[thechat] PBS vs. BBC Funding

[Martin Burns]

On 19 Dec 2002, John Handelaar wrote:

> On Thu, 2002-12-19 at 16:55, Roger Austin wrote:
> >   How does the BBC do it? Do they own the local stations that carry
> > their programming?
>
> We're a *really* densely-populated island or 5 here.

*cough*hebrides*cough*

> Radio:  5 national stations, a BBC local radio station
> *everywhere* (except, bizarrely, Scotland, Wales and
> N Ireland where apparently one each is enough)

Can't speak for NI or Wales, but Radio Scotland is a national station, not
a local one - it won national station of the year (beating Radios 1-5)
several times until the BBC got too embarrassed and banned it from
entering.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/

Unlike the TV colleagues for example, the news is more than "Mrs
McGlumfy's cat got stuck up a tree" - it's as you'd expect a national news
programme to be, with the emphasis being a Scottish perspective

<rant>
It regularly seems as though the 'national' BBC TV news is a local London
one. 2 snowflakes on Shepherd's Bush and "The nation comes to a
standstill" whereas the main rail link to the Highlands is swept away and
it doesn't get a mention. Since devolution, a putative Scottish BBC TV
replacement for the London-originating 6 o'clock news has been an ongoing
stramash - broadcasting was bizarrely a reserved power.
</rant>

and the entire lineup of Saturday puts Radio5 to shame.

There are also local BBC stations for (IIRC) Shetland, Orkney, Aberdeen,
Dundee, Dumfries, Selkirk & Inverness

Oh, plus Radio nan Gaidheal, which broadcasts in parallel.

 - all
> of which produce about 18 hours a day of their own
> programmes, and relay out to either Radio2 or the World
> Service overnight.

1am - 6am ISTR

> Whingers aside, I suspect that most UKers recognise the
> BBC as possibly the country's proudest achievement of the
> post-war era, bar none.

Used to be the NHS of course...

Cheers
Martin

--
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
 become mere sounds, their etymology being
 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie