BBC 5live radio has decided to close the “Your Call” Podcast which is part of 5live Breakfast. It was a lively debate in which you could hear people calling from all the UK to express their opinions and discuss them with other callers.
I listened to this phone in quite often. For foreign English learners it was an unvaluable tool which enabled us to listen to lots of different British accents and expressions. It was one of the few ways you could hear street talk in a moderated broadcast. I suppose expats have also lost a great way of keeping in touch with the current emotions of their country.
Seems like this closure was due to some kind of economic reasons. Cuts happen everywhere nowadays. But the fact that BBC is keeping the football phone ins and closing this one devoted to general debate is somewhat appaling.
@bbc5live kindly answered me via twitter that I could use BBC iPlayer to listen to the program. But I can’t: the BBC iPlayer mobile is suprisingly blocked overseas. So no more 5live podcast listening while commuting or cleaning the house. The Internet is going mobile, and the BBC sends us to the PC. The Internet wants open standards and free access to information, and the BBC closes program blogs and uses the closed platform which is Facebook.
It is very disappointing.
I remember listening to the BBC World Service since when I was a kid. Got my first shortwave radio when I was 9. I tuned in to the frequencies written on a huge colourful poster which you could get by request via snail-mail letter to the BBC in London and which I eagerly awaited every season. On my first trip to London, I caught a glimpse of the BBC Bush House from a bus going through Aldwych. What an amazing moment! I learnt so much from the BBC… And nowadays, it still seems to be one of the few places where a journalist is allowed to ask twice if a politician deliberately dodges a question.
And now they’re closing the breakfast phone in podcast while they keep two football phone in podcasts still online.
In the past few days, a 24h news channel was closed here in Spain too, to be replaced by a 24h Big Brother broadcast. You may be learning fast from us, British fellows. But don’t. You’re the BBC. Remember what you mean to people’s lives, to history, to journalism… and please reconsider your decision.
Todo un descubrimiento