OK - I use "Squeezebox" for BBC Internet streams and, thanks to immense work by the o-l community, we've found fixes. But many thousands must be left stranded. Some of us have been lobbying BBC for last month with very little success. I'm trying to avoid getting into too much technical detail here - but for those who are lucky enough to receive them, the "new improved" BBC streams are unreliable, constantly re buffer etc.
The BBC "announced" all this in this very obscure internal blog last September:
formatting link
After messing up the Live streams and receiving well over 1000 well considered cries for help, constructive criticisms and technical suggestions, they then went ahead and killed Listen Again for all but smart phones, tablets and iPlayer App's on PCs. They've even deliberately blocked publication of the urls people could use to manually reinstate service. When there were too many protests they closed the blog last Wednesday!!
There's now an ePetition to try to get reinstatement of some streams back.
formatting link
If, as many of us have, you try to get politicians on board you get this:
Quote: "Thank you for your e-mail of 10 March, to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, about BBC radio. I have been asked to reply. Under the terms of the BBC?s Charter and Agreement, the BBC is operationally independent of Government and there is no provision for the Government to intervene in the Corporation?s day-to-day operations. The BBC is accountable to the license fee payer through the BBC Trust. The Royal Charter is the constitutional basis for the BBC. It sets out the public purposes of the BBC, guarantees its independence, and outlines the duties of the Trust and the Executive Board. It is still possible to enjoy live radio on Freeview, Freesat and YouView devices. It is also possible to receive live and on demand radio from the BBC iPlayer Radio on computers, tablets and smart phones. The Government believes it is important that the Corporation is aware of the concerns of viewers and listeners. In the first instance your concerns about bit rates may be raised with BBC Information: email via the website,
formatting link
or telephone 03700 100 222, or by writing to BBC Information, PO Box
1922, Glasgow, G2 3WT, or by writing directly to the programme area concerned. Alternatively, if you would like to contact the BBC Trust directly for more information, you may do so by writing to the BBC Trust Unit, 180 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 5QZ, by emailing snipped-for-privacy@bbc.co.uk or by calling their information line on
03700 103 100. I hope that this is helpful. Yours sincerely, Dempster Marples"
So, we can only talk to the BBC Trust about all this and the BBC Trust has its fingers in its ears and hands over its eyes and, if it replies at all, sends copies of the "September Diktat". It's the Plan which counts, not the consequences or outcomes!
I'm not suggesting for a moment that this business is on a par with Jimmy Savile, various hospital and care home scandals, Hillsborough, Rotherham child abuse - oh I could go on and on - but, despite being constantly told that "lessons will be learned" the response of our public servants is alarmingly consistent.
Those who can please use Usenet, social media or whatever to publicise the ePetition. We have very few other options to show how many people are affected by all this.
It's probably clear that I'm quite upset about this - but I want to listen to the radio in high quality sound through my expansive HiFi equipment. Not spending even more time in front of a computer or through a pretty but tinny iThingy. ChipMonk