BBC switches to the Flash player as its basic audio platform…one step forward, two steps backward?

Back in the dark ages of streaming audio in the mid-1990's, the predominant media format was Real Audio; Windows Media was clearly in the minority, and MP3 had not yet become the de facto encoding standard for compact discs ripped for PC audio platforms.

Over the years, Windows Media and MP3 appear to have captured a significant chunk of the streaming audio market, based on my casual, unscientific observations. A recent arrival for streaming audio has been embedded Flash audio, developed by Macromedia and now owned by Adobe, the folks who developed the PDF format.

The BBC has kept with RealMedia for its default audio format, even as these other audio formats gained traction. However, since early June, the new default embedded audio player on the BBC website is Flash-based. This upgrade was implemented at the same time that the BBC increased the audio bandwidth for most of its programming; the result is high-quality audio across the BBC's universe of programming, and across the Mac OS, Windows, and Linux operating systems, all of which appear to handle Flash media with no issues. Thankfully, RealMedia and Windows Media streams are also available, at least for the World Service.

So far, so good, right? Yes, as long as you use your PC - whether desktop, laptop, or netbook - as your listening platform. Those of us who capture audio to our PCs and then transfer it to portable devices (MP3 players) have been inconvenienced by the switch - as most streaming audio capture software packages don't handle Flash streams well. Replay Media Catcher appears to capture the BBC's Flash audio fine. What it doesn't do, though, is transform the audio into the MP3 format that is common across portable audio players, whether you're talking the Apple iTunes or a budget MP3 player. The built-in audio converter in Replay Media Catcher can't handle the BBC flash audio; you need another Applian software product, Replay Converter, to convert the Flash (.flv) audio into MP3. Further, you need the current version of Replay Converter (v3.37), not the prior version (v2.80). I've updated both software packages to their current versions, and I can now capture Newshour - which is not directly podcast - and save to my MP3 player.

The use of the Flash streaming format is also problematic for Internet radios - none that I know of directly handle Flash-formatted content. Thankfully, the RealMedia and Windows Media formats appear to remain available, and the URLs for these haven't changed. No word as to whether these secondary formats will remain available for the foreseeable future. However, when I tried to listen to either the RealMedia or Windows Media versions of a recent on-demand edition of Newshour, I received error messages stating that the content wasn't available. I notified the World Service website team of the problem, but as of June 24th the problem had not been corrected.

Don't throw away your Internet radios due to the increased usage of Flash Audio / Video just yet; I know of very few web radio stations that don't offer alternatives to Flash streaming audio, and some that do have worked with the Internet radio database vendors (specifically Reciva) to provide URL information for non-Flash streams that Internet radios can handle.

Radio / TV Cameroon online

Quick: Who was the colonial power in this African country? France? Great Britain? Germany? How about all of the above? Why is this paragraph nothing but questions?

Anyway, the ODXA's Harold Sellers passed along a tip for online English-language audio from the state-run Radio TV Cameroon, available at http://www.crtv.cm/ . Click on the link labeled , then look for the entries. You'll be able to listen to three daily newscasts (6:30 AM, 3 PM, 7 PM local time) that are archived for at least three weeks back. Each newscast runs anywhere from 14 to 28 minutes in length; a recent 3 PM newscast ran 28 minutes. For local news from an African perspective, this is a very good online choice.

It appears Radio TV Cameroon uses a Flash-based media player, which might prove problematic for WiFi radio users; my favourite program for capturing Flash-based audio for later listening via MP3 is Replay Media Catcher, a $40 piece of software that does a very good job of capturing Flash media - an area where other software falls down on the job. Check out Replay Media Catcher at http://applian.com/download-videos/ ; a Google search will also bring you there straightaway.

John Tusa's 3-part audio documentary "Iran: A Revolutionary State" now available at BBC Radio 4

Currently available from the BBC's domestic spoken-word Radio 4:

"Iran: A Revolutionary State", a three-part documentary series that aired Monday through Wednesday of this week.

BBC Radio 4 programs are usually available for on-demand listening for one week following their original air dates, so you'll need to visit the Radio 4 website promptly to catch these programs.

John Tusa was the well-respected managing director of the BBC World Service from 1986 to 1993.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lp5jz for access to the documentary series.

Radio Netherlands resurrecting its documentaries

Radio Netherlands, the Dutch international broadcasting service, has an extensive audio documentary archive. For several years a weekly 30-minute audio documentary on a global issue was presented.

Radio Netherlands is resurrecting some of these documentaries for weekly airing during the current broadcasting season.

Check out "Classic Dox" here: http://www.rnw.nl/radio-program-list/8510 for the weekly edition,
available via shortwave radio, World Radio Network (on Sirius/XM and streaming) as well as via Radio Netherlands' own website.

