Did the beeb do a ISIHAC christmas special this year? 

If they did, was it a rehash of previous shows or a totally new show?

Thanx 

M

user1@privicy.net wrote on 05/01/2008 20:58:
> Did the beeb do a ISIHAC christmas special this year? 
> 
> If they did, was it a rehash of previous shows or a totally new show?

There was one on the Monday of Christmas week at the end of the series, 
being a 'best of 2007' compilation.

On Christmas day they did 'Humph in Wonderland', a - I hesitate to call 
it - dramatisation of Alice's Adventures. It was a bit like I'm Sorry I 
Haven't a Christmas Carol they did a few years ago (that I was at!) - it 
was good and worth listening to, but not as good as the Dickens one, 
IMO. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/pip/3bysi/ for more info.

Hope this helps.

Peter

-- 
http://www.scandrett.net/lx/
http://www.scandrett.net/bike/

On Sat, 05 Jan 2008 23:12:05 +0000, Peter Scandrett
 wrote:

>> Did the beeb do a ISIHAC christmas special this year? 
>> 
>> If they did, was it a rehash of previous shows or a totally new show?
>
>There was one on the Monday of Christmas week at the end of the series, 
>being a 'best of 2007' compilation.
>
>On Christmas day they did 'Humph in Wonderland', a - I hesitate to call 
>it - dramatisation of Alice's Adventures. It was a bit like I'm Sorry I 
>Haven't a Christmas Carol they did a few years ago (that I was at!) - it 
>was good and worth listening to, but not as good as the Dickens one, 
>IMO. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/pip/3bysi/ for more info.
>
>Hope this helps.

Thanks Peter, you've been a great help.

I spent some time searching through the regular channels under
"ISIHAC+Christmas+2007" without much joy. I didn't realise that it was
actually titled 'Humph in Wonderland'. Knowing that, I've managed to locate a
copy.

*Sigh* how I long for British radio rather than this US stuff that passes for
funny.

user1@privicy.net wrote on 06/01/2008 03:26:
> Thanks Peter, you've been a great help.

No worries.

> *Sigh* how I long for British radio rather than this US stuff that passes for
> funny.

Do you mind me asking - what sort of things do they have in the US 
(assuming that's where you are)? Are there national radio stations and 
local ones? Speech, music or mixed? Are there any stations analogous to 
the BBC's ones, or are they mostly akin to ad-funded commercial 
stations? And what's the breadth of the stations? Here in the UK there's 
a range of national FM stations (mostly BBC) as well as dozens of 
regional ones; plus now, of course, there's a growing number of digital 
stations on DAB as well as the freeview TV platform. I struggle to find 
much worth listening to other than the BBC to be honest, but perhaps 
that's just me (I find the same with television nowadays too).

Regards

Peter

-- 
http://www.scandrett.net/lx/
http://www.scandrett.net/bike/

On Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:56:28 +0000, Peter Scandrett
 wrote:

Hi Peter,

Answer on way.

user1@privicy.net wrote:
> On Sat, 05 Jan 2008 23:12:05 +0000, Peter Scandrett
>
> I spent some time searching through the regular channels under
> "ISIHAC+Christmas+2007" without much joy. I didn't realise that it was
> actually titled 'Humph in Wonderland'. Knowing that, I've managed to
> locate a copy.
>

Just looked at listen again and a load of torrent sites to no avail... 
where did you find it if you don't mind me asking?

Les

-- 
Remove Frontal Lobes to reply direct.

http://armsofmorpheus.blogspot.com/

Les Hemmings  a.a #2251 SA

On Mon, 7 Jan 2008 09:18:05 -0000, "Les Hemmings"
 wrote:

>Just looked at listen again and a load of torrent sites to no avail... 
>where did you find it if you don't mind me asking?

No problem.

