There are so many pages I find on the Internet most weeks – the majority of them are interesting, but completely useless and I can’t really write a blog post about them.

So, my version of the round-ups provided by the BBC Internet Blog. I’ll post something like this whenever I feel like it! There’s a lot today relating to the BBC – although sometimes I’ll post stuff from all over the place.

Firstly, Gordon Brown’s announcement that the Budget will be on 24 March has convinced most MPs that the general election will follow on 6 May. The BBC published the likely timetable to polling day:

Wednesday 7 April – Dissolution: MPs and peers stop sitting Parliament, but it continues to exist until it is formally dissolved, which is likely to happen at the end of the week after the traditional scramble by party bosses to see what legislation can be saved. After dissolution there are no longer any MPs, although ministers keep their jobs during the election campaign.

The BBC College of Journalism website has launched a series of videos in which BBC professionals talk openly and in detail about their jobs.

Last Thursday, BBC Radio Bristol producer Sophie Woodcock showed how she keeps the station on air and on track for three hours in the morning – you can watch the video here.

Meanwhile, Alec McGivan wrote on the About the BBC Blog about yesterday’s School Report project:

It’s been particularly rewarding for me to see the success of today as I remember the start of the project four years ago. To see over 700 schools taking part, a good rise on the 524 which took part last year, makes me feel especially proud and privileged to be a part of such an organisation. Next week, the focus shifts to Schools Question Time and the judging of the regional finals. It starts on Monday at Cator Park school in Bromley and ends in July when the winners get to broadcast their own Schools Question Time programme. I’m one of the judges and looking forward to it already!

And as Radio 2’s Get Connected campaign continues, a guide to Twitter appears on their website. Less than 3 days later, and presenter Alex Lester launches a new Twitter account.

The session was run by Richard Lewis, a broadcaster, script writer and television producer (according to Wikipedia…).

The session was fairly informal with plenty of chance to ask questions on a number of subject covered, including structuring a programme (timings, content, running etc.) and making the show relevent to the audience.

The points raised weren’t too dissimilar to the Essential Radio Skills book I mentioned earlier in the year and it was interesting to hear them coming from a slightly different view compared to what I’ve heard/read before.

One of the things that I’ve learnt, is that I should possibly think about planning my shows in more detail. Because although I’m one of the Corinium volunteers who does plan the exact running order before going on air I hate “winging” things, I’ve always deliberatley not planned everything in detail for want of it sounding too unrealistic.

In addition, a point was raised about our Breakfast Show which made me think that our current format isn’t working that well – to have 4 presenters is a bit too much. Richard told us that it would be better to have 2 presenters – the station’s best 2 presenters.

Our next broadcast will be on air between July 1 and July 4 2010; tune in and see if you can here the difference!

The announcement follows the leaking of the plans in Friday’s edition of The Times.

When I wrote on Saturday morning, I looked at what the reaction was. Today however, I will look at some of the plans in detail and explain why I think the BBC has made the wrong decision, as well as looking at what you might be able to if you want to save the two stations.

And I’d like to hear from you if you have any opinions on this. You can e-mail me on admin@fred-hart.co.uk, you can leave a message on the Fred Hart Online Facebook Fan Page, you can send a reply to @fredhartonline on Twitter, or you can fill in the form at the bottom of this page.

I will start with 6 Music:

The remit of BBC 6 Music is to entertain lovers of popular music with a service offering music from the 1960s to the present day. Its programmes juxtapose current releases outside the mainstream with earlier recordings, including music from the BBC Sound Archive. It should provide context for the music it plays, and support live music and new artists.

BBC 6 Music should:

• Ensure that at least half of all music played each year is more than 4 years old.
• Broadcast at least 400 hours of archive concert performances each year.
• Ensure that at least 15% of music broadcast is concert tracks and sessions from the BBC’s music archive each year.
• Broadcast at least 275 new sessions each year.
• Contribute to BBC Radio’s commitment to commission at least 10% of eligable hours of output from independant producers.

Quoted from BBC 6 Music Service License
BBC Trust, April 2009

The text above is what the BBC Service License requires 6 Music to do each year. You can read the full document by clicking the above link.

The closure would be a mistake, because BBC 6 Music has supported new artists/unsigned artists who have benefited massively from the publicity. They may not be household names, but they wouldn’t be where they are now without the station’s support.

In addition, BBC 6 Music is covering areas that aren’t, and/or can’t be, covered by commercial radio; although there may be one or two commercials operating this sort of format, most stick to the mainstream pop/chart music.

In my opinion, the best shows on the station come from Chris Hawkins, Gideon Coe, Huey Morgan and Guy Garvey; we would loose all of these if 6 Music is closed.

Next up, the Asian Network:

The remit of BBC Asian Network is to provide speech and music output appealing to British Asians, with a strong focus on news and current affairs. It should be primarily in English, but some programming should be provided in a range of South Asian languages.