The archive was not brought over directly to the new Radio Netherlands website, but can be found here: http://static.rnw.nl/migratie/www.radionetherlands.nl/documentaries/index.html-redirected

Thanks to the Audio Documentary enthusiasts' website http://www.audiodocumentary.org for this info.

CBC Radio's summer schedule begins June 29th

There are two documentary series airing as part of the CBC Radio One summer schedule -- Global Perspectives, the international co-operative that has aired programming on stations such as the BBC World Service, Radio Australia, and New Zealand National Radio; also, Crossing Boundaries, billed as a showcase of public radio documentaries.

Details here.

The BBC World Service comes to your cellphone

Back in the mid-1990s, when webcasts were in their infancy, shortwave radio enthusiasts quickly pointed out that webcasts weren't portable -- one was tethered to their Internet connection via a desktop or laptop PC. Fast forward a dozen years...the predominance of Wifi technologies has launched untethered laptops and spawned a generation of Internet radios. Shortwave enthusiasts could still claim that shortwave radios provided unmatched portability.

Enter cellular broadband technologies...you can now install a USB card into a laptop computer and obtain relatively high-speed Internet access anywhere you can get cellphone access. AT&T has featured the former newsman Bill Curtis in a series of commercials touting where he's "found the Internet" using his AT&T laptop card. Verizon has a technology that allows you to create a personal Wifi "hotspot" which, in theory, could provide Internet connectivity to a battery-powered Internet radio.

If you live in India and have Reliance Mobile phone service, you can now access the BBC World Service via your cellphone 24/7 using the "R-World" service. Who needs a stinkin' radio, anyway?

Details here.

CFRX is back on shortwave!

After being missing for several years due to transmitter problems, Canada's CFRX, the 6070 kHz shortwave relay of domestic MW station CFRB, is now back on the air, and some early hiccups appear to have settled out. On the air since 1937, CFRX provides an opportunity to "eavesdrop" on one of Canada's largest cities, and can be a decent diversion, especially during the day. Its programming is a mix of news and talk, like that of many MW stations south of the border nowadays.

Yes, CFRB webcasts too...see www.cfrb.com/

BBC World Service Talking America bus tour complete

The BBC World Service "bus tour" of the USA, involving journalists representing many of the BBC's domestic and foreign-language services, has recently wrapped up its west-to-east journey, and there are three 25-minute programs in which the presenters reflect on key highlights from each region they visited. From the main BBC World Service website, search for "talking America" - that's the quickest way to reach the three-part audio programs.

Brain of Britain in full swing (on BBC Radio 4)

As the BBC World Service increased its emphasis in news and current affairs programming, one of the casualties was its light entertainment and comedy programming; the best-known of this genre was Brain of Britain, the general knowledge quiz that originated on the domestic BBC Radio 4 service. While you can't hear Brain on the World Service, you can still listen live and on-demand via Radio 4's web stream.

Brain of Britain has been around in one form or another since 1953; it has aired since 1967 under this title. The host, Robert Robinson, has held that position for more than 30 years.

Brain airs live Mondays at 1330 UTC, with a repeat Saturdays 2300 UTC, if your primary means of listening to Radio 4 is via its live webcast; the most recent edition is available on-demand as well.

Brain of Britain will crown its champion on January 24th, 2009.

You can Google "brain of Britain" as a phrase to quickly reach the website, or go directly to www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/brainofbritain/ .

Australian Express is transformed into Australian Bite

Another way that programming from Radio National made its way to Radio Australia is through the weekly magazine program Australian Express. Segments regarding aspects of Australian culture and perspectives would be edited with Roger Broadbent providing "continuity" commentary and background.

This program still exists, but it's now called Australian Bite and is now hosted by Heather Jarvis, a familiar name to Radio Australia listeners. The program presents "…a tasty spread of stories and music coming to you from all around Australia. From cafe culture to crested cockatoos, from arts and books to the mysteries of Australian rules football, there's something for everyone here in the pantry." (ABC website)

Australian Bite airs at the following times: Tuesdays, 1330, 1705, 1730; Fridays, 1830; Saturdays, 0030, 0505, 0530. The Tuesday 1330 airing will likely propagate best to Eastern North America in the winter.

Australian Bite is not directly offered as an on-demand program or podcast.

Cuts at ABC’s Radio National affect Radio Australia

Most folks know that much of Radio Australia programming begins its life as features produced for the domestic spoken-word Radio National network; Radio National has been under threat of budget and programming cuts in recent years since the network has a comparatively small audience relative to the size of its budget.

That budget ax fell, and unfortunately several high-quality programs that were high on my target listening will be disappearing in 2009. These include The Ark, In Conversation, Media Report, Perspective, Radio Eye, Religion Report, Sports Factor and Street Stories. Of these, the one that I will mist the most is The Ark., but all of these were quality programs that were each a compelling listen. These programs are world-class, and can easily stand up to programming from much larger broadcasters (such as the BBC) with no apologies for content.

