BBC's Shipping Forecast
 

In <b>Janisj's</b> current entertaining TR, there is discussion of The Shipping Forecast:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...se-a-lady-.cfm
" - Maybe we should organize a Fodors shipping forecast secrecy society-" she said.

I was intrigued, as all I knew I learned from Mrs. Bale as well.
Here's a Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_forecast

Found it fascinating, especially how many listeners seem to use it as a sleep-enhancer.

I'm mentioning this as some may have missed the TR comments.
Thanks to all who educated me.

It isn't as poetic as it used to be imho. Now some weather person reads it instead of a trained, beautifully voiced BBC radio presenter it has lost its rhythm. Still sends me to sleep most nights, and wakes me up most mornings though.

Sailing by, North Utsire, South Utsire, Dogger, German Bight, zzzzz.

I especially liked this listener's thought:

<i>""To the non-nautical, it is a nightly litany of the sea. It reinforces a sense of being islanders with a proud seafaring past. Whilst the listener is safely tucked-up in their bed, they can imagine small fishing-boats bobbing about at Plymouth or 170ft waves crashing against Rockall."</i>

29FEB, thanks for the link. I was wondering what the "shipping forecast" was,coming as I do from the other side of the pond. :)

>>instead of a trained, beautifully voiced BBC radio presenter<<

The classic voices were Brian Perkins, who always sounded calm and unflappable with a reassuring "dark brown" voice, which gave him a second career in using it for various sorts of deadpan radio comedy, and Charlotte Green (who I <i>think</i> may have recorded the latest set of station and train announcements for the Piccadilly Line out of Heathrow). Apparently, once when she was a regular reader of the midnight Shipping Forecast, she got a letter from a (male) fan who asked her to slow down towards the end, because he didn't want her to end it too soon....

NPR did a piece on it too. I'll try to find a link.

I think this is it. "From Britain's seas into its soul" http://www.npr.org/2013/12/16/249722...-into-its-soul

The Shipping Forecast really does inspire most of the most colossal codswallop.

It's a useful public service for some mariners: most, most of the time, now rely on information online, but like many public service obligations - such as my local bus services - the Shipping Forecast acts as a backstop for those unable to access the systems most people use.

It's also part of the morning or nightime ritual for some landlubbers. We've got little idea how many: broadcast radio audience research is a lot iffier than most people realise. But the BBC sort of lets it be known they think around 100,000 - or one Briton in 600 listen to it in an average day.

The overwhelming majority of Britons have simply never heard of it. Over three quarters of the population never even listen to the radio station (Radio 4) which broadcasts it. Interviewing me for a programme on the station this week, even one of its presenters admitted she thought only old farts like me, in my kind of cosy rural microtown, listened to the station for more than half an hour a week.

The deranged nonsense the Forecast inspires in its fans ("The Shipping Forecast is immensely popular with the British public" Wikipedia burbles in its drug-induced delirium) merely shows how out of touch with Britain those fans are.

Like some of those fans, I'd be saddened if the Forecast stopped being broadcast, though I only ever hear it if we're late driving home from that London. But, like much of Radio 4 (from the 8.05 am politician mugging by a 'Today' presenter to the bloody Archers), it's held in great affection by the most articulate and influential of Britain's middle and upper classes. The political pressure on the government to keep those totems of Establishment life is unbearable, and the BBC knows that continuing to provide them is essential to keeping its licence fee income.

There are worse national sillinesses. But that doesn't make the mindless drooling any less silly.

NEXT: Who's ever really read 'Adlestrop'?

Mrs Bales, loved her.

I've read it. You're asking for a German Bight, young Flanner. Our radios are permanently tuned to Radios 3 and 4. Which programme are you appearing on?

Living in the Netherlands it will be a sad day when Radio 4LW stops. We used to be able to listen to most MW radio from the Beeb, including World Service. Then it was just World Service and Radio 4LW, now just Radio 4LW.
I wonder which will go first, my ancient LW radio or Radio 4.

I love Radio 4 - but do switch off when the Archers start.

