?

Your local college radio station? ;-)

Note that BBC wants everyone to enjoy their content for free outside the UK -- they even broadcast it on shortwave in various countries (it makes a great break from North American centric news, which is pretty much all you get in North America).
posted by shepd at 3:35 AM on December 19, 2002

Also recently launched, and also well worth checking out: BBC Asian Network - Bollywood soundtracks, bhangra and a whole heap of unclassifiable music that falls somewhere between R&B, UK Garage and Asian pop...
posted by jack_mo at 4:22 AM on December 19, 2002

I was thinking the other day that the bbc's website as a whole is one of the best around. And to think I skanked the license fee for ages. Oh well it was the principle of the matter!
posted by ed\26h at 4:38 AM on December 19, 2002

Chris Moyles is keeping the art of the true 'comedy radio show' alive and well.

Yes, in the 'true comedy' spirit of Tony Blackburn, Mike Read and Noel Edmonds...

Moyles is a true hate figure - unfunny, vindictive, arrogant and without doubt the worst thing on BBC radio and not unlike either Partridge or Gervais. His TV career is going down the pan before it even starts - I hear the ghost of Gary Davies beckoning him to Capital Gold. An utter dinosaur, he couldn't be less relevant to the rest of the superb BBC output.
posted by niceness at 5:31 AM on December 19, 2002

ahh... the portuguese blogger speaks!
posted by quonsar at 5:58 AM on December 19, 2002

Moyles is a true hate figure - unfunny, vindictive, arrogant and without doubt the worst thing on BBC radio and not unlike either Partridge or Gervais.

Since Alan Partride and Ricky Gervais are both doing very well at the moment, I fail to see your point. You're entitled to your opinion, since they're like assholes, everyone has to have one.

His TV career is going down the pan before it even starts - I hear the ghost of Gary Davies beckoning him to Capital Gold. An utter dinosaur, he couldn't be less relevant to the rest of the superb BBC output.

'Superb' like 'we have two jokes and most of them involve fake phone calls where Lard pretends to be a farmer' Mark and Lard I assume?
posted by wackybrit at 6:09 AM on December 19, 2002

Fat Buddha - could you post a link to any one of these archives? Either i'm being woefully dense (likely) and i can't find them, or even worse i'm looking right at them and can't get them to work. Thanks.
posted by kev23f at 6:15 AM on December 19, 2002

Note that BBC wants everyone to enjoy their content for free outside the UK -- they even broadcast it on shortwave in various countries

The BBC World Service isn't funded by the Licence fee though. Rather by the UK foreign office. So they spread a nice UK-friendly and rather sensible view of the world to those poor unfortunates away from these shores.
posted by mopoke at 6:21 AM on December 19, 2002

Since Alan Partride and Ricky Gervais are both doing very well at the moment, I fail to see your point.

Moyles is real. Although granted, there is a similarity in that we laugh AT them.

You're entitled to your opinion, since they're like assholes, everyone has to have one.

Yup, that's the kind of sharp one-liner I expect to hear from Moyles.

'Superb' like 'we have two jokes and most of them involve fake phone calls where Lard pretends to be a farmer' Mark and Lard I assume?

You've completely lost me there - where did your assumption come from?
posted by niceness at 6:26 AM on December 19, 2002

The BBC World Service isn't funded by the Licence fee though. Rather by the UK foreign office. So they spread a nice UK-friendly and rather sensible view of the world to those poor unfortunates away from these shores.

Aha, so that's why so many immigrants want to come and live here!
posted by wackybrit at 6:37 AM on December 19, 2002

I was thinking the very same about the BBC website a while ago it is a monster, must be one of the best sites on the web. At least here in the UK we can still do something excellently.

p.s I think mark and lard are hilarious, however they are a tad juvenile granted.
posted by johnnyboy at 7:08 AM on December 19, 2002

kev23f if you go to the bbc homepage, look down the left hand side, click on launch radio player and go to say, radio 3, all the archived shows will be there, or just go to the site of the particular programme.
posted by Fat Buddha at 8:04 AM on December 19, 2002

The recent programmes narrated by Sir Mark Tully, Lyse Doucet and others on the history of the Empire/World Service are well worth fetching from the archive.

I like R4, but the critics who talk about its dumbing down have a point. 'Start The Week' became 'Plug The Book' once Bragg left (at least he resurrected the proper discussion format for 'In Our Times') and the comics of 'Dead Ringers' have it right about such dreck as 'You & Yours'. And I like R3's evening stuff too. And while most local radio is shite, BBC London is an option for capital-ists and online types.

The World Service just gets the balance right. It doesn't ever talk down to its listeners, but it appreciates that many of them aren't from either an English or English-speaking background. And hearing the real world news headlines on the WS after listening to R4's coverage is a breath of fresh air.

Now, 7 might convince me to treat myself to one of those DAB radios for Christmas. Too much of the classic speech stuff has been locked away (especially the early talks and drama, when the Third was well avant garde) and it's about time to dig them up. And make them all available for download. With its 'unique status', the BBC has such power to affect the way that broadcasters deal with issues of copyright and distribution. Now, if it were to say 'fuck it' to the idea of digital rights management, and show its commitment to public service broadcasting... well, the RIAA might choke on its cornflakes.
posted by riviera at 8:06 AM on December 19, 2002

riviera: If you don't plan on venturing from your house, I'd recommend you get a Freeview digital TV box for the same price as a DAB radio (£99), you can get the digital radio stations on that too (except R1-5) as well as the telly of course :-) And.. the audio is good quality.