The Ark dealt with religious history, but in a way that seeks to explain the present by better understanding how events in a religion’s history were documented and in what context they happened. These events could focus on individuals, but could also focus on places or dates. Definitely a thoughtful listen and certainly more interesting (to me anyway) than the latest facts and figures on Eastern Bloc industrial production.

Standard Radio National policy has been to make four weeks’ worth of program archives available for online listening, and I hope this policy is liberalized for these programs. Many have value far beyond the times of their original airing and could sound as fresh years later as they do today.

It appears that the resources that were utilized to produce these programs will be shifted somewhat to the domestic NewsRadio service; this is a 24-hour “rolling news” domestic network that has as it roots a relay of proceedings from the Australian Parliament. NewsRadio is a decent service, but it certainly is more repetitious and less specialized than Radio National.

The original plan had apparently been to end these programs as of mid-December, when many Radio National programs go on summer / Christmas / New Year’s hiatus for a month, but the apparent leak of this story has led to the abrupt ending for some of them (including The Ark).

If you’d like to catch these programs on Radio Australia before they disappear, here are the currently-publish air times for them:

The Ark – Sundays 0405, 0705

In Conversation – Not currently on Radio Australia

Media Report – Thursdays 1031, 1530

Perspective – Not currently on Radio Australia

Radio Eye – Not currently on Radio Australia

Religion Report – Wednesdays 1031, 1530

Sports Factor – Fridays 1031, 1530

Street Stories – Not currently on Radio Australia

Links to all these programs are still active on the Radio National website, http://www.abc.net.au/rn .

Radio Kuwait – worth an afternoon tune-in if you’re around

One of the impressions that catalyzed my return to active shortwave listening in the 1980s was a visit to my brother in Florida. He was a work-at-home contractor, and one afternoon, while I was visiting, he walked over and switched his analog Radio Shack receiver to Radio Kuwait's English language service and kept it on for the afternoon.

My brother was an extremely casual listener - and still is - but found Radio Kuwait to be agreeable, unobtrusive, yet exotic accompaniment to his workday, with its mix of music, conversation, and features.

After a period of years off the air, Radio Kuwait is now pretty reliable on the air from 1800 to 2100 on 11990 kHz. Much of the time is popular music, which makes sense considering this is a relay of a domestic broadcast, but recent logs included by Glenn Hauser in DX Listening Digest updates indicate a feature program at 1800 beginning the broadcast, with news at 1830.

These recent logs indicate the feature is typically about Kuwait culture and religion, focusing on the teachings of Islam; the program clearly targets a non-Islamic audience.
The reports posted to DXLD suggest propagation is sporadic, and less likely to be successful the further inland you go. Not exactly Easy listening, but one is thankful for what is out there.

All the links I came across to any Radio Kuwait webcast were not working, so for now you're limited to shortwave.

New from the BBC World Service: The Strand

The BBC World Service has launched a new, weekday arts program called The Strand. Presented by Harriett Gilbert and Mark Coles, the half-hour program takes listeners on a worldwide journey through arts, culture and entertainment. According to the program producers, "Nothing creative is out of bounds" - and The Strand will bring the best, newest and most exciting creative enterprises to listeners around the world.
Novelist Harriett Gilbert has been presenting arts programs on the BBC World Service for over 10 years. She will present the Monday and Friday editions of The Strand, as well as a new hour-long version of another BBC World Service program, World Book Club, on the first weekend of every month.

Mark Coles, an award-winning broadcaster and acclaimed music journalist, will present the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday editions of The Strand as well as a special hour-long Saturday compilation. Mark - who has played Jimi Hendrix's guitar and was once locked in a cage with Yoko Ono - has interviewed some of the world's top writers. He says: "We'll provide our audience with a thoroughly entertaining, truly global guide to the arts. We'll be featuring some of the world's most famous and creative people and be offering unique insights into arts events and consumption of culture around the world."

The program's scheduled guests for its first week (October 27th - 31st) included Roger Moore (the longtime James Bond actor) and Candace Bushnell, the New York cultural observer who initially created the long-running Sex and the City HBO TV series.

I was interested to see if The Strand is merely the replacement for Outlook, another long-running program with significant artistic / human interest content, but this is not the case - Outlook remains on the World Service schedule.

The Strand will air in the shortwave schedule targeting West Africa weekdays at 1430 UTC, which stands a chance of propagating to North America given the frequencies typically in use then (17830, possibly 15400). The Strand will air in the live Infotainment webcast weekdays at 1030, 1530, 1930, and 2330, and also Tuesday-Saturday 0230 UTC. The Strand will not air in the live News webcast. Listeners who get their BBC fix via Sirius satellite radio and US public radio stations should tune in weekdays at 0930 if you are an especially early riser.

