Hello again, yes – it’s really me. I know – It’s been ages. How are you? Yeah, me too. Guess that’s how it goes…
The ol’ Audio Addict has been happily listening rather than blogging of late but something has been drawn to my attention to stir me up out of my complacency and back into blogging again. A reader of this blog and a fellow fan of BBC Radio on line, Fessenden, has written and tells the sad story better than I. Over to guest blogger Fessenden…
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BBC Radio has killed its dial up-accessible audio links!
An Open Letter to the BBC…
The cessation of Real Audio links for those of us around the world who still use dial up has been devastating. One day we were enjoying BBC Radio as usual and the next day we were cut off, without recourse to any alternatives or listening options. I know that this may astonish the majority of broadband users – including those who make the relevant decisions at the BBC – but dial up is still alive and well and in wide usage! It is not yet the arcane relic of the technological past that some would have you believe.
For the record, Real Audio worked perfectly well on dial up right until almost the end of May 2010 when it was arbitrarily terminated. Yes, it occasionally stuttered and stopped but more often than not it played uninterrupted and in totally acceptable sound quality.
The UK appears to be blessed with low cost, readily accessible broadband. Unfortunately, for the majority of us in the rest of the world, broadband is not always so easily accessible. And when or where it is available it is *vastly* more expensive than dial up. Therefore dial up remains the only viable method by which we can access the internet and – until recently – listen to the BBC.
Making your WMA low speed links 48 kbps makes absolutely no sense at all. Sure, change from Real Audio to the highly-overrated (IMHO) WMA if you must (although there was no reason to do so in my personal listening experience). But why kick your low speed audio links up to 48 kbps? That is way too fast to access via dial up and – I suspect – way too slow to satisfy the quality demands of those on broadband.
I would greatly appreciate an explanation of why the BBC has chosen to willfully abandon dial up listeners both in the UK and around the world. What has happened to your commitment to accessibility? The BBC’s current policy seems best exemplified by its complete failure (so far) to provide any kind of workaround or solution for a problem that it has itself created – aside from the often implied but incredibly unhelpful advice to “get broadband”.
If my understanding of an earlier post on the BBC Radio Lab blog is correct, the BBC World Service alone plans to continue to offer a Real Audio dial up-friendly low speed connection. If this is true it proves that at least a significant part of the BBC thankfully understands that dial up is still in daily use around the world by a substantial number of dedicated listeners.
I strongly urge the BBC to seriously consider the immediate reintroduction of basic dial up speed connections, whether in Real Audio or WMA format, for all of its terrestrial radio networks. If it is a cost issue let me be first in line to sign up for a subscription.
Fessenden
(Originally posted on the BBC Radio Lab blog – June 5th, 2010.)
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Thank you Fessenden for your thoughts (which apparently have also been posted elsewhere on line for maximum exposure). The Audio Addict can only agree 100% and hopes that the BBC will see the merits of your argument and respond accordingly. In the meantime, if you agree, write to the BBC and let them know. CC the ol’ Audio Addict too if you like. And if anyone from the BBC is reading this… on behalf of dial up audio addicts around the world…
PLEASE BRING BACK YOUR DIAL UP CONNECTIONS!
(But why am I not holding my breath?)
Your comments as always are very welcome. E mail theaudioaddict [at] h o t m a i l [d o t] c o m
Until the next time I awaken from blog-coma… I wish you endless hours of happy listening!
(And to my dial up brothers and sisters… keep the faith!)
