Radio 2 & Radio 4 FM/LW earmarked for emergency announcements/information.
Richardcoulter
Posts: 30,294 Forum Member
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In the event of power cuts this winter, the Guardian reports having seen evidence that both Radio 2 and Radio 4 FM & LW will be used to broadcast emergency announcements/information should parts of the UK have to have their power cut this winter:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/media/2022/oct/18/bbc-prepares-secret-scripts-for-possible-use-in-winter-blackouts
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/media/2022/oct/18/bbc-prepares-secret-scripts-for-possible-use-in-winter-blackouts
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Comments
What has changed since last month? I suspect nothing.
It's important that people know where to go to for advice & information should the worst happen, which could be for up to two days. No electricity could well mean no internet, mobile calls, VOIP powered landlines won't work, ATM's won't work etc.
And no posts on Digital Spy! How would some posters cope? 😉
For two days without power, I'm more concerned about all the food in my freezers than any of them.
Me too! I’ve got a whole box of Cornettos in there!
Our fridge-freezer failed last month. I "had" to eat a whole box of Cornettos in one go, to save them from being wasted. 😝
It will be a long time before I have another one!
It'll be fine --- temperatures are set to plummet .
However, it’s misleading for the Guardian to suggest these scripts were prepared for actual use during a blackout. They fail to mention this until halfway through the piece… click bait at its best.
I’ve been part of these BBC drills. They’re designed to better prepare teams in how to react to major incidents, prioritise information and improve communication in line with editorial policy.
From my own experience - teams were asked to come into the newsroom outside of hours and play pretend for the day - a bit like that episode of Spooks, remember?.
The scripts the Guardian have seen will include information that’s drip fed by managers and at the end there’s an assessment of how it went. Whilst someone has clearly passed this to the Guardian, it’s been misrepresented.
You want to give the most realistic situations for teams, for me this was a royal death and a terror attack - the scripts didn’t end up in a national newspaper as us having some insight into a future attack, or the state of the royal bloodline.
There’s absolutely no way the information they’ve passed off as ‘preparing scripts’ is based on anything more than the need to use realistic scenarios. The subject is largely irrelevant- it just gives context.
But, shhh… don’t tell the Guardian there’s already scrips and packages ready to go for the PMs death - they might assume they’re in on it.
Looks like you’ll eat like a King this Christmas
Not just one Cornetto then?
I wonder if there would also be new spin offs? Heart Armageddon or Magic at the Apocalypse?
Voice tracked as there wouldn't be any live presentation ever again.
Depending on the nature of the apocalypse, a simple rebrand could give us Radio Z (pronounced 'zee').
Capital Dance in to Doom
If that doesn't work we could re-introduce town criers.
Gary King
We had that discussion just over a month ago when this article was first posted here.
Which is one piece of advice the Ukrainian Government has issued for getting emergency information when they have power cuts.
https://twitter.com/ChrisGreenwayUK/status/1595501889386385416
They generally have FM radio, but don't promote it. If an emergency was known to be on the way, instructions could be circulated.
The guy who said this thinks that the radio function might have been disabled at the request of the telco companies.
FM radio has gradually disappeared from flagship and mid-range smartphones, with the demise of the headphone jack finishing it off. Apple of course never put FM radio on the iPhone, but most Android phones at least used to have it.
On GSMArena, you can search for phones by spec. Of the 74 phones that have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, 8+ Gen 1 or 8 Gen 2, only 11 still have a headphone jack and only one (yes, one!) has FM radio, and it's an obscure Chinese phone.
Maybe the market would be a bit different today if everyone voted with their wallets and bought that LG smartphone with DAB+ radio from ages back instead of continuing to buy Apple and Samsung.
Thanks for the info., that specification link is especially useful.
Well, i'll never buy anything from Sansung again after having to use their customer service for a very simple query. It's run by staff who can barely speak English with no common sense. The crap they spewed out was nonsensical and bore no resemblance at all to what was being asked!!!
I have genuinely had more fruitful and useful conversations with a friend who is now severely mentally ill.
After seven months of being fed irrelevant nonsense, I complained to the CEO.. I got an answer to my query and was offered a £20 supermarket voucher. I told them that that was inadequate to reflect my frustration and wasted time, but they wouldn't budge.
I then told them that i'd accept it and never, ever buy anything from them again.