Posted to: alt.binaries.sounds.radio.bbc
File name: Humph in Wonderland.MP3
Original Poster: Invisible Friend 
Size: 48.4 MBytes yEnc
Comp: 128kb (sounds okay)
NZB (none)

On Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:56:28 +0000, Peter Scandrett
 wrote:

>Do you mind me asking - what sort of things do they have in the US 
>(assuming that's where you are)? Are there national radio stations and 
>local ones? Speech, music or mixed? Are there any stations analogous to 
>the BBC's ones, or are they mostly akin to ad-funded commercial 
>stations? And what's the breadth of the stations? 

Posting this unchecked. I hope this makes some sense as I'm out of my head on
expectorant after a really nasty bout of influenza

Starting from the bottom.

DAB isn't really a major consideration here. There are a number of reasons
why. To begin with cable is very well established here, catering to almost
every city and town, and in those very few places where cable doesn't exist,
satellite fills the need. DAB does exist in those places where there's a
satellite feed, but like I said, those places are few and far between.
Another big problem with satellite is that it requires a clear path between
dish and satellite, and that's a huge problem in a country where the
geography of the land varies as much as it does here. Okay, so they could
cover the USA with a blanket feed from a network of satellites, but that
would be both prohibitively expensive and require the launching of around 33
thousand satellites:) (don't forget that the UK can fit 3 times into the
state of Texas, and Texas is just 1 of 48 contiguous states :)

Cable radio, it does exist with some providers, but I don't know of anyone
anywhere who bothers with it.

AM. AM is really the poor relation to FM, far more so than in the UK. My wife
listens to AM in the car and in the house because she (and I) listen to NPR
Radio (more later). The quality of AM varies from place to place. Where I
live in upstate NY, the AM signal goes from a 6 out of 10 in the morning to a
1/10 in the afternoon. All the local AM stations seem to power down in the
afternoon, whether it's the weather, or whether it's because they concentrate
on powering FM - who knows! But whatever the reason is, it's just not worth
relay stations kicking out AM, when all it takes is a couple of valleys or
hills to cut the signal dead.

FM, FM is where it's at so to speak. The sheer amount of FM stations borders
on the ludicrous. When I lived in the UK, I would tune to 94.1, and then
hitting the scan/search button on the radio would take me to 96.3 and then on
to 99.6. Last month, I hit the scan/search button on the Radio and it stopped
at 89.1, 89.2, 89.3 and so on until 101.1. Every point one change in
frequency had some damn local radio station pumping out more soft rock,
christmas carols or religious stuff. I don't know of any national FM
stations, just local stations that vary from something like ''The Lake''
transmitting out of Buffalo some 70 miles away, to radio WXAW-FM which is
some one man operation transmitting out of a shed in someones back garden
somewhere. FM is big business, riddled with advertisements. Most of the
stations are unmanned except for a technician who is there to make sure that
everything works as it should. Radio DJ's do exist on some stations, but at
certain times such as drive-time or breakfast. Like I said, all the bloody FM
stations around here play is soft-rock (Rolling Stones, Queen, Beatles, Neil
Young, Bruce Springsteen etc)

DAB - very rare due to lack of space hardware, and content is mainly what's
on AM

Cable - Not a contender

AM - uncommon due to lay-of-land, contents mainly NPR (R4, R3'ish) religion,
some folk, some country and western 

FM - Very common, no national stations (tmk) just stations that cover a
state, a city, right down to a village. Music 75% Soft rock, and the rest
divided amongst classical (5%) religion (10%) talk (5%) and the rest (5%) but
it does vary state to state, so ymmv.

Satellite - There are two satellite networks that offer blanket coverage of
the USA, they are both subscription only (start at about $30.00 per month),
both offer a variety of programs right across the board - SIRIUS and XM.

http://www.sirius.com/

http://www.xmradio.com/

These two provide the closest thing to a BBC-like service. I don't think they
advertise (never having listened to ether one). Both networks continue to
lose money at a rapid rate due to the public's lack of willingness to pay.
There was talk about both networks joining forces, but I've no idea what has
happened. Both stations transmit digitally from their own satellites,
offering up to 200 individual channels, offering across the board material,
from shockjock (idiot) Howard Stern (sp), rock, punk, religion, shopping,
NASCAR, sports etc etc.

