BBC World Service radio replacing "The World Today" with African-oriented morning "Newsday"

[alp227]

Last edited Fri Jul 20, 2012, 09:16 PM - Edit history (1)

I heard last night when listening to KQED that it was the last "World Today". The program has run daily 10pm-4am (ET), and many NPR stations in the US play it to fill the overnights. Starting on the 23rd, the show "Newsday", oriented towards African morning listeners, will replace "The World Today" on the BBC World Service.

I was wondering why the BBC would cancel the program that has run since 1999. Then I see this Financial Times article "BBC auctions 1,500 World Service relics":

Auctioneers have moved into Bush House and are preparing to sell 1,500 relics of the BBC World Service next week, ranging from 1950s radio equipment to a plastic studio clock with a note reading “Kabul (not to the minute)” stuck on it.

The iconic central London building, which used to buzz with the service’s 27 languages, now stands silent after the final broadcast last Thursday. Staff have moved across town to a new purpose-built home in Broadcasting House. Everything that remains will be auctioned off.

To its 180m listeners across the globe, World Service radio is a great British institution: Charles de Gaulle used the service to broadcast to the Resistance in France during the second world war, Aung San Suu Kyi listened to keep in touch with the movement for democracy in Myanmar while under house arrest, and 50 per cent more Arabic speakers have tuned in since the Arab spring.

But austerity has hit the radio station, which relied on government grants, raising fears that a vital tool to promote global understanding could be lost.

So the budget cuts made "The World Today" unaffordable? Disappointing for insomniac American news junkies.

[hlthe2b]

1. I too woke to this news in the wee hours this morning. I'm devastated...

BBC was my lifeline during my overseas work years. So very sad...