The primary target audience is British Asians under 35 but the station should also appeal to anyone with an interest in British Asian issues, music and culture.

BBC Asian Network should:

• Ensure that content is approximately 50% speech and 50% music each year.
• Ensure that each year at least 40% of the music in daytime is from from UK artists.
• Contribute to BBC Radio’s commitment to commission at least 10% of eligable hours of output from independant producers.

Quoted from BBC Asian Network Service License
BBC Trust, April 2008

The Asian Network is an important part of the BBC in my opinion; and even though I personally don’t listen to close it would also be a mistake. Having a radio station catering for British Asians is a side effect of such a multi-cultural society.

There are some commercial radio stations covering the same ground as BBC AN. but only in major cities – Manchester, Birmingham, London etc and there is nothing for British Asians outside of these areas.

I’m not saying that every Asian person listens to the network – there are plenty who listen to the mainstream output on the other BBC services. But to loose the full time service means that, for those wanting a 24/7 station for British Asians the only option is commercial radio.

The station does also support new and/or unsigned artists – my Music Technology teacher at college has even had some tracks played on some of the network’s programmes.

On the other hand, perhaps British Asian issues should be covered by the mainstream BBC stations anyway? British Asians are as much a part of society as the Radio 1 and Radio 2 listeners.

Now perhaps one area that has been a little ignored in this controversy is BBC Local Radio. Mark Thompson has promised “better journalism” at peak times (breakfast/drivetime). Sounds like a good idea… but it would be funded by syndicating programmes between station.

Effectively, that means that if the plans go ahead, BBC Radio Gloucestershire’s afternoon show could be broadcast from Bristol, or BBC Hereford and Worcester’s mid-morning show could be broadcast from Shropshire.

The remit of BBC Local Radio is to provide a primarily speech based service of news, information and debate to urban and rural communities. Speech output should be complemented by music.

The target audience should be listeners aged 50 and over, who are not well served elsewhere. There should be a strong emphasis on interactivity and audience involvement.

Each BBC Local Radio station should:

• Broadcast an average of at least 60% speech content in core hours and 100% at the breakfast peak each year.
• Broadcast at least 85 hours of original, locally-made programming each week.

Quoted from BBC Local Radio Service License
BBC Trust, March 2009

Would you really want to be listening to a ‘local’ radio station broadcasting content in the neighbouring county? If you live in Worcester, would you want to be listening to content specific to Shrewsbury?

I think that both BBC Radio Gloucestershire and BBC HW are amongst the strongest of our local radio stations;  and I don’t think I want any massive changes there. We must look at that the commercial radio sector: cuts in BBC Local Radio would leave community radio and RSLs as the only true form of local radio – there’d be no real competition, and RSLs and community radio stations already have low resources and it wouldn’t be fair for anyone to expect them to fill that gap.

So… what can you do if you want to help save 6 Music, Asian Network and Local Radio?

Well, BBC Asian Network presenter Bobby Friction suggested this:

Here is the BBC Director General’s e-mail address: mark.thompson@bbc.co.uk. Don’t be nasty, just tell him to save BBC Asian Network and BBC 6 Music.

Quoted from Bobby’s Twitter page

In addition, in response to the BBC Trust launching one Internet blogger wrote his “recipe” for saving the two stations:

DO e-mail the BBC Trust. Unlike voting for the government your voice matters.
DO encourage others to do the same. A massive response is what’s needed.
DO emphasise that these stations cannot/do not compete with commercial broadcasters.
DO mention that you think the stations justify the license fee.
DO Listen to the stations. Preferably on iPlayer, where I imagine the BBC can see the stats themselves.

DON’T make pointless threats about boycotting the BBC – it isn’t going to happen.
DON’T try and suggest that they cut something more expensive instead. As much as we’d all love to see the back of BBC3, this decision isn’t being made by the accountants.
DON’T swear, use too many exclaimation marks or generally make yourself look like a tool. Your e-mail will presumably be read by a grown-up.
DON’T just cut and paste the e-mail below. Add some of your own thoughts and reasoning.
DON’T accuse the BBC of bowing to political pressure. It’s probably true, but it won’t help.

Quoted from How to Save 6 Music & Asian Network
James Hunt, March 2010

I will be sending in my views later today; the e-mail address you need to use with the BBC Trust is srconsultation@bbc.co.uk. You should also read the rest of James’ article.

Quite a long & complicated post today, but lets make our views known to the BBC and hopefully, someone, somewhere along the line will have the power to do something.

There were a total of 474 unique visitors, who visited a total of 2188 times (an average of 4.61 visits per visitor).

Days of the Month

The average number of visitors per day was 78.14. The highest figure of 134 was achieved on February 14th and the lowest figure of 53 was achieved on February 3rd.

