Radio 4extra or how to ruin Radio 7

[jodevizes]

Having looked at the schedule and look of radio 4extra I had to put my head in my hands and weep. Why do these people have to tinker with things that are working perfectly.

Anybody else had a look?

I'm not a regular Radio 7 listener - in what way has the schedule changed for the worse?

Mind you, I don't think Radio 4's what it used to be - not enough drama and quite frankly, I stopped listening to the Archers regularly after Nigel fell off the roof.

jodevizes Agree! It's now going to be an archive of all the most annoying programmes on R4. Where's the Saturday afternoon play gone for a start?

Why the change? So far the drama & comedy bits are the same, what are they going to change?
And again, why?
I love R7, has kept me sane during bouts of insomnia.

It seems that the iplayer has been changed as well. I got to listen to just one program, then when I tried for a second one, nothing. I have been trying different programs but nothing plays. I have tried listening listening live but that doesn't work either.

What a shame these cuts don't get rid of the people who do all the interfering with things that work.

Monica - think one change is the use of the 0600-0800 period previously used for CBeebies, and their afternoon slot has gone. From your comment on the comedy and drama being the same, I am puzzled by the words of despair from some other posts, and don't yet see 'massive' changes, though have to say I may have been listening less often in recent months, partly because I would listen from 0600 instead of hearing 'Today' on R4, but CBeebies does not appeal (!) and partly because some slots for comedy clash with things I regularly listen to on R4 - I wish R4Extra 'complemented' R4 by having comedy in slots where there is drama on R4 and vice versa so we can swap if we want...

Overall, I can see a small number of extra programmes which have been taken from R4 (such as 'Inheritance Tracks' [10 min, presumably cut from 'Saturday Live'], plus well-publicised 'Desert Island Discs Revisited', and the brand new experiment 'Ambridge Extra'.

I've taken two Wednesday schedules, from R7 and R4Extra and post them below. Maybe someone who is "despairing" about change can highlight their specific "worries" about the changed schedule...

R7 2011-03-30

R7 00:00?00:30 The Price of Fear
R7 00:30?01:00 Robert Easby's Oneira
R7 01:00?01:30 Paul Temple and the Alex Affair
R7 01:30?01:45 Devil in a Blue Dress
R7 01:45?02:00 Devil in a Blue Dress
R7 02:00?02:15 Alan Plater - Abandoned Projects
R7 02:15?02:45 Nick Warburton - Doreen's Chair
R7 02:45?03:00 Alan Plater Short Stories - A Brief Encounter With Richard Wagner
R7 03:00?04:00 The Barchester Chronicles
R7 04:00?04:30 Flying the Flag
R7 04:30?05:00 Clare in the Community
R7 05:00?06:00 Children's Hour: Once Upon A Time

MORNING

R7 06:00?08:00 CBeebies on BBC Radio 7
R7 08:00?08:30 Hancock's Half Hour
R7 08:30?09:00 Heated Rollers
R7 09:00?09:30 The Stanley Baxter Playhouse
R7 09:30?10:00 Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel
R7 10:00?11:00 The Barchester Chronicles
R7 11:00?11:15 Alan Plater - Abandoned Projects
R7 11:15?12:00 Interviews

AFTERNOON

R7 12:00?12:30 Hancock's Half Hour
R7 12:30?13:00 Life with the Lyons
R7 13:00?13:30 Paul Temple and the Alex Affair
R7 13:30?13:45 Devil in a Blue Dress
R7 13:45?14:00 Devil in a Blue Dress
R7 14:00?14:30 The Nose School
R7 14:30?15:00 Unearthing Mysteries
R7 15:00?15:15 Five Stories by James Ellis
R7 15:15?15:30 Beatrix Potter: A Life In Nature
R7 15:30?15:45 An Accidental MP
R7 15:45?16:00 Mrs Miniver
R7 16:00?17:00 Big Toe Books
R7 17:00?17:30 The Stanley Baxter Playhouse
R7 17:30?18:00 Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel

