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This page contains all of the posts and discussion on MemeStreams referencing the following web page: BBC Radio: Pods & Blogs (and Kryptos, oh my!). You can find discussions on MemeStreams as you surf the web, even if you aren't a MemeStreams member, using the Threads Bookmarklet.

BBC Radio: Pods & Blogs (and Kryptos, oh my!)
by Elonka at 11:46 pm EDT, Apr 25, 2006

The BBC Radio segment aired on their Tuesday morning -- the "Pods & Blogs" segment on Five Live.

In terms of interviewers, I was actually quite disappointed in them. In fact, of all the radio shows I've been on, BBC Radio was clearly the worst, which surprised and saddened me, since I'd thought better of BBC.

Their producer initially contacted me about doing a segment with James Sanborn on Friday afternoon. They scheduled a time, but ended up calling us late, and then when we went on the air, we each got to say just one or two sentences, and then the interviewer interrupted us with, "Sorry, out of time, and I'm not understanding this anyway," and they cut us off and ended the segment rather suddenly.

To the producer's credit, he sent me a letter of apology later in the day. And for what it's worth, I was able to learn from the mistakes of the BBC segment, in order to make the later NPR segment even better, so I thanked the BBC producer for that, and he offered to try again on Monday, with what was implied to be a longer segment about my book (which is coming out in the UK on Thursday).

So I agreed to the second segment, but again, they ran late with previous programming, kept sending me emails saying, "Just a few more minutes", and then when they *did* call, I found out that it was going to be for a pre-recorded segment instead of live. Further, I found out that they now wanted me to be the caller in a two-DJ "make fun of the caller" segment. But I adapted to that and we managed to have a more or less fun time with it.

Then when I asked them when the segment was going to air, they said, "In a couple hours" and that they'd contact me and tell me when, but they never did (I found out after the fact that it aired several hours after we recorded it). So then I went looking for it on the BBC website to find out if I could listen to the recording, but couldn't find any audio file, and their site looks weeks out of date.

So I wrote to the producer, and he apologized and sent me a link of where the show could be found. The audio file is there, but there's no program description so it's not searchable. Further, I'm told that it's only going to be there for a week, and then it's going to be deleted!

So, I had a big "thumbs down" for BBC at the moment. But, the segment came out okay, if you don't mind the silly humor and them mispronouncing my name. And they did at least mention my book.

For anyone who wants to listen to it before it gets deleted, go to this link, click on "Latest Pods & Blogs", and that should start up the BBC Radio Player on the lefthand side. If you're using a compatible browser (IE yes, Firefox probably not, and not sure about Mac), you can use the arrows to fast forward to just past the "18:10" mark, to listen to the 10-minute Kryptos segment.

And if BBC Radio ever calls and asks you to be on one of their programs, be warned.

(2-May-2006 update: The stream is now offline, but a mirror can be located here)

RE: BBC Radio: Pods & Blogs (and Kryptos, oh my!) by ubernoir at 4:54 pm EDT, Apr 26, 2006
BBC Radio Player does work with firefox and you would be better off with Radio 4 since BBC Five Live does News lite and sport cryptography is not a natural Five Live subject if u were talking about Chelsea or Man Utd it would have been a different matter but also bear in mind you're plugging a book and there is a tradition of no advertising on the publicly funded BBC re the segment being deleted after a week all BBC radio output is deleted from the website after a week it doesn't matter whether you're Tony Blair, Elonka or Nelson Mandela sour grapes Elonka?
Link - Reply

RE: BBC Radio: Pods & Blogs (and Kryptos, oh my!)
by Elonka at 6:02 pm EDT, Apr 26, 2006

adam wrote:
sour grapes Elonka?

As I recall the fable, the term "Sour grapes" meant belittling something that you wanted but couldn't get, so I'm not even sure how the term would apply in this context? They contacted me and asked me to do the segment, I didn't call them. If they contact me for another segment, considering the negativity of the experience, I may simply decline. And as for the auto-deletion, it's not about their deleting *my* segment, it's about deleting all of them -- I find it annoying when news agencies delete their content at all, let alone delete it within just a week. But I've already got an MP3 of the 'cast (provided by another source), so I still have my own backup.

As for the Firefox issue, is there something special that you need to configure to get the Player to work? I still haven't had any luck (but granted, Firefox is not my primary browser, so I may have something configured wrong).

Elonka

RE: BBC Radio: Pods & Blogs (and Kryptos, oh my!)
by ubernoir at 6:32 pm EDT, Apr 26, 2006

in this context by "sour grapes" i meant you wanted exposure for your book and maybe expected a more sycophantic reception (by which i mean maybe u expected them to run around after u in a way that u might get in America. In England we're expected to be grateful for a nice cup of tea and a choice of whether or not we have sugar in it and anything else is flannel and mollycoddling and a similiar aproach is taken by interviewers. Listen to the Today Programme on Radio 4 and note how the British culture of deference works or is suspended in a combative forum like an interview)
the fact that they phoned you doesn't negate this
the bbc is publicly funded and therefore has to be rather parsimonious with its money, my money which is more the British way
i suspect a level of culture clash
we may speak a similar language but we are not the same
also i suspect even Alan Turing would have been treated the same by Five Live (although clearly he never got anything approaching the respect he deserved and our treatment of him was a national disgrace but my point is that Five Live isn't necessarily representative of the bbc any more than Fox is representative of American journalism)

regarding firefox i've no idea i'm just running the latest version and the bbc player opens as a pop-up and i haven't even got it as an allowed site for pop-ups *shrug* i just drive the thing but i don't understand what goes on under the hood. I'm convinced that u would be rather more of an expert --- me low on technical food chain u write technical books *minnow bows to dolphin*