The Radio 4 Blog Feed

BBC Radio Explorer

2014-07-31T07:20:16+00:00

BBC Radio has launched a new way to help audiences discover radio - Radio Explorer.

Radio Explorer - Landing

It's not always been easy to find BBC Programmes programmes about the things you love – but now Radio Explorer allows you to search BBC Radio using keywords and topics.

Your passion might be Reggae, Game of Thrones or baking. Once you enter a topic Radio Explorer will create a playlist related to your topic, with programmes and clips from Radio 3, Radio 4 and 5 live.

Radio Explorer - Search

The BBC Radio Explorer was an idea that came about from a Radio 4 Hackday which brought together programme makers, producers, software engineers, web developers and web designers from different areas of the BBC to collaborate on ideas focused on Radio 4's output and looking at intersting digital offers that could be done to showcase network's incredibly diverse range of content.

Jason Williams, a Web Developer within the Radio & Music team at the BBC (who have also developed Playlister), came up with the idea:

"I was in the car listening to shows like The News Quiz or The Now Show and thought there must be an easier way to find out if there was more comedy on offer from BBC Radio.

I then decided to look online to see if i could find any more using BBC and other search engines, I then realised this could be simplified if I could search exactly for what I want within the BBC and have those clips or episode available to me instantly.

This concept worked even better for more specific searches, such as politician’s names, stories of the week or topical subjects."

Radio Explorer is currently pulling clips and programmes from Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra, Radio 5 Live, Radio 5 live Sports Extra and Radio 3.

Radio Explorer is currently in Beta - which means it's a work in progress. Please let us know what you think of it and we'd welcome suggestions on how we could improve it.

Series catch-up for speech-based radio programmes is here

2011-02-24T16:37:06+00:00

Editor's note: from the BBC Radio blog, great news for lovers of Radio 4 series - SB

Ever since 2002, when we started offering listeners the chance to hear radio programmes on demand via the original Radio Player, listeners have consistently asked to be able to catch up on all the episodes of series whilst that series is on air. There is nothing more frustrating, they told us, than getting interested in a serial in the third week and not being able to catch up on the first two parts which disappear after 7 days. In fact we became quite concerned that people might not even start listening to a serial if they felt they would not be able to keep up.

Well, today we have had good news. The BBC Trust has approved plans to introduce 'series catch-up' for radio...

Continue reading this blog post, and leave a comment, on the BBC Radio blog...

News for online listeners using RealPlayer

2009-10-07T16:04:34+00:00

Editor's note: this blog post is by Mark Kortekaas (BBC Audio & Music), Ian Myatt (BBC Nations & Regions) and Karl Kathuria (BBC World Service). I'm 'cross-posting' here because I know a lot of Radio 4 listeners still use RealPlayer to listen online - SB

At BBC Radio we try to deliver the best experience for users of our streaming services. We constantly review our services to make sure they deliver 'public value'. The four drivers of public value are: Reach, Quality, Impact and Value.

When streaming services are evaluated against these measures, we take into account where different formats might need to be implemented, evolved or deprecated.

The streaming service provided in RealMedia format has been with us at the BBC since 1996. At the time it was the best option available, but more recently alternative methods of delivery have become just as important. These include Windows Media and Flash.

When evaluating services with our public value tests along with the costs of the services, we came to the decision that RealMedia was something we needed to phase out.

Continue reading this post and leave comments on the Radio Labs blog where it appears in full.

Desert Island Discs comes to iPlayer

2009-09-27T10:12:00+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr

It is a grand moment to get Desert Island Discs (DIDs) on the iPlayer. We have always had good relations with the family of the programme's founding father - Roy Plomley - but the programme was conceived in a pre-digital age and so we needed to work out with the family how to make the programme available online as well as for its two transmissions.

We have now sorted it all out and we have plans to make the website an all-singing, all-dancing affair - encouraging people to compare their choices with the choices of castaways, looking at the most selected tracks etc. etc. And we will end up podcasting DIDs too.

For the time being we're off to the races with Barry Manilow - and the programme will be available to listen to on the web site - along with the rest of the Radio 4 schedule.

It is a great programme - doing wonderfully I think with Kirsty Young.

DIDs' moments? Princess Margaret with Roy Plomley (a curio), Sue Lawley and Simon Cowell (not a great meeting of minds), Kirsty and Humphrey Lyttelton, Kirsty and Andrew Neil (moving), Kirsty and Yoko Ono, Sue and Isaiah Berlin and many, many more. It's a treat in my week. I rarely miss it and I now have no excuse.

I still yearn for Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, Madonna, Arsene Wenger etc. etc. Stay tuned. We're trying.

You'll be able to listen again to Desert Island Discs on the programme's home page, starting with today's Barry Manilow episode.
The picture shows the programme's inventor and long-time presenter Roy Plomley in 1942, the year the programme was first broadcast. The picture is from the BBC's picture library and the caption reads: "Roy Plomley, script-writer of 'Hurrah for Hollywood', 'Show Souvenirs', 'Lady from Texas' and 'Desert Island Discs' series; actor and compere, 1942." You can see some more Desert Island Discs pictures from the archive here.