EVENING

R7 18:00?18:30 The Price of Fear
R7 18:30?19:00 Robert Easby's Oneira
R7 19:00?19:30 Hancock's Half Hour
R7 19:30?20:00 Life with the Lyons
R7 20:00?20:30 Paul Temple and the Alex Affair
R7 20:30?20:45 Devil in a Blue Dress
R7 20:45?21:00 Devil in a Blue Dress
R7 21:00?21:15 Alan Plater - Abandoned Projects
R7 21:15?22:00 Interviews
R7 22:00?22:30 Heated Rollers
R7 22:30?23:00 Naked Radio
R7 23:00?23:30 Tales from the Tower
R7 23:30?23:45 Poets' Tree
R7 23:45?00:00 The Correspondent

LATE

R7 00:00?00:30 The Price of Fear
R7 00:30?01:00 Robert Easby's Oneira
R7 01:00?01:30 Paul Temple and the Alex Affair
R7 01:30?01:45 Devil in a Blue Dress
R7 01:45?02:00 Devil in a Blue Dress
R7 02:00?02:15 Alan Plater - Abandoned Projects
R7 02:15?03:00 Interviews
R7 03:00?04:00 The Barchester Chronicles
R7 04:00?04:30 The Stanley Baxter Playhouse
R7 04:30?05:00 Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel

Radio4Extra 2011-04-06

R4X 00:00?00:30 Terry Pratchett's Mort
R4X 00:30?01:00 Doctor Who
R4X 01:00?01:30 The Secret Life of Rosewood Avenue
R4X 01:30?02:00 The Party Line
R4X 02:00?02:15 Ambridge Extra
R4X 02:15?02:30 Maeve Binchy - No Nightingales No Snakes
R4X 02:30?03:00 The House
R4X 03:00?04:00 Fortunes of War
R4X 04:00?04:30 Hordes of the Things
R4X 04:30?05:00 The Sunday Format
R4X 05:00?05:45 Patrick O'Brian - HMS Surprise
R4X 05:45?06:00 A Night to Remember

Morning

R4X 06:00?06:30 Miss Marple - Nemesis
R4X 06:30?06:45 Dalziel and Pascoe: Bones and Silence
R4X 06:45?07:00 Dick Barton - Special Agent
R4X 07:00?07:30 Mr Finchley Takes the Road
R4X 07:30?08:00 The Very World of Milton Jones
R4X 08:00?08:30 Hancock's Half Hour
R4X 08:30?09:00 The Ken Dodd Show
R4X 09:00?09:30 Legal, Decent, Honest and Truthful
R4X 09:30?10:00 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
R4X 10:00?11:00 Desert Island Discs Revisited
R4X 11:00?12:00 Fortunes of War

Afternoon

R4X 12:00?12:30 Hancock's Half Hour
R4X 12:30?13:00 Act Your Age
R4X 13:00?13:30 Miss Marple - Nemesis
R4X 13:30?13:45 Dalziel and Pascoe: Bones and Silence
R4X 13:45?14:00 Dick Barton - Special Agent
R4X 14:00?14:15 EF Benson - Miss Mapp
R4X 14:15?14:30 Maeve Binchy - No Nightingales No Snakes
R4X 14:30?14:45 The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
R4X 14:45?15:00 Barry Cryer's You Won't Believe This But...
R4X 15:00?15:45 Patrick O'Brian - HMS Surprise
R4X 15:45?16:00 A Night to Remember
R4X 16:00?17:00 The 4 O'Clock Show
R4X 17:00?17:30 Mr Finchley Takes the Road
R4X 17:30?18:00 The Very World of Milton Jones