I'd get one if they had Radio 1 on it, bah! And the audio quality of DAB is appalling, so I might give that a miss too :-(
posted by wackybrit at 8:39 AM on December 19, 2002

The BBC World Service isn't funded by the Licence fee though. Rather by the UK foreign office. So they spread a nice UK-friendly and rather sensible view of the world to those poor unfortunates away from these shores.

This is true, mopoke - but only in a very profound and intelligent way, which I'm sure was yours. But unbelievers might take it to mean they toe the FO line.

Although the Foreign Office pay for The World Service and the FO is traditionally much less nationalistic than any government (hence the frequent threats to hobble it or close it down, something the frightful Thatcher often tried to do), I still don't buy the line it follows the humour-the-natives FO line.

I'm Portuguese and until I was 19 (and democracy arrived) I knew the value of the World Service to censored populations. But - you know what? - democracy arrived here and I still need it and respect it (the World Service, not bleedin' democracy, of course!) as much as I did then, almost thirty years ago. So they must be doing something right, at least in my book.

If they were only a little less anti-Zionist, they'd be perfect. ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:40 AM on December 19, 2002

There's got to be a better way of paying for it though. Take a day to sit in a local magistrates court and watch the procession of unfortunates appearing again for not paying the fine for not paying the fine for not paying the TV licence fee - and staring at imprisonment. All that advertisment free quality output is funded by a regressive 'poll tax' that falls heavily on the poor.
posted by grahamwell at 9:46 AM on December 19, 2002

If they were only a little less anti-Zionist, they'd be perfect. ;)

That's true, though it's explainable (if not excusable) by the historical friendliness of the FCO towards the Arab states and the strong ties with the Arabic service. There's also the fact that Israeli spokespersons tend not to give 'good interview' to British broadcasters: Sharon's ministers and press team do sound much more reasonable in print. ;)

And thanks for the tip, wackybrit. Though it must be a bit strange to 'watch' the radio through your telly...

All that advertisment free quality output is funded by a regressive 'poll tax' that falls heavily on the poor.

Actually, I disagree here, just because my gut feeling is that all that exposure to advertising on the commercial channels ends up costing people more in the long run, especially in the way that ITV's news output is increasingly saturated with thinly-disguised product placement. Yeah, with ads you have the choice not to buy, but I'd like to know how Cadbury's sales have gone since they started sponsoring Corrie.
posted by riviera at 10:43 AM on December 19, 2002

There's got to be a better way of paying for it

it would be good to see the license fee linked to income, but I suspect this would prove very tricky to implement in reality. (would it have to involve the tax office? the further the beeb is kept from other government bodies the better)

otherwise its great strength is obviously the way it is funded. It's a fascinating organisation both in it's importance to UK society, and to the rest of the world, and despite it's faults remains one of the few things the UK really does right.
posted by gravelshoes at 12:00 PM on December 19, 2002

Just want to drop a yay for Radio 3: my favourite radio station on and off for twenty years, getting better and better, catch it now before they decide it really ought to be a phone-in station (which is what they did to Radio Five and GLR).

From Our Own Correspondent is a constant reminder that all the things we hear about on the news are happening to somebody and that actually the things that most people want are the same the world over.

And listen to the Andy Kershaw in Iraq programmes, dammit. A real eye opener.
posted by Grangousier at 4:41 PM on December 19, 2002

Thanks for the pointers Miguel. (And you don't really sound like Quonsar says! Um, do you?)
And thanks to all contributors for the tips on finding the best stuff - good thread!
posted by madamjujujive at 9:39 PM on December 19, 2002

yay! and listen to Andy Kershaw everywhere else too
posted by gravelshoes at 4:07 AM on December 20, 2002

I missed the broadcast I've been waiting for, Round The Horne. Now that I know about the archives I'll be able to hear a little Polari from Julian and Sandy. Amazing, I thought I'd never hear this stuff.
posted by yonderboy at 7:43 AM on December 20, 2002

exposure to advertising .. ends up costing people more in the long run

I agree, the problem (from my anecdotal experience in the Magistrates court) is for people who find it a struggle to raise the big lump sum and then fall foul of the court system. That doesn't happen when you buy a bar of chocolate (you're worse off in the end, but not in jail).

The obvious solution is for the BBC channels to become subscription services and digital broadcasting should make this possible - however this isn't popular at the BBC (you can probably guess why).
posted by grahamwell at 8:52 AM on December 20, 2002

I have digital TV via a cable company and get R1-7, plus 1x and several radio channels which don't otherwise broadcast in my area (Virgin, for example). It is very odd putting the radio on via the TV though.

I always listen to R4 in the morning, although the great days of the 8:10am interview are long gone - the politicians avoid saying anything now. I stopped listening to R1 because of Cox and Moyles - both loathesome. Phil Jupitas on R6 is wonderful though.

Re the license fee. I used to pay a lump sum, and struggle. The option of paying via DD is available though, which I switched to a couple of years ago. That changes it to under a tenner a month.
posted by anyanka at 3:28 AM on December 21, 2002