BBC Alba

DarloRich · 16 Feb 2020

Samuel88 said:
It is but I’m currently in a hotel with no access to a radio...

Radio 1 is for children and is brain rottingly stupid. Either listen to something else or read a book.

Also - BBC Alba is part of the commitment the BBC made to support communities around the uk. I am sure if you speak Gaelic it is a useful service. Just becuase you dont like it doesn't invalidate the concept!

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Spamcan81 · 16 Feb 2020

yorksrob said:
I'd be quite surprised if some of the current songs on the radio 2 playlist, are popular enough amongst the 35-60 age group to justify the amount of airplay they get.

And the playlist rarely includes the sort of indie- type music that I used to enjoy when listening to Radio 1 in the 90's. The BBC make a big thing of shifting old farts like me off of Radio 1, but then they don't back it up with the actual music on Radio 2. Where is 'Sounds of the Nineties' ?

More to the point where are Top Gear and Sounds of the Seventies album shows? I use internet radio to find the music i Like listening to. R2 is a dead loss as far as I'm concerned.

Bevan Price · 16 Feb 2020

yorksrob said:
I'd be quite surprised if some of the current songs on the radio 2 playlist, are popular enough amongst the 35-60 age group to justify the amount of airplay they get.

And the playlist rarely includes the sort of indie- type music that I used to enjoy when listening to Radio 1 in the 90's. The BBC make a big thing of shifting old farts like me off of Radio 1, but then they don't back it up with the actual music on Radio 2. Where is 'Sounds of the Nineties' ?

BBC Radio is obsessed with the "Pop Single" concept. A lot of the best music is found on "albums", but never gets played on BBC - national or local radio. Radio 6 is perhaps the "least bad" music outlet of BBC, but I prefer something like Planet Rock if I want to listen to music on Radio.

SteveP29 · 17 Feb 2020

Our Freeview always has all the radio channels and they aren't blocked because of a TV channel.

I think perhaps it may be the restrictive nature of the Freeview setup within the hotel that's causing this problem for you.
The guesthouse we stay in in Dorset each year only has around 14 channels on their TV's in the rooms, most Travelodges and Premier Inns are the same

dosxuk · 17 Feb 2020

SteveP29 said:
Our Freeview always has all the radio channels and they aren't blocked because of a TV channel.

I think perhaps it may be the restrictive nature of the Freeview setup within the hotel that's causing this problem for you.
The guesthouse we stay in in Dorset each year only has around 14 channels on their TV's in the rooms, most Travelodges and Premier Inns are the same

No, it's because there isn't enough transmission capacity (all got sold off to the mobile phone companies). So in Scotland they turn off the radio channels and broadcast Alba instead.

Also why large parts of the country are now losing BBC News HD and BBC Four HD, along with some radio and smaller channels - needing to close down the transmissions to sell the capacity to mobile phone companies.

krus_aragon · 17 Feb 2020

dosxuk said:
No, it's because there isn't enough transmission capacity (all got sold off to the mobile phone companies). So in Scotland they turn off the radio channels and broadcast Alba instead.

Also why large parts of the country are now losing BBC News HD and BBC Four HD, along with some radio and smaller channels - needing to close down the transmissions to sell the capacity to mobile phone companies.

The latter stations are on non Public Service Broadcasting multiplexes; they aren't required to be made available nationwide. (The existence of the SD versions of each on PSB1 is sufficient.)

I was surprised at your first claim, but on digging around I find it to be true (except for three radio stations), as documented in this BBC blog post from 2011.

mmh · 17 Feb 2020

krus_aragon said:
I was surprised at your first claim, but on digging around I find it to be true (except for three radio stations), as documented in this BBC blog post from 2011.

That's quite surprising, but I suppose the way they chose the radio stations to put on Freeview makes sense, the most popular non-FM ones. It must be very rare for a household not to have an FM radio, a hotel room not so unfortunately!

dosxuk · 18 Feb 2020

krus_aragon said:
The latter stations are on non Public Service Broadcasting multiplexes; they aren't required to be made available nationwide. (The existence of the SD versions of each on PSB1 is sufficient.)

They're not required to be broadcast, but they have been at many of the more important relay transmitters, and that is now changing - resulting in people losing access to channels they are used to having.

mmh · 18 Feb 2020

dosxuk said:
They're not required to be broadcast, but they have been at many of the more important relay transmitters, and that is now changing - resulting in people losing access to channels they are used to having.

The loss of BBC News HD or BBC Four HD nationwide wouldn't be a huge loss. Why do you need to watch Huw Edwards in better detail?

krus_aragon · 18 Feb 2020

dosxuk said:
They're not required to be broadcast, but they have been at many of the more important relay transmitters, and that is now changing - resulting in people losing access to channels they are used to having.

Granted, the loss of a service that you'd already been receiving is unpopular, but that was a downgrading to SD broadcast, not a full removal. I don't feel it's comparable to removing several radio stations off that platform, as the OP found.

Old Yard Dog · 18 Feb 2020

swt_passenger said:
What have the Albanians ever done for us?

You may well ask. However England has done plenty for Albania. Norman Wisdom was the country's no 1 film star in the days of Enver Hoxha.

And King Zog and Queen Geraldine settled in England during WWII after the German invasion of Albania, starting at the Ritz. They never returned home.

Their only son Crown Prince Leka passed out at Sandhurst and returned to Albania in 1993. However the country rejected a return of the monarchy in a referendum so he was never formally recognized as king.

mikeg · 20 Feb 2020

Have to say as a non-Gaelic speaker and someone with only weak Scottish heritage who has lived in England all his life, I quite liked BBC Alba when I watched television regularly. Subtitles work wonders. There was a programme called 'Eorpa', perhaps still is, which was very informative about European affairs.

Howardh · 21 Feb 2020

It's great watching the curling when the commentator commentates in gaelic, then turns to the co-commentator and addresses her in english and she replies back in english! Think that's cheating a little...

I think if you press the right button on Alba and S4C you get the english subtitles (??)

Anyhow, as for "minority" channels, before the popularity of satellite TV, S4C had a Monday night sports programme SGORIO which showed highlights of Spanish and Italian league games which were otherwise unobtainable to the British, so there were loads of us near the Welsh border swinging our aerials round to get Sgorio, and also those with a decent signal videoed the programme for those with poor signals!!

BBC Alba

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