Kate Chisholm

World class

Next time you’re bemoaning the TV licence fee, check out the BBC’s World Service.

issue 01 September 2007

Next time you’re bemoaning the TV licence fee, check out the BBC’s World Service.

Next time you’re bemoaning the TV licence fee, check out the BBC’s World Service. A different quality appears to prevail in their making of radio documentaries — more time spent on research, less on presentation. No tricks, no smoochy music. Just experts sharing with us their enthusiasm and knowledge. Trouble is, you need an advanced degree in electronics and time management to find the station and what’s on when.

A lot of fuss was made a fortnight ago when Vladimir Putin put a stop to the FM transmission of the BBC World Service in Moscow, although it is still possible to tune in to the Russian Service on medium- or short-wave or to listen via the web. But even in the UK the BBC does little to advertise what the World Service has to offer, assuming that most of its listeners will have graduated to the new satellite and web technologies.

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