The Newsroom

BBC News strike

(May 2005)

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BB
BBC TV Centre
Turnbull & Williams posted:
william posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
william posted:
Janice Long has begun her show (apparently without anyone to produce it) and presumably from a studio adjacent to the one Phil Williams has just left


She seemed quite pleased to be on-air Evil or Very Mad


Yep, its interesting how your opinions of people can be subtly altered in situations like this... I'll be amazed (and rather disappointed) if Alex Lester turn ups at 3am (or Wogan, Bruce, Jeremy Vine, etc).

It may be easier for higher profile presenters to stay away - I know Radio Kent have a couple of non-news shows being produced live tomorrow.


There must be a lot of split loyalties bubbling under the surface here. Janice Long, for example, sounds like she loves doing her show and has a real rapport with her listeners. I'm sure she supports the BBC staff who are on strike as well though - it must have been a difficult decision for her to break the picket line.


Yes, she did sound rather cheery during her intro. I take it that she is operating all the gear in the studio?
JU
juice
I'm not sure on who controls the screen.

Chris Rogers of Sky news and ITV News channel fame is presenting the news on Five Live i think.
PH
phil-g
They are on the sport now, I don't recognise the sport guy's voice. How is it possible Chris Rogers is doing the overnight on 5 Live?!
DA
DAS Founding member
It is entirely possible for Chris Rogers to appear on Five Live, and on occasion he does read news bulletins. He's a freelancer.
JU
juice
He has read the news on Five Live a few times in the last few months.

It is him.

BBC Two ended programs with a short continuity announcement, but nothing about the strike and is now on Ceefax pages
PH
phil-g
They are back with the Sporting Moments now, when i posted the sports bulletin was finishing. I didn't realise Chris Rogers was a free lancer, I only ever see him on the ITV NC now.
DA
DAS Founding member
Janice Long's had a couple of musical mishaps whenever I've been listening in - she's just said they've had to switch to another system. Not too sure what system this would be. As far as I know, Radio 2 usually use CD or their jukebox playout. I would have thought she'd stick to CD if they wanted to overt a techie catastrophe, but she's certainly having difficulty.
W1
w12
phil-g posted:
Quote:
So, other than the Double weather on BBC One, and the dodgy headlines and presenter at 01:00 on News 24, are we saying that so far, 1 hour and 20 mins into this strike, there have been no major failures or anything directly blamed on the Strike Action (other than a histerical news pres on Five Live and a rubbish soprts pre-record)??


Seems like it, but as many people have been saying it is when they have new news in the morning that problems might occur. But, they will probably stick all day with 1 presenter on News 24 and World doing the top half hour, with very few lives and have pre-recorded programmes on the bottom half hour. So it may all be very low key.


Everything on air at the moment is old - yesterday's news. That's normal for overnights. The effects of the strike will start to show when stories aren't updated, new pictures don't get on air and things start slipping. Then when the "new" news day starts at 0500, how much or how little gets on that's fresh. I understand there's only about four or five minutes of new material ready to go in the morning - so how much can those in there pull together overnight. They have to generate new material as they won't spend tomorrow putting out today's news.

I did hear that satellite bookings have already started for the few events they have satellite vans at tomorrow - so they're paying for satellite time from before the start of the strike until the end of the strike - that's thousands of pounds of money they're paying out in case they couldn't get there rtequests in and working during the nighth. However, they'll be saving plenty of money on wages....!
WI
william Founding member
DAS posted:
Janice Long's had a couple of musical mishaps whenever I've been listening in - she's just said they've had to switch to another system. Not too sure what system this would be. As far as I know, Radio 2 usually use CD or their jukebox playout. I would have thought she'd stick to CD if they wanted to overt a techie catastrophe, but she's certainly having difficulty.


Radio 2 fell off air about 6-7 minutes ago, after she'd starting playing a CD and realised it was the wrong track.

Emergency tape seems to have been updated since I last heard it.
DA
DAS Founding member
william posted:
DAS posted:
Janice Long's had a couple of musical mishaps whenever I've been listening in - she's just said they've had to switch to another system. Not too sure what system this would be. As far as I know, Radio 2 usually use CD or their jukebox playout. I would have thought she'd stick to CD if they wanted to overt a techie catastrophe, but she's certainly having difficulty.


Radio 2 fell off air about 6-7 minutes ago, after she'd starting playing a CD and realised it was the wrong track.

Emergency tape seems to have been updated since I last heard it.


I thought it was the DAT as well - if it was, she did a good job of ducking out of it without making it too obvious. Pretty good job of regaining control as well.

If it wasn't, she should be killed for playing the Backstreet Boys.
JU
juice
I've always been told to not let silence run over 7 secs, becuase not only is that when an emergency back-up would kick, but you would start to sound very amateurish.
TW
Turnbull and Williams
Janice is doing an excellent job in what sounds like incredibly difficult circumstances. She's just said that they initially had no idea that what they were broadcasting had fallen off air, it was only when Ricky the newsreader phoned them in Birmingham that they realised!

Looking at the BBC's TV output and listening to Radio, it looks at this point like the strike's hitting hard. It's likely to make the Beeb think long and hard about all these job cuts.

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