>>NEXT: Who's ever really read 'Adlestrop'?<<

Me, actually. And quite a lot of other poems by Edward Thomas. And other people.

(Jeremy Clarkson's job isn't quite vacant yet, you know; no need to audition for it quite so publicly).

Well, now I've read 'Adlestrop' too. Thank you for it.

<i>The Shipping Forecast by Seamus Heaney

Dogger, Rockall, Malin, Irish Sea:
Green, swift upsurges, North Atlantic flux
Conjured by that strong gale-warning voice,
Collapse into a sibilant penumbra.
Midnight and closedown. Sirens of the tundra,
Of eel-road, seal-road, keel-road, whale-road, raise
Their wind-compounded keen behind the baize
And drive the trawlers to the lee of Wicklow.
L’Etoile, Le Guillemot, La Belle Hélène
Nursed their bright names this morning in the bay
That toiled like mortar. It was marvellous
And actual, I said out loud, ‘A haven,’
The word deepening, clearing, like the sky
Elsewhere on Minches, Cromarty, The Faroes.</i>

nyse, some more links between Heaney and Thomas:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/201...homas-war-poem
http://www.theguardian.com/books/200...y.seamusheaney

Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx and the subsequent movie.


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000B86FJQ

I can see I'm going to have to tune in next time I am in London! I do miss Mrs. Bale.

The political pressure on the government to keep those totems of Establishment life is unbearable, and the BBC knows that continuing to provide them is essential to keeping its licence fee income.>>

unbearable, Flanner? seems to me that they tolerate it quite well, and it does fulfil a useful function for many people, some of whom earn their livings from the sea. if we're going to get rid of any of the sacred cows, please god let it be "Thought for the Day" - there are one or two there who make me want to throw my radio out of the window.

as for how many listen to Radio 4, they've never asked me, but in our house it's 6, if you count the dogs.

I second scrapping Thought for the Day, especially now Lionel Blue isn't on.

I used to be an Archers fan, but haven't listened to it for years. Ruth nearly running off with the hired help is probably the last storyline I followed.

I really miss LW in the car. I love talk radio when I drive, but Dutch radio is rubbish. I listen to podcasts now instead.

Ah, when Platitude for the Day comes on, I'm still in bed, so I hit the snooze button.
I must say that I like hearing about gales around the Channel Light Vessel when I'm snuggled under my duvet

hetismij, DH and I have toyed with the idea of moving to France, but I am deterred by the fact that I would be unable to listen to the BBC in the way I do now; waking to the Today prog, enjoying Radio 4/4 extra during the day, and tuning into TMS are joys that i would find it difficult to live without.

now if someone tells me that I will be able to get Radio 5 live & live extra whilst i work in my french garden, I might consider it.

>>Ruth nearly running off with the hired help is probably the last storyline I followed.<<

Aww naww..........!

(Shows how out of touch I am, too. I switched to R3 years ago when I realised the Today programme was more irritation than it was worth).

>>now if someone tells me that I will be able to get Radio 5 live & live extra whilst i work in my french garden, I might consider it.<<

Of course you can with internet radio. Either a specific device, or a laptop or tablet or smartphone + Wifi + Bluetooth headphones + TuneIn or similar app. No probs (subject to the limitations of battery life): I'm listening to R3 with a cup of tea in a Tirolean hotel as I type this.

Ann - Radio 5 live is just about audible here on a normal radio, but it does suffer dreadfully from atmospherics. At least R4 only gets bad during a thunderstorms.

We have all BBC radio stations (except WS which no longer broadcasts to western Europe) on our cable, but I still like my old clock radio, and tranny to carry around with me. Maybe it's time for us to invest in some remote speakers and get all high tech about things.

I never listen on the internet - and indeed many programmes are not available on the net for copyright reasons. Can't listen to TMS on the net for instance, unless I were to set up a proxy server, which I can't be bothered with.