Evening

R4X 18:00?18:30 Terry Pratchett's Mort
R4X 18:30?19:00 Doctor Who
R4X 19:00?19:30 Hancock's Half Hour
R4X 19:30?20:00 The Ken Dodd Show
R4X 20:00?20:30 Miss Marple - Nemesis
R4X 20:30?20:45 Dalziel and Pascoe: Bones and Silence
R4X 20:45?21:00 Dick Barton - Special Agent
R4X 21:00?22:00 Fortunes of War
R4X 22:00?22:30 Comedy Club - Act Your Age
R4X 22:30?23:00 Comedy Club - Naked Radio
R4X 23:00?23:30 Comedy Club - Tales from the Tower
R4X 23:30?23:45 Comedy Club - Poets' Tree
R4X 23:45?00:00 Comedy Club - The Correspondent

Late

R4X 00:00?00:30 Terry Pratchett's Mort
R4X 00:30?01:00 Doctor Who
R4X 01:00?01:30 Legal, Decent, Honest and Truthful
R4X 01:30?02:00 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
R4X 02:00?03:00 Desert Island Discs Revisited
R4X 03:00?04:00 Fortunes of War
R4X 04:00?04:30 Mr Finchley Takes the Road
R4X 04:30?05:00 The Very World of Milton Jones

NetworkGuy, I don't mind the clashes as long as the iPlayer works. Occurs to me only now that I rarely listen to R7 live, tend to have R4 on.
As for the scheduling, maybe they're doing a gradual change?

Hadn't seen that Miss Mapp is on - v funny.

As for the "why?" maybe R7 wasn't listened to enough & the BBC thought if it were an extension of R4, they'd get more listeners?

Seeing the time of your posts - small baby, insomniac or expat?

Does anyone know where the children's content has gone? I thought that the BBC was under an obligation to broadcast x amount of children's programming on radio each week. Now that CBeebies Radio has disappeared, what's it been replaced with? Can't see it on R4Extra, unless Torchwood / Dr Who is supposed to count.

Monica - infection - been needing the "smallest room" every 90-120 minutes since Wed 23/03. Sister took me to Anglesey for a bit of sea air, but then straight on to A+E, where the consultant might have given IV antibiotics except we were travelling some distance home.

Yes, re listenership, BBC said about 1 in 5 R4 listeners knew of Radio 7 - maybe because they "trailed" BBC TV shows more than R7 material. Shame they cannot provide stereo on the DAB service - when they started commissioning comedy for R7, and playing repeats of R4 Friday night comedy, it seemed to me they might go stereo, but no such luck. Daft twits!

They're doing "HD" Radio 3 via the Internet, because while R7 was allowed 80 kbps sampling (R1, R2, R4 got 128 kbps and stereo), and R3 was 192 kbps stereo and deemed still too poor for their listeners (I know people that say the FM signal is better).

R4 drops to 80 mono when cricket is on R5 sport extra... they're cramming too many signals in and drop the audio quality to allow it to 'work', and deflect criticisms of "poor quality" by treating all such comments as being about grotty signal strength, which they are hoping to overcome, while simply ignoring the
audio quality...

Escallonia - they have dropped 75% of that content, sorry. It was mentioned on the BBC Radio 4 Blog in a posting on 01/03 I believe.

I don't think Torchwood/Dr Who comes into it - they have had sci-fi slot at 1800-1900 and 0000-0100 for years. They did push children's material out of part of the afternoon and made 0500-0800 the time for it, which annoyed loads on the BBC MessageBoards (they've now closed R4 and R7 message boards, apart from, of course The Archers' several message boards, as they were 'too expensive'....

duh, only because they have lots of paid staff to 'moderate' everything (even though the R4 message boards were only open from 0900-2400 - really unusual in the world of the web to have "opening hours"!!) and while off-topic has been OK on the Archers MBs for ages, heaven help anyone comment on content of Woman's Hour show on 'The Choice if Yours' once they had closed the WH message board (too popular for them to cope with!)

Sorry, after nearly 2 weeks without a decent sleep I am in a major strop about the dozy planks who have taken some of these decisions over past few years.

