If this was Digital Spy somebody would suggest that was possibly a symptom of younger women being promoted to higher profile weekday shows on many stations to hit a quota, with the previous incumbents of those shifts seeing out their contracts at the weekend.
Had a look through the app and at what’s playing right now on all the local stations. It’s striking how many are currently being presented by middle-aged white men.
Yes and the first 10 or so all seemed to have white hair too (I counted 7 female presenters at the time I looked, one without a photo)
Nice as having photos of presenters is, it will make it easy for people to call people out on the diversity of their presenters.... for better or worse of course
When I looked earlier, there was a white middle aged man on Radio 2 (Paul O'Grady), another on 6 Music and a young white couple on Radio 1, the rest were from ethnic minority groups and that included Radio 4.
When I looked earlier, there was a white middle aged man on Radio 2 (Paul O'Grady), another on 6 Music and a young white couple on Radio 1, the rest were from ethnic minority groups and that included Radio 4.
You’re comparing apples with bananas there though - of course there’ll be more of a mix amongst different stations with different audiences. The point I’m making is that local stations, who in theory should broadly reflect their local communities, appear to do anything but.
Mistajam going overboard on tonight's Dance Chart earlier, talking about everyone texting in as "listening now on BBC Sounds", "don't forget to check out BBC Sounds", etc etc, often multiple times per link, with "BBC Sounds" mentioned at least once per link for the hour I listened - he said it more than the station name.
They seem to have split his show into 3 hour long parts now, presumably with BBC Sounds in mind, so you can either listen to the future anthems, the current anthems etc. Hence he was kind of starting his show again each hour, not quite, but almost.
I notice BBC Sounds is being advertised on billboards, when did BBC billboards become a thing again? I remember they went mad on that years ago, maybe 10years age, with some poster sites being permanently BBC, but in recent years cut right back.
I notice BBC Sounds is being advertised on billboards, when did BBC billboards become a thing again? I remember they went mad on that years ago, maybe 10years age, with some poster sites being permanently BBC, but in recent years cut right back.
They seem to have gone big(ish) on outdoor advertising recently and it's probably fair enough as to why - They're going for young people, many of which may not interact with BBC TV or Radio too much (where promos are only between programmes and on iPlayer are virtually non-existant)
I've heard that a soft change to the app's working and on air titles may be incoming. The rather hard 'BBC Sounds' being replaced by 'BBC Sounds Online' which at least points potential listeners in a direction to the product.
I've heard that a soft change to the app's working and on air titles may be incoming. The rather hard 'BBC Sounds' being replaced by 'BBC Sounds Online' which at least points potential listeners in a direction to the product.
I hope that isn’t the case. Isn’t adding ‘Online’ to the end of a service a bit 1999?
You also have the potential issue of people calling it ‘Sounds Online’, omitting the important BBC part. And what about offline downloads being available within an app with the word Online in the title?
I can see the rumoured change causing more confusion in all honesty. And plus they’ve just done a massive amount of promo across the BBC, pushing the current name.
I mean, they're all about podcasts now... thats very early 00's so maybe thats the vibe.
For my 2p, I hate all of it, I dont see any functionaliity what-so-ever that wasn't served by the iPlayer Radio app and services, change for changes sake it seems.
I don't mind BBC Sounds but things definitely look a lot sparser compared to iPlayer Radio. The player pages for listen again shows were very empty indeed until they eventually integrated track listings again, and even then it still looks very empty when browsing on a desktop. All the individual Radio sites are also poorer as they've lost the iPlayer Radio header bar, which allowed you to pick a different station to view, or the schedule etc. The link to the schedule is now towards the bottom of the page on each station's page, and each station differs on where they've placed the link.
They're no longer just cut downs of radio shows, at lot are well produced and crafted professional products. There are some big independent British podcasts that are popular across the world, even doing live shows at venues like The Albert Hall and The Sydney Opera House
They're no longer just cut downs of radio shows, at lot are well produced and crafted professional products. There are some big independent British podcasts that are popular across the world, even doing live shows at venues like The Albert Hall and The Sydney Opera House
At risk of going off on wild speculation merging radio and podcasts into BBC Sounds would be of benefit *if* in future due to cost cutting the BBC were to close a digital radio station such as 1Xtra and replace it with daily '1Xtra' branded podcasts.
Overall I don't mind the BBC Sounds brand, however I do find the loss of the 'radio navigation banner' on the radio station pages frustrating. It's a pity they couldn't just keep that 'banner' and update it to use the new Sounds branding.