To see the full graph, please click here (.xlsx document).

International Hits

The website recieved hits from 44 countries accross the world. The top 5 countries were the UK, Ireland, Russia, the USA and Germany.

The bottom 5 countries were Nepal, Greece, Australia, Malaysia and (in last place), Croatia.

Most Viewed

The top 10 most viewed pages in February 2010 were:

• RSS Feed
• German RSS Feed
• Home
• Greek RSS Feed
• German Home
• Greek Home
• Blog Post: Possibly Breaking News?
• Blog Post: Website Statistics for January
• Blog Post: BBC Digital Stations to Close?
• Blog Post: Day 6: The Last Night

Search Terms

The top 10 search terms which resulted in a hit to the site were:

• John Rockley leaving Radio Gloucestershire
• Fred Hart
• Computer keyboard
• www.fred-hart.co.uk
• Fred Hart Elvis
• Desmond Carrington schedule change
• Computer Keyboard Picture
• Mo Dutta
• Fred Hart Blog
• Which days did it snow Gloucester 2010

See Also

• January 2010
• February 2009

The plans were originally reported in yesterday’s edition of The Times, who claimed that Mark Thompson, BBC Director General, will reallocate £600 million of the licence fee, nearly 17 per cent of the £3.6 billion that the public pays each year, into “higher quality programming”.

The NUJ (National Union of Journalists) have responded to this, saying they recieved a briefing from the BBC soon after, which confirmed the media reports as “largely correct”.

Both the NUJ and broadcasting union Bectu accused the BBC of “bowing to pressure from politicians and commercial rivals”. They have warned that there could be strike action if the plans go ahead.

BBC media correspondant, Torin Douglas, said this:

The Times report is very detailed so the paper has clearly been shown a BBC document. Whether these will be the final decisions remains to be seen.

The report is to be considered by the governing body, the BBC Trust, and The Times quotes “BBC Trust sources” as saying they would like the Director general to impose even greater cuts to budget for imported programmes.

There could also be last-minute lobbying on behalf of the two radio stations said to be due for closure. A campaign to save BBC 6 Music has been running on Facebook for some time.

Torin Douglas,
BBC Media Correspondant
Quoted from BBC News

Meanwhile, the Chief Operating Officer of Absolute Radio has said that he would buy 6 Music if is was for sale, and operate it commercially. He said that more efficiently run 6 Music could retain its current programming and sit perfectly in Absolute’s stable of stations, alongside Absolute Classic Rock, Absolute ‘80s and dabbl.

We share a similar ethos to 6 Music – a passion for music discovery, comedy and live music. We know there’s an audience out there for more engaging radio programmes, like Frank Skinner, Dave Gorman or Lauren Laverne.

Clive Dickens
Chief Operating Officer, Absolute Radio
Quoted from RadioToday.co.uk

The proposed 2015 digital radio switchover wouldn’t work without full support of the BBC and closing both 6 Music and the Asian Network won’t do digital radio any good… It is part of the BBC’s service licence to push digital radio sales – how are they going to do that now if two of their digital-only services are closing!?

What annoys me though, is that Mark Thompson says the plans are there to ensure the BBC focusses on “output of the highest quality instead of chasing ratings”.

So why don’t they get rid of BBC Radio 1? Perhaps the answer is, that getting rid of Chris Moyles would be popular and would force the ratings up!

What are your views on the BBC plans? Leave your comments below.

As I’ve said, I’m not sure on its validity (although it does claim to be from a BBC source), but this is the original source making these claims.

We’ll wait and see how this turns out over the next few days.

This year, its weekday evenings which are being refreshed. In particular, Tuesday and Friday evenings.

From April 2010, Desmond Carrington will leave his current Tuesday evening slot and move to Friday evenings, broadcasting from 7-8pm. This will then lead in to the new, extended Friday Night is Music Night, which will broadcast until 10pm.

On Tuesday evenings, Jamie Cullum will present a brand new jazz show, featuring guest interviews, live performances and news from the UK/worldwide jazz world.

When I was asked to introduce a record programme in 1981, the contract was for three months. With one or two changes, the latest being the move to Friday evenings at 7pm just after Easter – that three months will soon be 30 years! Thank you, Radio 2, for keeping me young.

Quoted from Desmond Carrington

It’s an extraordinary privilege to be able to present an hour of jazz and jazz-related music at such a civilised hour. We’re going to present a show that will excite people’s ears and bring them into a scene they may not know about.

Quoted from Jamie Cullum

Read the full story on the BBC Press Office Website, and leave your comments below.

Anyway… For the benefit of those who don’t know anything about Germany, here is a basic explanation of their school system. Most of you will see this as completely useless information… but I like useless info. (Did you know (for example), that the name “Gatwick” stems from old English words with the basic meaning of “goat farm”? It says so on Wikipedia)!

