Community listening

There’s been a lot of fanfare and trailers about BBC Radio’s new ‘online first’ facility. We can now get hold of programmes and listen to them before they go out on air, or download the series and listen to the whole lot in one go. Nothing so strange about that, given the powers of digital, its accessibility and flexibility. But the Radio 4 website is also offering new online-only content, which will never be broadcast in the traditional way. Best Queue is a drama series told in very short (just over four minutes) episodes. Angie and her family are waiting in a massively long queue that promises a large cash handout for those who eventually get to the front. But as the queue gets longer and longer things begin to unravel as tempers fray and people lose sight of normal life.

It is a clever idea but why not, then, broadcast it as usual on air and online? Online first, it could be said, will generate excitement about a programme and draw in the digital diehards, but why make programmes online only? Especially since the drama budget on radio has been pared down to the bone in the past few years, with more repeats and fewer original productions.