If you want a laugh, you should see the postings from Leigh Aspin on the Archers ('I am passionate about the Archers, these boards are being kept') and the other boards ("hard to balance the budget so having to make cuts, and that means your MB will be closed") ... think there was a week's notice.

thanks Network Guy, totally understand why people didn't want 3 hours of Cbeebies in the morning and I will find something else to occupy ds's ears during breakfast I'm sure.

the message board decision is crazy though. I'm sick of the Archers one, all anyone does is moan about the programme and slate the script writers.

sorry to hear you're not well, hope you are better soon.

Leigh Aspin's board closing on some R4 MB, also posted on R7

Leigh Aspin's Message board news in 'Discuss The Archers' MB

Long-closed R4 Woman's Hour Message Board

I posted my final comments (the long post!) on closure while attacking DAB as well... link told them where to get off if they think I'll use FaceBook or Twitter to follow the BBC! As for general discussion, listeners cannot make new blog posts so it is dependent on what they post as to what comments can be made from now on, and questions from listener to listeners no longer possible.

*Have just seen the R4 home page no longer has links to the Message Boards, just link (at bottom of page) to the R4 Blog.

Click on The Archers and there's their MessageBoard link down at the bottom! (except the fools have linked to the general Radio4 MBs which they closed on 01/04!!)*

Archers MBs are www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbarchers/
Radio 4 MBs are www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbradio4/

Thanks for well wishes... As for material for youngsters I think it was a lot of the elderly insomniacs who found that hearing gurgle gurgle let's have fun was an unpleasant disturbance if they happened to come out of a slumber at 5am!!

As for The Archers, I'm on the fence. Sometimes it is cringeworthy but my major complaint is the pre-broadcast drip feed of next episode's story.

It's not like a 'new' soap needing promotion, people like it and listen, or don't, in the main. When they have some 'special' story like Matt going to prison, I despair at the airtime they waste for worse-than-normal adverts (OK, promotions) - they try too hard to make them moody etc but seem like drivel to me!

However when several book/theatre review shows take reasonable care not to spoil the plot, having continuity announcer tell us what is next, is, to me, incredibly poor idea!

That's a long time to have a bug, NetworkGuy. Sympathy. My 3 & I have had them seemingly back-to-back since Christmas, I'd rather a house full of snotters & coughers than stomach bugs.

Am also on the fence atm about The Archers. Never quite shook off my disappointment that Elizabeth recovered after her spectacular heart-attack-inducing strop re the Brookfield inheritance.

Agree about the messageboards, the BBC never seemed to know what to do with them.
Cbeebies radio was shite indeed. There was a bit for older children, tried it recently for S2 when he was off school with theneverendingbug. There was Roald Dahl etc., he found it too faffy to navigate. I found it by accident.

"Faffy" is tech term, obv.

Radio4 Extra seems identical to Radio 7 to me - which played repeats of Radio 4 all day. Doesn't bother me.

GM - the bulk is the same, I think, but they have changed some content, and now putting effort into promoting it.

Well, something's grating on me. Not sure what it is. I think it's less the programming and more the continuity and presentation, including the irritating jingle. I wonder if substantially more people have tuned in because of the rebrand?

It is a shame that R7 wasn't pushed as much as they are now advertising 4Extra , it might not have to have been changed. The i-player was meant to be a way of listening to a program up to 7 days after transmission, now it gets rehashed on 4extra almost immediately. I still do not understand where all the good plays went to. Surely they must have saved some tapes, it is getting a little tedious hearing the repeats being repeated for the second or third time.

Arthur Smith. He's a big part of the problem.
And the vile purple typeface on the website.

I mostly listen to Radio 4 Extra to avoid the awful Sunday morning God-bothering. I've been quite enjoying old episodes of Desert Island Discs, Dads' Army, the Goons and the children's dramas. Switch back for Archers Omnibus. Don't see the problem, really.

I hear they've started replaying Loose Ends a week or so after first broadcast.

4 Extra might become Radio 4 +1 (week) if they step up some of the other material.

Mind you, R4 sometimes seems to have that 'groundhog day' feeling when they drag up an afternoon play from 1 year or 1/2 quarters ago. The one set in Eire the other day has been on before, and was still fresh in my memory...