German children start school at 6 or 7 years – you must have completed your 6th birthday, so I’d guess that means its the school year in which you turn 7. Children go to primary school for 4 years – except in Berlin, where its 6. Germans wear no school uniform. Most schools begin between 7 or 8am. By German law, you have to have some form of education until the age of 18.

School holidays vary dramatically from state to state – that’s to stop 80 million Germans all taking to the motorway at the same time, quite important when you consider that people from all the neighbouring countries use them also.

But basically, this is how it works:

• October half term: 1-2 weeks
• Christmas holidays: 1-2 weeks
• February half term: 3 days-1 week (some states get nothing)
• Easter holidays: 2-3 weeks
• Summer holidays: 6 weeks, taken at any time between mid July to mid September

There are 3 types of school in Germany (excluding comprehensives, which weren’t very popular):

• Hauptschule (Secondary Modern School – by the end of it you’d get somthing equivilant to GCSE C-E)
• Realschule (Secondary Technical School – by the end of it you’d get something equivilant to GCSE A*-C)
• Gymnasium (Grammar School – by the end of it you’d get an “Abitur”, equivilant to A level.

Like in the UK, you can continue after school to get the next qualification. For example, Aufbaugymnasiums allow those who have done their Realschulabschluss exams to get Abitur.

Abitur is equivilant to A level. Unlike in England though, people do lots of different subjects. Abitur is considered the qualification for bright people, and to be bright in Germany means that you have to do subjects you don’t like. The normal Abitur selection of subjects would be:

• Maths
• German (in the same way we do English over here)
• Sport
• A foreign language (English, French, Latin)
• A Science (biology, chemisty, physics)
• A humanity (history, geography, politics, relgion)
• Art or Music

And the grades… you get a number from 1 to 6. 1 being equivilant to A*, and 6 being called “double fail” when translated into English! If you get below a 4, you have to do sitzen blieben – resitting a year. In Gymnasium, if you have to resit a year twice you have to leave and go to Realschule. And if you get a 5 in one subject, you have to get a 3 in another, to sort of balance it out.

In Germany, you go to university at the age of 18 or 19; you must have Abitur in order to go.

So Germany has a very demanding school system. If I had to do all those subjects, I wouldn’t be doing as well as I am now. I’d hate to have to do an exam in PE/sport!

The recipe came from a book called “Meze Cooking“, by Sarah Maxwell, and is very simple to follow.

I started by getting all my ingredients out on the side, making sure that I had everything needed. The ingredients included minced beef, breadcrumbs, a range of herbs, a can chopped tomatoes and water, as well as salt and pepper. You’ll need to buy the book for exact quantities and the full list of ingredients.

Basically, its a case of chucking all the ingredients (with the exception of the can of chopped tomatoes, and the water) into a mixing bowl, and mixing. After that, shape them into small balls and arrange on a baking sheet. They go into the oven for a while.

BEFORE

AFTER

That’s the meatballs done, the hardest bit. The next step is to make the sauce. You need to put the can of tinned tomatoes (minus the can ) into a blender/food processer and purée until smooth. You then put them through a seive (to remove the seeds – discard these).

Then put them with the water in a saucepan and simmer for a few minutes.

The whole lot – sauce and meatballs – goes into a baking dish, then into the fridge to marinate overnight. When you want to serve, its into the oven for a little bit… and you might want some rice to go with it!

My attempt wasn’t perfect – and yours probably won’t be either. But its an excellent way of reminding yourself of sitting in a little taverna last summer whilst you’re sat, freezing cold, here in the UK!

Read the book for the whole recipe.

I got back to the UK on Saturday evening, following my week in Cirencester’s twin town of Itzehoe, in Northern Germany.

Its nice to not need gloves, hats, scarves or several jumpers now – it was extremely cold in Itzehoe and is much warmer here!

It was quite hard to have to speak German all the time – I didn’t need to do that last time I went, because our group were in the youth hostel and weren’t around the German language all the time. However I think my German has improved.

I’ve learnt a few of the more colloquial terms – such as “Achja” and “Achso” as well as others. Towards the end of the week, I found that I’d started abbreviating/shortening words like the Germans do – turning “Ich habe…” into “Ich hab’…” (etc). It’ll be interesting to see the difference between those that stayed in college and those that went to Germany, once we return to lessons after half term.

News of our visit even reached the local newspaper, the Schleswig-Holsteiner Zeitungsverlag, in an article published following our visit to the town hall!

Next thing I need to do, is write a report about the week and e-mail it into my German teacher this week. There is an open evening at college next week and they would like to get our reports (in English) on display as soon as possible.

You might like to see the brand new German section of my website – I’ve completely re-written it and aim to keep it more up to date than I have previously done. Go to fred-hart.co.uk/inhalt.

Bye for now!