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Old 3rd Aug 2020, 5:03 pm   #101
Graham G3ZVT
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Default Re: The BBC Light programme

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One still had to focus on the likes of ‘Two Way Family Favourites’ waiting with a finger poised above the Record button to capture the genuine item for what would today be called a mixtape.

Martin
I wonder how many miles of tape we have collectively recorded without Alan Freeman's dulcet tones?

I honestly believe he made it as easy for us as he could get away with.
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Old 3rd Aug 2020, 6:09 pm   #102
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Fortunately, back in those days, a presenter introduced a record and then played it completely clean without interruption. Ten years later, presenters became DJs and generally messed up the nice clean record.

I now find when I play my tapes (remarkable how that magnetisation persists for 60 years or more) that I have collected the odd nostalgic burst of Alan Freeman, Cliff Michelmore or some other famous presenter. I now wish that I’d been much more careless in my recordings and taped more of the presenter!

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Old 3rd Aug 2020, 7:05 pm   #103
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I still have some 7" tapes of Top of The Pops that I recorded around 1967. They still play very well. John.
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Old 3rd Aug 2020, 7:08 pm   #104
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Good that we’re now confessing those youthful copyright breaches.

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Old 4th Aug 2020, 10:19 am   #105
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I have quite a few of 'Pick of the pops' from about 1960 John, with David Jacobs at the helm, they still sound good, recorded I believe on a Philips EL3538? 4 track machine, quality was superb at the time.

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Old 7th Aug 2020, 2:36 am   #106
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A number of posts have been bashing the BBC for 'dumbing down' and such crimes. I was baking some bread the other day and caught the 'Moral Maze' during my kneading, with its problem being the virus and how it has been dealt with. I thought the programme was fascinating, adult, thought-provoking and not at all patronising.
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Old 7th Aug 2020, 6:56 am   #107
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There's still a few sensible programmes but they're a light in the darkness. If you want an example of dumbing down try the Infinite monkey cage. The BBC does pathetically little science programming and when they do, they imagine that the public can't handle it unless they've got comedians involved to make it lighter. Appalling dross
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Old 7th Aug 2020, 8:14 am   #108
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I think one of the problems nowadays is that the Beeb seems obsessed with ratings. Possibly caused by the govt's constant meddling. So they feel the need to make programmes of a similar ilk as the commercials. If you're not into soaps, reality dross, gardening or cooking you're snookered (pun intended).

10-15 years ago I was a staunch defender of Auntie, now it pains me to say they seem to have lost the plot. When they are criticised they become defensive and say their output is what the public wants, ie. we know better. In my opinion, the first step should be to get rid of a layer of management and pay their presenters realistic salaries, it they're not happy with that, let them go elsewhere, there will be enough people happy to fill their boots.

Even BBC4 is a shadow of its former self.

Another gripe is all the money thrown at digitalisation, BBC sounds etc. combined with the perceived need to change, sorry improve, things every couple of months.

Very disappointed about what has happened to a once national gem.
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Old 7th Aug 2020, 10:55 am   #109
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Default Re: The BBC Light programme

In my late-childhood/early-youth the Light Programme was always thought of as distinctly anachronistic - like that maiden aunt who still thought you were a baby and gave you a glass of milk to drink rather than offering you a choice of the tea/coffee that the real-people were drinking.

Luxembourg, the pirates, and late-night listening to AFN (they played Jazz! And broadcast Baseball matches and Boxing!) were my staple diet back then, and to be honest I've not listened to much BBC radio since. I remember BRMB coming on-air in the Midlands where I was living at the time. Oh how we rejoiced, even though out on the Wales/Shropshire borders the signal was distinctly fadey.

I often ponder and conjecture on what would have happened if the BBC had turned the Light Programme into Radio-1 back in 1960 or so, and there'd been a licensing liberalisation to allow/encourage commercial music-stations to come on the scene legally rather than having to do the whole offshore-thing? Personally I think it would have been a great leap forward.