Of course you can with internet radio. Either a specific device, or a laptop or tablet or smartphone + Wifi + Bluetooth headphones + TuneIn or similar app. No probs (subject to the limitations of battery life>>

sounds complicated Patrick, and then there are the copyright problems that Hetismij refers to. like her, I just want to walk out into the garden with my tranny. [no, stop it.... I am channelling Brian Johnstone as I write....]

This brings to mind that old favourite by the Master Singers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z2jwDcb9wI

"Over three quarters of the population never even listen to the radio station (Radio 4) which broadcasts it. Interviewing me for a programme on the station this week, even one of its presenters admitted she thought only old farts like me, in my kind of cosy rural microtown, listened to the station for more than half an hour a week."

I was horrified at this paragraph - I was about to join the revoloution and man the baricades. In the current UK climate of define Britishness and British values, I put Radio 4 very near the top of my list.

If the average "consumer" is only averaging 1/2 an hour a day, then I am probably skewing the figures alarmingly (And that is without adding Test Match Special)

me too, Willit, though I listen to TMS on Radio 5 live extra so that doesn't count.

However, most of my friends of my age are also Radio 4 fans. Where things change are with my younger colleagues - despite their undoubted brains, very few of them listen to radio at all it appears. I suspect that they weren't brought up in a Radio 4 household. My kids who were do listen but only when we're here - whether they will change as they get older I don't know.

PS - I owe my best exam result in my finals to You and Yours - fancy that!

>>sounds complicated Patrick, and then there are the copyright problems that Hetismij refers to. like her, I just want to walk out into the garden with my tranny. [no, stop it.... I am channelling Brian Johnstone as I write....]<<

It isn't, though there are lots of options depending on exactly what sort of thing you want to do while listening to internet radio (ooer missis)*. For radio broadcasts, the BBC doesn't seem to mind, even welcomes, listeners over the internet, as far as I can tell from presenters comments on R3. Copyright doesn't seem to be much of an issue (except where they're carrying broadcasts from other people, such as the live relay from the Met Opera in New York).

*e.g., whether you want to be tethered by a loudspeaker or cabled headphones, whether you want to carry the equipment around with you, as you can do with a smartphone, and suchlike questions. There are just different ways to use the internet to listen to radio, but the basic principle is simple: if you've got the internet, you can listen to BBC radio (and thousands of other radio stations too) on it anywhere in the world.

Alan Bennett : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01p2yb9

There are two sides to this story.

As a method of conveying information The LW Shipping News is badly dated. Any of us with a boat capable of need the sort of information that they provide have on line Internet weather overlays on our chart plotters. I am old school and would never rely on technology over charts and skills. However, some of the latest kit on the market is invaluable.

The second aspect is the unbelievable comfort which is gained from bunking out on The Clyde, knowing that you are facing NWesterlies and a 20 foot swell the next day.....whilst listening to the forecast.

It is an old friend.

Patrick, unless you have a U.K. IP address there are restrictions on what you can listen to on the BBC. So if Ann moved to France she would need a proxy server to listen to all the BBC offers radio wise, or hope her cable provider carries it.
The Beeb is popular in the Netherlands so cable providers here normally carry the radio as well as TV though we have to pay extra for 3 & 4, worth it for Only Connect alone btw.

But depending on where in France, a £50 UK freesat decoder and dish would get you most UK radio channels as well as the TV. Add a pair of wireless headphones, and Voila!

>>Patrick, unless you have a U.K. IP address there are restrictions on what you can listen to on the BBC.<<

Television is indeed impossible without a proxy service of some kind, but I don't seem to have had any trouble listening to BBC radio when connected through local wifi in Paris, Barcelona, Hamburg, Vienna and the Tirol - except once for a third party relay (the Met Opera in New York).

Patrick - when we were in Valencia recently, our internet connection to the cricket was blocked for some reason -can't imagine why. perhaps there are more rights issues for cricket than there are for classical music? i'm sure that indoors there wouldn't be a problem that we couldn't solce but it's mobile access that seems to more difficult.

it seems a pretty petty thing to be worried about but if you're moving for quality of life, the little details matter!