BBC Radio Player Relaunch

January 24, 2005 2:19 PM

Auntie re-launches her Internet Radio Player, which should be fully operational tomorrow. It looks as though it will feature some truly user-friendly facilities. The numbers: it will feature 500 extra hours of programming and over 80 more programmes,and they've read over 30,000 e-mails to find out what people want.
posted by Holly (25 comments total)

Does that mean that I'm not going to have use R**l player anymore? It's literally the only reason i have it...

As an Englishman in New York (ok ok, New Jersey - the job said NY metro area), I live by the BBC's online service, and while the previous-seven-days thing is great, I don't know why everything couldn't be online...

(ok I do know why, I just don't like any of the answers.)
posted by blindsam at 2:25 PM on January 24, 2005

Auntie? Is that a British-ism?
posted by smackfu at 2:30 PM on January 24, 2005

From Wikipedia, the BBC is: "...sometimes affectionately known to local consumers as "the Beeb", "the Corporation", or "Auntie"..."
posted by Robot Johnny at 2:34 PM on January 24, 2005

I thought it was wider than just the UK. Anyway, the BBC is called Auntie. I've no idea why, but probably has something to do with the almost familial aspect of early BBC radio broadcasts.
posted by seanyboy at 2:36 PM on January 24, 2005

The BBC itself doesn't seem too clear about why it's called "Auntie".
posted by Holly at 2:45 PM on January 24, 2005

Although some live sporting events are not available on Five Live outside the UK without a little tweaking...
posted by clarkie666 at 2:48 PM on January 24, 2005

I've noticed that, and I can't remember how I got around it, but it wasn't rocket science.
posted by blindsam at 2:56 PM on January 24, 2005

I'd love to know what that "tweaking" involves, if anyone can keep it short and idiot-proof... do any websites explain it?
posted by Holly at 2:59 PM on January 24, 2005

I can't find out whether they're keeping Real or switching to mp3 - does anyone know?

I love being able to pick up Radio 4 programs without having to remember when they're on, it would be nice to be able to throw them onto my mp3 player rather than being tied to my computer.

As far as tweaking goes - can you get at the .ram files? They contain pointers to the real stream, if it's just the .rams you can't get then anyone over this side of the pond could find the location of the stream, and you should be able to open it in Real Player.
posted by OldMansHands at 3:46 PM on January 24, 2005

In Our Time is also available via podcasting - the BBC is the first British broadcaster to use this technology.

My auntie's hipper than your auntie!
posted by dash_slot- at 3:48 PM on January 24, 2005

I listen to some of the live sports events labelled 'UK only' and I'm in New York. When you register with the site, just tell it you're in the UK. Seems to do the trick.
posted by haqspan at 4:09 PM on January 24, 2005

Accessing streams through a proxy server here
posted by clarkie666 at 5:11 PM on January 24, 2005

Let me get this straight, you don't have to pay anything? That sounds like an aweful lot of stuff for nothing.
posted by zorro astor at 5:45 PM on January 24, 2005

Auntie Beeb - it's a pretty well known nickname here in New Zealand.
posted by noizyboy at 6:01 PM on January 24, 2005

zorro astor: Well, we pay for it already - via the Licence fee (about £10 / month). Good ole socialism in action!
posted by dash_slot- at 6:12 PM on January 24, 2005

Good, eh, zorro astor? That's the joy of the licence fee (you pay £100 to 'licence' your telly; less for B&W sets).

on preview: tip of the hat to the dash
posted by bonaldi at 6:14 PM on January 24, 2005

Looks like it's a mix of RealPlayer and WMP.
WTF is wrong with mp3?
posted by Thorzdad at 7:07 PM on January 24, 2005

It'd be killer if auntie adopted aacplus, a relatively new audio format which sounds nearly as good as a CD, even when it’s compressed enough to play through a dialup line. 48 kbps anyone?
posted by sunexplodes at 8:43 PM on January 24, 2005

Enhanced aacPlus (or EAAC+) is even supposed to sound about FM-quality even down to 24Kbps. aacPlus is Coding Technologies' name for AAC with Spectral Band Replication. It is more generically known as "High-Efficiency AAC" or HE-AAC. "Enhanced" aacPlus is HE-AAC plus Parametric Stereo. It's desginated as a required codec for 3GPP rel 6, so that means it should start showing up on cellphones and desktops probably later this year, if not already.
posted by xiojason at 10:08 PM on January 24, 2005

"Accessing streams through a proxy server here". Thanks clarkie666 and haqspan, I'll look into those tweaks the next time I want to listen to a halfway-decent live soccer game on Five Live.
posted by Holly at 1:02 AM on January 25, 2005

WTF is wrong with mp3?

I little birdie told me that the problem with MP3 is that it's essentially a poisoned acronym when you're trying to negotiate rights with content providers. Take "Listen Again" for shows on Radio 1 which include music for example - if they were available as MP3 the music rights holders would flip their lids. At any rate, the podcasting trial has been a success so hopefully they'll expand it to cover other programmes that they own full rights to.
posted by simonw at 3:21 AM on January 25, 2005

A little birdie told me that this is very useful too. Probably won't work after the changes, though.
posted by blag at 5:56 AM on January 25, 2005

As for Real, there is an alternative.
posted by Orange Goblin at 7:49 AM on January 25, 2005

I love being able to pick up Radio 4 programs without having to remember when they're on, it would be nice to be able to throw them onto my mp3 player rather than being tied to my computer.

I do this everyday using AudioHijack for OS X. There is a Windows equivalent.

FYI, the Radio 4 stream is higher quality (or was; I don't know if this has changed in the last couple of days) than any of the World Service feeds. At about 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (0100 UTC) it switches over to the main World Service feed, and stays there for four hours. This means that you are listening to a better-sounding channel more suitable for recording.
posted by Mo Nickels at 9:36 AM on January 26, 2005

I also like WireTap from Ambrosia for capturing audio off the sound card.
posted by nanojath at 8:39 PM on February 23, 2005