A biased shadow of its former self, a waste of money dominated by champagne socialists, a victim of media fragmentation, a political pawn or still the trusted heart of the UK's (and, arguably, the world's) broadcasting world? As scandal after scandal threatens to undermine confidence in the BBC and the voices calling for the dissolution of the licence fee gain a more cohesive platform, can the BBC survive, - is it the solution or the problem, and can the British public really afford to let it die the death of a thousand cuts? On the day after the BBC announces it will put every UK publically owned oil painting online and the Director General talks about the BBC's "special responsibility" to culture in the UK, what should the role of the BBC be and, perhaps more importantly, what should it cost?
posted by MuffinMan on Jan 29, 2009 - 50 comments

Voices and Music of World War I and Voices of World War II: Experiences From the Front and at Home both feature spoken word, sheet music and songs galore (all audio RealPlayer). The Great War site has plenty of stuff, but the core is the collection of songs, anti-war, patriotic, France-themed, Kaiser-knocking and so forth. The WWII site also has a whole bunch of music, demonstrating the changing mood of the US, from conflicted feelings about the start of the war to conflicted feelings about the atomic bomb. Among the artists are Nat King Cole, Leadbelly, Benny Goodman and Fats Waller. But in addition the wonderful songs there are newscasts, speeches, propaganda and other radio broadcasting of all kinds.
posted by Kattullus on Oct 17, 2008 - 10 comments

The Early Television Foundation and Museum Website covers the nascent days of the nation's pastime, with interesting items like mechanical TVs and programming schedules from 1939.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim on Sep 9, 2008 - 11 comments

Mazes and Monsters? Dungeons and Dragons? Faugh! When the Earth's very history is at stake, it's time for Tomes and Talismans! Learn the Dewey Decimal System and other library skills with Ms. Bookhart, a librarian cryogenically preserved from the 1980's and revived by The Users to save the books of Future Earth from technology-destroying race of alien beings, The Wipers. 260 of the geekiest minutes ever committed to video.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur on Jul 25, 2008 - 15 comments

What's one of the best ways to break into UK radio? Hospital Radio of course! There are over 408 radio stations in the UK that originate from hospitals. Fully staffed and loaded with volunteers, they are a lifeline to patients and produce modern, original programming. Who got their start on hospital radio? Hundreds of legends in the UK radio industry! Including Chris Moyles, Scott Mills, Jacqui Oatley, and Heena Tailor.
posted by parmanparman on Apr 9, 2008 - 16 comments

The Sound of Music War [more inside]
posted by hadjiboy on Feb 2, 2008 - 5 comments

World Famous publicly founded Smithsonian Institution recently sold a right-of-first-refusal on their collections to Showtime Networks, allegedly because the Smithsonian badly needed cash for urgent works (previous Mefi thread). Some poster on other blogs notes that if the WIPO Broadcasting Treaty (links to second draft) will be implemented that could grant Showtime a broadcast right over the documentaries produced with Smithsonian materials ; this right would be similar yet separated from copyright , but with additional and increasingly chilling effects [partially via BoingBoing]
posted by elpapacito on Apr 4, 2006 - 15 comments

"Open Source Radio" was what I found at 1550 AM when I was tuning around on the radio.
It didn't sound at all like AM radio, and it wasn't a pirate.
It's Infinity Broadcasting/CBS Radio/VIACOM, but it's also klezmer weddings, motivational spam, Rhino Records, current Japanese music, self promotion, unsigned bands, and things that I can't identify.
posted by the Real Dan on Jan 11, 2006 - 23 comments

The BBC announces plans to make its TV channels available on the internet. As you already know, you can already listen to all BBC radio channels live and view news clips and some news programmes. Now the BBC has ambitions to expand its internet offer even further. Starting next year, on demand radio and tv content will be available through MyBBCPlayer, with the past seven days of programmes, along with live streaming of BBC tv channels (apparently to be restricted to UK viewers only) and access to the archives. Plans also include the ability to purchase music downloads.
posted by funambulist on Aug 28, 2005 - 26 comments