Series catch-up for Radio 4 programmes

2009-07-13T11:48:41+00:00

Yesterday something small but significant happened. Instead of disappearing from iPlayer when its 7 days were up, the first Episode of The Complete Smiley - The Spy Who Came in From the Cold stayed put. Which means that you can go back and listen to it before listening to Episode 2.

The unusual behaviour of The Spy is down to the "Series catch-up" feature of iPlayer - something that's been on offer for some TV series for a while, and which we're now starting to trial for radio programmes. Series catch-up means that all the episodes in a series are available until 7 days after the final episode is broadcast. So you don't have to worry about keeping up each week, but can catch up with the story so far at any point during the series.

There will be around 30 series in the trial between now and mid January, including quite a few from Radio 4. Most of the le Carré season will be included as well as an exciting Dickens serialisation and a complete series of Behind Closed Doors later in the year.

The reason that we're only offering a limited number of series is because this is a trial. The BBC already has permission from the BBC Trust, who regulate what we do, to offer TV programmes with series catch-up, but we don't yet have permission for radio. We're running the trial to find out how useful or interesting people think this is, and to establish what it would mean to offer it more widely. If all goes well we'll then use the information from the trial to ask for permission to offer series catch-up as a permanent feature.

I realise the BBC's internal processes may sometimes seem a touch bureaucratic, but it's important that we find out how popular or useful a new feature might be, how much it might cost, and also what impact it might have on the wider industry, before we decide whether to launch it. This particular trial is limited to 30 series, and we've picked them from across networks and genres to make sure we get a broad range of feedback (here's a list of the Radio 4 series included).

If you're interested in telling us what you think about series catch-up, as part of this trial, then you can take part in a survey that we're running. There's a link below, along with some more info. I'll also be happy to respond to any comments you post on this blog over the next couple of weeks.

Sarah Prag is Executive Producer, Audio Services at BBC Audio & Music Interactive

A list of the Radio 4 programmes included in the trial.
Troy's post from the BBC Internet blog announcing series catch-up for TV programmes last year.
The series catch-up survey is now closed.
Picture, Car rear view mirror, by net_efekt. Used under licence.

Bringing old favourites to life: illustrating Radio 4 drama

2009-06-02T09:33:06+00:00

A while back I posted about why we use illustrations on iPlayer for key radio programming (on the BBC Internet blog). In short we want to avoid galleries of largely unknown faces which don't really hook the listener as much as a well-executed illustration.

When we come to illustrate dramas which feature popular and loved characters we are posed with a dilemma - we want to give depth and feeling to the drama without personifying the character too much. The mind's eye is a wonderful thing which conjures up its own distinct image of how Arthur Dent in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or Ruth Archer from The Archers look - it's not the job of the illustration to give a face to the characters, its job is to nod to their characteristics.

You'll have seen two illustrations recently for Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders and The Complete Smiley, both on Radio 4. I'll hand over to my picture editors Javier Hirschfeld and Dominik Klimowski who commissioned these illustrations:

The Complete Smiley (Commissioned by Javier Hirschfeld):

"I thought of the illustrator Swava Harasymowicz since there is something of the classic spy/gangster Hollywood movies in many of her works. I focused on the role of Smiley rather than John le Carré himself. Smiley's a spy who should not be easily recognised by the people that see him so we decided to go with the film noir look and feel to create that classic spy scenario. Below are Swava's drafts and the explanations of them." The illustrator writes:

"The main rough would use 'slices' suggesting blinds with the figure - half-seen, half-not-seen - within them, sort of layered. There may be very faint outlines of cities too, or a close up of a spy-like man with a lighter instead of a gun (apparently he had a favourite lighter). In both cases there would be colour - not monochrome.

"We opted for the blinds option because this would add mystery and this way the character's face will not be as prominent, therefore not identifiable with Sir Alec Guinness or with Simon Russell-Beale. Smiley will be defined by the spy look, the papers and the silhouette, since he is always in the shadows and must never be seen."

Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (Commissioned by Dominik Klimowski):

Steph von Reiswitz was the natural choice when commissioning an illustration for the 'Rumpole' series on Radio 4. She has illustrated numerous radio programmes for us including 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' and the 'The Complete Ripley'. Her idiosyncratic style fits perfectly with these 'period' dramas and it is further backed up by a knowledge of the material. If there is one thing more reassuring than an illustrator who is keen to research the content we are promoting, it is one who is familiar with it already.

The illustration was made specifically to be generic so that it can promote any of the Rumpole stories. His features, the décor and the props are all carefully considered and I think this is where illustration will always win out. The image has been created from thin air. It does not rely on an actor, or a specific setting or action, all of which would make it too specific and interfere with our imaginations. Instead it is an image as original as the one each of us carries in our mind's eye when we turn on the radio and listen to 'Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders'.

Ashley Stewart-Noble is a Senior Content Producer at BBC Future Media & Technology

Ashley's post from the BBC Internet blog in March.