And, yes, The Strand will be available for on-demand listening; a weekly podcast of the program's highlights is also available.

Details here.

It isn't radio but it is an interesting perspective on the USA...

Justin Webb, the BBC's North American editor, has a blog with interesting observations on the US -- one could actually look at this as a successor to "Letter From America", with all due respects to Alistair Cooke.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/.

It's Winter SWL Fest time!

As you may know, I'm the co-chair of the Winter SWL Festival, held each March in the Philadelphia, PA suburb of Kulpsville.

The program is pretty much finalized for this edition of the Fest, the 21st edition (egad) in the series.

If you enjoy various aspects of radio-related topics, and you are interested in sharing your interests for shortwave radio and international broadcasting with 150 or so other like-minded souls, consider joining us in 2008!

Best way to find out more about the Fest is to visit the website, always shown in the links area to the left, and also available here.

Hope to see folks who follow this blog in Kulpsville!

Weekday News from Switzerland

Since the end of broadcasts from "Swiss Radio International" a few years back, the only way to get domestically-produced news about Switzerland has been via the Swissinfo.org website. Swissinfo is powered by the state-funded Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, also the parent of SRI when it existed.

Over the past few months the SBC has gotten back into the business of producing English language "radio" about Switzerland; a weekly podcast produced for external consumption was recently launched at the swissinfo site, and I'll have more info on that in a later post.

Last November, SBC purchased World Radio Geneva, a commercial, English-language Geneva-based FM station, and has since rebranded the station as World Radio Switzerland, continuing in English, and has expanded its radio presence to the rest of Switzerland via DAB; World Radio Switzerland also webcasts 24/7.

World Radio Switzerland is both a music and news/talk station; most of the news programming consists of rebroadcasting the BBC World Service. However, WRS produces a 12-minute newscast focusing on news about Switzerland every weekday, calling it Switzerland Today. The program airs local time at 630, 730, and 830; this corresponds to 0530, 0630 and 0730 UTC.

It's a youthful-sounding program, with presenters sporting both British and American English accents. There's a roughly 5-minute newscast, with two longer features rounding out the segment. As WRS has a largely domestic target audience, the news is actually news of interest to people in Switzerland, versus news for consumption by expats.

In addition to Switzerland Today, it appears there are a few other English language spoken-word programs that might be of interest:

-- Swiss Press Review, airing at 7:45 local time (0645 UTC)

-- Cover Story, airing at 12:45 local time (1145 UTC)

-- On The Beat, airing at 10 AM local time (0900 UTC).

Purists will remind us that "It ain't shortwave", but it is English language programming from a country that has long been a favorite target of SWLs.

Holiday Tradition: BBC "Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols"

This annual tradition continues on the World Service as well as the domestic Radio 4 and Radio 3.

Tune in on Monday, Christmas Eve, as follows:

1500 UT - Radio 4 / World Service live webcast / Europe SW / US public radio webcast including WGBH / KXPR / Vermont Public Radio / WKAR 90.5

2130 UT - West Africa shortwave (try 15400, 6110 kHz in Eastern NA)

Also...

0100 UT Tuesday - Americas XM BBCWS

1400 UT Tuesday - BBC Radio 3

2300 UT Tuesday - Vermont Public Radio

Not sure about on-demand listening...


Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA

RNW Christmas Special: "Hear The World"

From the Media Network blog via DXLD:

This year, Radio Netherlands Worldwide brings you a special programme on Christmas Day, 25 December. Chris Chambers presents 'Hear The World', a concert from the famous Concertgebouw in Amsterdam marking the sixtieth anniversary of Radio Netherlands. You'll be able to hear some of the best musicians from around the world including the African percussionist Ali Keita and the mezzo-soprano Tania Kross from Curacao. There's also some homegrown talent as one of the Netherlands' most famous bands, Blof, sing some of their best-known songs.

On shortwave, 'Hear the World' airs as follows:

* 1000 UTC: East/Southeast Asia 12065, East Asia 9795, Far East 6040
* 1200 UTC: Eastern N America 11675
* 1400 UTC: South Asia 9345, 12080, 15595
* 1500 UTC: South Asia 9345, 12080, 15595
* 1800 UTC: Southern Africa 6020, East/Central Africa 11655, 12050
* 1900 UTC: East Africa 11805, 12050, West Africa 17810,
Central/Southern Africa 7120
* 2000 UTC: East Africa 11805, 12050, West Africa 11655, 17810,
Central/Southern Africa 7120
* 0000 UTC: Eastern N America 6165
* 0100 UTC: Central N America 6165
* 0500 UTC: Western N America 6165

The 0000 / 0100 / 0500 airings are most likely December 26, following UTC day convention.

--
Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA

International broadcasting / shortwave blog:
http://www.intlradio.blogspot.com