Al-Jazeera, best known in the West for reporting on the Taliban and US-Iraq war, has, today, been approved to broadcast in Canada, amidst complaints from Jewish groups, such as the B'nai Brith, who are worried the content may be anti-semetic. What makes this interesting? Al-Jazeera will be one of the few news stations in Canada specifically warned by the Canadian government that it must censor itself for content.
posted by shepd on Jul 15, 2004 - 38 comments

"BBC wields axe over websites" Some BBC websites are going to be going away soon due to a "public value test", discussed earlier here and here. This comes after the Graf Report and charges that they aren't different enough from commercial sites. Will you miss "Pure Soap," "Fantasy Football" and the others?
posted by Stoatfarm on Jul 5, 2004 - 4 comments

The history of the BBC
A chronological history of everyone's favourite broadcaster, from Guglielmo Marconi to Ricky Gervais.
posted by Mwongozi on Feb 17, 2004 - 6 comments

The Library of Congress blew it. I watched some of the hearings about the CARP-proposed webcasting fees, and I had the impression that the people at the Library got it. I was wrong. So instead of having all their limbs chopped off, webcasters can now expect only to be cut off at the knees. The end result will be the same, though; say goodbye to Internet radio.
posted by geneablogy on Jun 20, 2002 - 30 comments

Despite royalty costs that are lower than for commercial stations, numerous college and community radio stations have either shut down their Internet streams or on the verge of doing so. It's not just royalties killing these webcasts -- there are also regulations that require college stations to report every song they play and restrictions that would force college stations to police how often they play any given artist. Stations are trying to unite and fight these restrictions, but is it too little, too late? Nearly twenty webcasts have already gone under...
posted by insomnia_lj on Apr 8, 2002 - 10 comments

Hey, it's beautiful here in San Dieg . . . I mean, Boise Also, "this morning," which is actually several weeks from now. You prolly know that many DJs aren't local now. But it's this bad? Clear Channel radio chief to the WSJ: "I don’t think it’s at all wrong or deceptive to put together terrific programs that reflect local communities and sometimes use talent who may physically be somewhere else."
posted by raysmj on Feb 25, 2002 - 11 comments

Ever wonder about your NPR correspondents? If you're like me, you've been listening to NPR every time you get in the car lately. Over time, it's only natural to wonder what Nina Totenberg and Snigdha Prakash actually look like. Oh, Mara Liasson, will you be mine?
posted by vraxoin on Sep 21, 2001 - 25 comments

Moderated. Posts to message boards at the BBC are editorially filtered within broadcasting guidelines. In this 'talking point' in particular, there is a sense of deep foreboding...
posted by feelinglistless on Sep 14, 2001 - 0 comments

Find out how many radio stations in your area are owned by the same company. Here in Dallas Texas Clear Channel owns six. Then there's four other radio stations owned by Susquehanna Radio which used to be owned by AM/FM Incorporated but they merged with *guess who* Clear Channel last year. So it looks like Clear Channel either directly or indirectly controls almost a dozen radio stations in north Texas alone. How much control do they have over your airwaves? Ever wonder why radio stations all sound the same? Cuz they ARE the same!
posted by ZachsMind on May 5, 2001 - 24 comments

AOLTWWBNBC? The FCC (okay, no more acronyms!) kills off the rule stating that one company can't own more than one broadcast network. The big nets can't merge, but the little ones and big ones can get together.
posted by hijinx on Apr 20, 2001 - 12 comments

Wall of Sound Soundbooth goes public beta
I've never seen an Internet radio site that gives you so much control over what you're listening to. Stations are streamed, but on a track by track basis, so you can pause and skip tracks. You can create your own stations to mix genres, specific albums, specific artists or even specific tracks. Am I naive? How does it compare to other Internet radio?
posted by dan_of_brainlog on Sep 20, 2000 - 18 comments

Public Broadcasting Gets Funky
The CBC (sort of like NPR, but Canadian, federally-funded and with TV too) has a stealth project, 120seconds. They are planning to embrace new media in a big way and this is their start: stories, music, film, experiments. Not bad.
posted by sylloge on Aug 11, 2000 - 3 comments