NewsGuy post_id=29811 time= user_id=1287 Wrote:Isn't it a bit odd to launch a show on a Wednesday? ?
Everything BBC News related seems to launch on Wednesdays these days. The Reith/Qulam font launch on BBC Persian last week happened on a Wednesday - the equivalent of a Friday in the Persian world! My assumption is that management, engineers, etc are around for 2 days before launch to do final testing/snagging, on launch day to check it all goes well and bathe in the glory, and then 2 days afterwards before their weekend break to fix any post-launch issues.
JF World post_id=27517 time= user_id=1208 Wrote:I do like the rigidity of the World Service, with (as Ros Atkins put it) its "hard posts", it feels concise and to the point - something I feel that television news needs to learn from...
Ros is totally playing down the World Service hard posts in his Twitter thread. It's been 13 years since I was a radio SM in Bush House, but there were up to FIFTEEN hard posts an hour on the English networks:
xx.00.00 - One minute "billboard" for upcoming programme
xx.01.00 - News bulletin starts
xx.04.00 - News bulletin opt out point
xx.06.00 - End of news bulletin, start of programme
xx.15.00 - One minute promo*
xx.16.00 - Start of new/continuation of existing programme
xx.29.00 - 30 second promo*
xx.29.30 - 30 second promo* OR 30 second billboard for new programme
xx.30.00 - News summary
xx.32.00 - Start of new/continuation of existing programme
xx.44.00 - One minute promo*
xx.45.00 - Start of new/continuation of existing programme
xx.52.00 - Start of new/continuation of existing programme
xx.59.00 - 30 second promo*
xx.59.30 - TOTH "countdown"*
* in my era these were played from autoplayers.
For World Have Your Say, the programme Ros is referring to, and other sequence programmes, most of the hard posts would be dropped to give one continuous programme. In most hours though, they were mostly all respected (the xx52 was the only one that didn't happen very often). The system happened automatically by network switchers in the control room and your studio got an orange light when it was routed to a network. There was a system called PTT, or pre-transmission test, which 10 minutes before your scheduled switch flashed up on a screen which network(s) you were broadcasting to and your on- and off-air time. This gave you 10 minutes to query it with control room if something didn't look right and for them to correct the system. You also had to "accept" the instructions by pressing a button once you were happy, which committed the times and networks into the schedule. There was an ever-increasing alarm in control room if the PTT wasn't accepted, starting at 5 minutes before TX, in case of a studio manager not being in the studio (which would have meant the studio would be silent when it was switched to network).
The main reason in my era for the automated scheduling was that so many partners took different things but not others. A partner station in Ghana might only take the 3 minute bulletin while others took the whole 5 minutes. A partner in Indonesia might only take the programme 15-29 but not the programme 32-44, etc. By ensuring the switches were automatic and at set times, you could offer the full schedule to the partner and they could pick and choose what they wanted, knowing it would always start and end at exact times.
There were also different English networks - the core English stream, but also optouts for English speaking bits of the world which did their own programmes, mainly Africa. Programmes like Africa Have Your Say and Focus on Africa only went out to these African streams, but opted out of the main English stream. So obviously the timings had to be the same to fit in with the rest of the content. So while Europe was hearing one programme, Africa was hearing another - but they would get the same promos and news bulletins/summaries in the middle.
And, yes, the system would cut you off if you were running late.