I'm an avid listener of the BBC World Service, and I've noticed that in the past two weeks or so they've been playing Lillibullero again. It's not played every hour, but probably ~65% of the time, in lieu of the rather tired David Lowe theme from 2007.
I find it fascinating that the World Service is returning to the iconic identity of the past, I wonder what other changes are in store.
Lillibullero
What do you listen on?
It's since the 2007 change always been played in its shortened form been played every couple of hours on shortwave and the Africa option online. However I don't think I've ever heard it on the DAB UK version except for last Wednesday when they played it for the 80th birthday programming.
Recording off shortwave I made last week - http://soundcloud.com/stephen-cooper/bb ... e-12095khz
Ste
It's since the 2007 change always been played in its shortened form been played every couple of hours on shortwave and the Africa option online. However I don't think I've ever heard it on the DAB UK version except for last Wednesday when they played it for the 80th birthday programming.
Recording off shortwave I made last week - http://soundcloud.com/stephen-cooper/bb ... e-12095khz
Ste
Yes the schedule is slightly different with some programmes at different times and the David Lowe theme includes the words "and across the UK on Digital Radio" or something.Pete wrote:I didn't realise the version we have on DAB is different than the main English feed.
Trailers are also changed to include UK times when the UK is not on GMT in the summer.
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Inspector Sands
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- Location: London
I'm pretty sure (and this is my understanding of how it works) that a few years ago they split the English World Service output into 2 - one a more newsy service and the other a more general World Service with feature/entertainment programmes and short bulletins on the hour/half hour. The idea being that they could tailor the output to different parts of the world - i.e. in the morning in a particular region they'll get more news and less programmes and vice versa. Also the news service could be used for big stories.
Lillibullero is used on the more traditional WS and newsy one has the 'This is the BBC in....' top of the hour. The one we get on DAB and Radio 4 is the latter
Lillibullero is used on the more traditional WS and newsy one has the 'This is the BBC in....' top of the hour. The one we get on DAB and Radio 4 is the latter
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Inspector Sands
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- Joined: Wed 25 Aug, 2004 00.37
- Location: London
Lillibullero works really well on fading, static-y SW like that. As a piece of music it just seems very good as a tuning signal. It sounds a little over-produced there, it was much better when it was the simple'This is London' [pause], Lillibullero [pause] pipsSte wrote:Recording off shortwave I made last week - http://soundcloud.com/stephen-cooper/bb ... e-12095khz
Ste wrote:What do you listen on?
It's since the 2007 change always been played in its shortened form been played every couple of hours on shortwave and the Africa option online. However I don't think I've ever heard it on the DAB UK version except for last Wednesday when they played it for the 80th birthday programming.
Recording off shortwave I made last week - http://soundcloud.com/stephen-cooper/bb ... e-12095khz
Ste
I've been listening to a stream on an internet radio for the past few years, as I'm in New York, and there aren't any North American SW services anymore. I believe the feed I'm listening to is the more traditional WS feed, as there are occasionally TOTP and Sports programming. The Lillibulero is definitely new, though, as I've been listening to this feed for the past few years.
They also still play the Bow Bells before an English transmission starts on shortwave to help tuning to a particular frequency. http://www.inspirewebdesign.com/home/mp ... ter_10.mp3 from 1926 is the one played.Inspector Sands wrote:Lillibullero works really well on fading, static-y SW like that. As a piece of music it just seems very good as a tuning signal. It sounds a little over-produced there, it was much better when it was the simple'This is London' [pause], Lillibullero [pause] pipsSte wrote:Recording off shortwave I made last week - http://soundcloud.com/stephen-cooper/bb ... e-12095khz
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Bvsh Hovse
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- Joined: Mon 24 Nov, 2008 01.46
- Location: The Strand
Pretty much spot on.Inspector Sands wrote:I'm pretty sure (and this is my understanding of how it works) that a few years ago they split the English World Service output into 2 - one a more newsy service and the other a more general World Service with feature/entertainment programmes and short bulletins on the hour/half hour. The idea being that they could tailor the output to different parts of the world - i.e. in the morning in a particular region they'll get more news and less programmes and vice versa. Also the news service could be used for big stories.
Off the top of my head, there are 12 main versions of WS English:
Core News
Core News Internet
English UK
English UK Internet
English Africa East
English Africa West
English Americas
English Asia South
English Asia South East
English Australasia
English Europe
English Middle East
There are also a couple of additional feeds aimed at rebroadcasters
Core News is a bit odd, in that it isn't broadcast directly anywhere. The other networks opt in either for just the 5 and 2 minute bulletins each hour, or longer for the full hour for things like The World Today or Newshour if they fit the timezones. In theory there is an hour long news programme required somewhere in the world around the clock, in practise there are now a couple of gaps.
As suggested, in the event of breaking news all networks join core. Internet versions of networks have substitute programming arranged in periods where rights prevent online distribution. Core Internet then gets used as filler for online distribution for any other network that does not have an Internet version when required. It's pretty much the same programmes which go out on all the regions, just shifted to fit the timezones better. There are a few exceptions such as regional business bulletins, Network/Focus Africa and Top of the Pops.
BBC World News works in a similar way, in that there is a core network which never gets broadcast (other than the odd appearence on bbcworldservice.com during breaking news) and then has the regional opts and breakfillers laid on top of it to build the different versions for tx.
Meanwhile, back on topic: Here is an alternate version of Lilli used as the theme tune to the Persian TV music programme 'Kook'.
Ah, that's fascinating, thanks for the insight!
Am I crazy, or are there multiple versions of the Newshour theme? One sounds incredibly ominous (think BBC Nine O'Clock News in the late 80s), while others sound more light, yet still authoritative.
Am I crazy, or are there multiple versions of the Newshour theme? One sounds incredibly ominous (think BBC Nine O'Clock News in the late 80s), while others sound more light, yet still authoritative.
Bvsh Hovse wrote:
Meanwhile, back on topic: Here is an alternate version of Lilli used as the theme tune to the Persian TV music programme 'Kook'.
Another alternative version I saw from a post on TVF of an old BBC World Service TV video. On the video at about 3:02
Also here is a recording I took last week of both the Bow Bells and Lillibullero (after about 1 minute of the recording).
http://soundcloud.com/stephen-cooper/bb ... ce-at-east