[In 1966 I went to the US for a month with my parents and was truly amazed at the range of radio-stations they had over there. Coming back to the grey-and-beigeness of the UK, the lack-of-choice available on radio and TV seemed such a stultifying come-down after living a life of US neon-and-chrome and 20 different stations on their AM band]
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Old 7th Aug 2020, 10:56 am   #110
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Default Re: The BBC Light programme

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A number of posts have been bashing the BBC for 'dumbing down' and such crimes. I was baking some bread the other day and caught the 'Moral Maze' during my kneading, with its problem being the virus and how it has been dealt with. I thought the programme was fascinating, adult, thought-provoking and not at all patronising.
In Our Time, More or Less, The Life Scientific, A Good Read,The Patch etc, etc are excellent, I think. All "Home" not "Light" of course. I could quite happily dispense with the TV to be honest.
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Old 7th Aug 2020, 12:17 pm   #111
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Default Re: The BBC Light programme

But the Light Programme was never on TV?
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Old 7th Aug 2020, 12:32 pm   #112
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Default Re: The BBC Light programme

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I think one of the problems nowadays is that the Beeb seems obsessed with ratings. Possibly caused by the govt's constant meddling.

Another gripe is all the money thrown at digitalisation, BBC sounds etc. combined with the perceived need to change, sorry improve, things every couple of months.

Very disappointed about what has happened to a once national gem.
The BBC used to lead public taste. This policy involves sacrificing short term popularity for long term gains, something which is effectively prevented by the said government meddling. It is a disease of society in general that self-appointed experts know how to do your job better than you do, experience and expertise notwithstanding - and goverments know much more about broadcasting than the BBC. Not.

The BBC Sounds fiasco was little more than a re-brand. Are we offered better quality? No, we aren't, because the money needed to go to FLAC or similar for premium services was spent on the pretty new logos.
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Old 7th Aug 2020, 12:36 pm   #113
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Default Re: The BBC Light programme

I have to echo every word that Eddie #108 has written.

Programmes like the Moral Maze and In Our Time are brief sparkles in a sea of downmarket mediocrity. I was once a regular listener to the World Service but it is unrecognisable when compared to the station of 20 years ago.

The only BBC stations remaining on my presets are Radios 3, 4 and 5 live. The latter is down to one programme – Wake Up To Money – and that has become so dumbed down that a lot of the time I don't bother and my Radio 4 listening is reduced from hours at a time to the occasional programme.

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I often ponder and conjecture on what would have happened if the BBC had turned the Light Programme into Radio-1 back in 1960 or so, and there'd been a licensing liberalisation to allow/encourage commercial music-stations to come on the scene legally rather than having to do the whole offshore-thing? Personally I think it would have been a great leap forward.
I think that the arrangement that came about in 1967 was about the best we could have had at the time given the dominance of AM listening and the crowded MW band. It can be argued that the BBC was dragged along kicking and screaming but there was a replacement for the pirate stations (modelled mainly on Radio London, right down to the PAMS jingles) and the likes of my parents had Radio 2 in a form which they were able to enjoy for the next 35 years.

These arguments all too often come down to one supplanting the other in some sort of winner-takes-all culture war. My parents, indeed the rest of my family, were not interested in listening to Radio Caroline, etc., and they heard enough of it when I had control of the household radio to make an informed decision. I wouldn't want to deprive them of the programming they enjoyed. When the Light morphed into Radio 2 they stayed with that.

Today I feel that those who like their pop music and lively presentation are very well-served by the BBC. It operates four national stations that amount to four versions of Radio One and BBC local radio increasingly relies on pop.

To me the BBC is no longer Auntie, it's Grandniece: “and listen here young lady: would you kindly TURN THAT RACKET DOWN... Thank you.”

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Old 7th Aug 2020, 2:44 pm   #114
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In our time honoured tradition of most previous threads discussing any particular facet of the BBC, this thread has turned into a general grumble. It is what it is, admired internationally whilst being denigrated by many on here (and elsewhere in UK media it has to be said). We have an unrivalled ability to choose our sources of entertainment, there is no need to be tied to one.
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