Ok, last but by no means least is NPR, or National Public Radio. NPR is the
closest (and best) thing we have that passes for what would be a combination
of Radio four and Radio Three mixed. NPR doesn't really carry advertising,
but it does mentions sponsors such as the Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation
(I've often wondered if he goes down as often as his f***ing Vista OS does -
sorry, I digress) Anyway, NPR - excellent! Mainly talk, hosted by
professionals (some of the top names in journalism host radio shows on NPR),
music tends to be classical, traditional, jazz and folk. NPR is the one
national station to offer comedy. They have a US version of TNQ which isn't
bad really, but nothing like ISIHAC (it would bake their heads trying to
understand such British humour. Although Monty Python is big here still (?)

NPR is both AM and FM and works by being networked syndicated to member
stations that are local to the area (if they used satellite, it would
incurrer additional costs)

Read this Peter, it's very interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Public_Radio


http://www.npr.org/ 


I've got to go as my wife made me chugg down a load more cough mixture, and
now I'm somewhere on route to Alpha Centauri.

Wow, a floating cough sweet!!! Neat.....

user1@privicy.net wrote:
> No problem.
>
> Posted to: alt.binaries.sounds.radio.bbc
> File name: Humph in Wonderland.MP3
> Original Poster: Invisible Friend 
> Size: 48.4 MBytes yEnc
> Comp: 128kb (sounds okay)
> NZB (none)


Nice one...  cheers :o)

-- 
Remove Frontal Lobes to reply direct.

http://armsofmorpheus.blogspot.com/

Les Hemmings  a.a #2251 SA

We don't have any over here, just morning show stuff. I wish we did. I
love radio comedy. I listen to BBC Radio 4 daily. I've published
severa books of radio scripts at http://www.bearmanormedia.com but
America will never embrace radio, unless big celebrities start to take
an interest.

Ben

On Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:56:28 +0000, Peter Scandrett
 wrote:

>user1@privicy.net wrote on 06/01/2008 03:26:
>> Thanks Peter, you've been a great help.
>
>No worries.
>
>> *Sigh* how I long for British radio rather than this US stuff that passes for
>> funny.
>
>Do you mind me asking - what sort of things do they have in the US 
>(assuming that's where you are)? Are there national radio stations and 
>local ones? Speech, music or mixed? Are there any stations analogous to 
>the BBC's ones, or are they mostly akin to ad-funded commercial 
>stations? And what's the breadth of the stations? Here in the UK there's 
>a range of national FM stations (mostly BBC) as well as dozens of 
>regional ones; plus now, of course, there's a growing number of digital 
>stations on DAB as well as the freeview TV platform. I struggle to find 
>much worth listening to other than the BBC to be honest, but perhaps 
>that's just me (I find the same with television nowadays too).
>
>Regards
>
>Peter

Apparently user1@privicy.net wrote:

>>Do you mind me asking - what sort of things do they have in the US 
>>(assuming that's where you are)? Are there national radio stations and 
>>local ones? Speech, music or mixed? Are there any stations analogous to 
>>the BBC's ones, or are they mostly akin to ad-funded commercial 
>>stations? And what's the breadth of the stations? 
>
>Posting this unchecked. I hope this makes some sense as I'm out of my head on
>expectorant after a really nasty bout of influenza
>
>Starting from the bottom.

...

A good summary.  Here in Canada, we have the supreme advantage of a 
good national broadcaster, CBC.  They have two channels, CBC 1 (sort
of a combo Radio 4 and Radio 2) and CBC 2 (Radio 3).  There is a CBC 3
(seems to be Radio 1) which seems to be only on satellite and internet.

CBC radio has some not bad comedy programmes, some decent documentaries, 
good news coverage, a version of FOOC (Dispatches), a very top notch
science programme (Quirks & Quarks), a canadian version of A Prarie
Home Companion (Vinyl Cafe) and so on.

In the states, the only thing I ever found worth listening to is NPR.
Aside from what the original poster wrote, you can often hear portions
of NPR programmes on many local networks during late night programming.
(They often fill the space with purchased BBC programming here in
Canada).

