Apr 10, 2007

Persistence of Incorrigible Dumbness in BBC World Service Scheduling

Yesterday, they interviewed me on the phone apropos of a scud missle I'd CC-lobbed into all their messeage-box slits. If you've the time, you are welome to this bile & vitriol margarita: this heavily tamarind-ed, hot Saambar-Vadaa:

10:47 AM 4/9/2007
"Persistence of Incorrigible Dumbness in BBC World Service Scheduling" could be a nice title for a Ph.D dissertation. But I am not writing one here.In fact, I have planned to - for this occasion - do the opposite - and - in view of your generally knee-jerk patronization to listener complaints - especially so!

I shall shed the polite repertoire of a substantial multilingual vocabulary that is usually available to me and and answer the two questions:

Q. WHAT TO YOU IS BBC WS's USP?
A. BUSINESS, FEATURES AND MUSIC.

Q. HOW DO YOU RATE THEIR CURRENT SCHEDULING FOR YOUR AREA?
A. LOUSY.

The rest of this email is on this schedule issue.

1. When you make your schedule changes, why don't you run them by your listeners? Is the scheduling team deliberately 'rendered' in an MI5 cell? Has the Scotland Yard asked you to keep your schedules a secret because Osama Bin Laden's men could bomb the B B C?
My suggestion: Post the changes you wish to make on the Net two weeks in advance. Let listeners see, comment and vote on them. Then incorporate the pre-feed into the schedule.

I shall now bring up three specific aggravations:

1. BBC ANALYSIS

Which smarty had the brain wave to designate a schedule-frequency to BBC Analysis as if you were broadcasting the Sermon of the Mount? Consider: In the less than an hour's time interval 0700-0840 you air Analysis twice! And, furthermore, you proudly announce each time that the particular edition is available online 24/7!

My suggestion:
Bundle all five analyses programs and put them in the weekend programing alongside such gabfests as Politics U K and FOOC, and leave the online availability for those who wish to change the world with your Sermons of the Mount.
Advantage: You give much deserved 10 extra minutes to Business Daily.

2. BBC BUSINESS DAILY

It makes no sense to have moved Business Daily back to its old slot with a 10 minute advantage. This is the lunch time slot in India and people - even those who work out of their SOHOs - actually take a break. In the last schedule it was sensibly placed at 0830 GMT.
My suggestion: Move Business Daily back to the 0830 slot for south Asia with the 10 minute extention you get from excising the aforestated "Sermon", aka Analysis.

3. BBC FEATURES BUNDLING:

4. There was no need to monkey with this to get a committee-designed horse that you now have. How do you explain that the three daily features are bundled between 0330 and 0500 GMT (when it is forenoon time here) to run almost continuously, BUT they get unbundled during the stretch between 0905 and 1100 with a "World Briefing" unnecessay spannered in at 1005.
My suggestion: Bring Business Daily back to its old slot of 0830. Moving it to 0905 would be even better so it can run for 25 instead of the current 20 minutes followed by the three features that take us to 1130.

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