The satellite channels (especially Sirius) carry streams from many
different broadcasters, so for example a good number of CBC programmes
appear on Sirius.

As well, there are of course shortwave broadcasters.  Radio Canada
International has some decent stuff.  You can find NPR on shortwave
too, as well as a huge host of the sort of rabid right-wingers that 
seem to have taken over this group.  Sadly BBC World Service does not
target N.America any longer on shortwave.  Not enough "movers and
shakers" listening to s.wave, or so we are literally told by the 
Controller.

By the way, one CBC comedy format you might see bought on BBC, is 
"The Debaters", where two comedians debate an issue through various
different rounds, striking for supreme arguments of funny or fact.  
There's two debates per half hour, and things like the quick-fire
question round, and the 1 minute closing argument make for excellent 
packaging of some good material.



-- 
Ken Tough

Ken Tough wrote:
 
> A good summary.  Here in Canada, we have the supreme advantage of a
> good national broadcaster, CBC.  They have two channels, CBC 1 (sort
> of a combo Radio 4 and Radio 2) and CBC 2 (Radio 3).  There is a CBC 3
> (seems to be Radio 1) which seems to be only on satellite and internet.
> 
> CBC radio has some not bad comedy programmes, some decent documentaries,
> good news coverage, a version of FOOC (Dispatches), a very top notch
> science programme (Quirks & Quarks), a canadian version of A Prarie
> Home Companion (Vinyl Cafe) and so on.

We've had Vinyl Cafe on BBC7 (a DAB station) in the UK.  Excellent I
thought.

-- 
How unlike the home life of our own dear Queen.
Remove "antispam" and ".invalid" for e-mail address.

Frederick Williams wrote:

>Ken Tough wrote:
>> A good summary.  Here in Canada, we have the supreme advantage of a
>> good national broadcaster, CBC.  They have two channels, CBC 1 (sort
>> of a combo Radio 4 and Radio 2) and CBC 2 (Radio 3).  There is a CBC 3
>> (seems to be Radio 1) which seems to be only on satellite and internet.
>> 
>> CBC radio has some not bad comedy programmes, some decent documentaries,
>> good news coverage, a version of FOOC (Dispatches), a very top notch
>> science programme (Quirks & Quarks), a canadian version of A Prarie
>> Home Companion (Vinyl Cafe) and so on.

>We've had Vinyl Cafe on BBC7 (a DAB station) in the UK.  Excellent I
>thought.

I didn't realize they carried it.  Yes, the stories are very well
written, and he (Stewart McLean) does a great job promoting Canadian
music (mostly folk-ish).


-- 
Ken Tough

user1@privicy.net wrote on 07/01/2008 22:03:
> On Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:56:28 +0000, Peter Scandrett
>  wrote:
> 
>> Do you mind me asking - what sort of things do they have in the US 
>> (assuming that's where you are)? Are there national radio stations and 
>> local ones? Speech, music or mixed? Are there any stations analogous to 
>> the BBC's ones, or are they mostly akin to ad-funded commercial 
>> stations? And what's the breadth of the stations? 
> 
> Posting this unchecked. I hope this makes some sense as I'm out of my head on
> expectorant after a really nasty bout of influenza

<snip>

> Read this Peter, it's very interesting.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Public_Radio
> 
> http://www.npr.org/ 
> 
> 
> I've got to go as my wife made me chugg down a load more cough mixture, and
> now I'm somewhere on route to Alpha Centauri.

Many thanks for this. I guess it makes me even more grateful for R4 and 
the services similar stations provide this country and the world with. I 
may be depressed for the future of BBC TV and Radio - but in one sense 
it's just reflecting our current society and the way the UK is going. I 
don't necessarily think that 'more choice' is necessarily 'better' and I 
think you mentioning all the FM stations begins to illustrate that... 
maybe I'm idealistic and even nostalgic at times but R4 (to keep this on 
topic) is a national treasure :-)

Regards

Peter

-- 
http://www.scandrett.net/lx/
http://www.scandrett.net/bike/