On the BBC

by on July 24, 2006

BBC World News Tonight

There’s a little microphone on a little table here in the Seattle Library.

It will take my voice to millions of people. All over the world. 

That is just mind blowing. What’s even more mind blowing is they are transmitting from the most beautiful building on the West Coast: the Seattle Public Library. When I arrived people were walking all around the table, not realizing that they were talking to an audience of tens of millions of people around the world.

You can listen in at BBC World Service’s Web site. I’ll be on at about 8:50 p.m.

It is my goodbye to Seattle. After my five minutes on the BBC, Patrick and Maryam and me will drive down to Silicon Valley. It’s our last hour in Seattle.

Update: well, that was fun. 3.5 minutes. Didn’t say too much, talked about the future of media a bit, but it’s hard to get into much depth into any topic in 3.5 minutes. The guy on the right of the picture is the journalist who interviewed me, George Arney.

Well, onto Silicon Valley. From the biggest of big media to the smallest of small. Call us along the way. 425-205-1921. We’ll drive for three hours to Portland tonight, then the rest of the way tomorrow. Of course we’ll have the Verizon wireless card.

Oh, and I wasn’t the only one on the radio tonight. When I was coming over here I was listening to my satellite radio and heard Chris Pirillo on David Lawrence’s radio show.

  • Hey that was really cool. Come Check out my blog everyone. I know you will love it at http://anthonymontoya.wordpress.com
  • Moe
    just heard you on bbc, robert.

    Have a safe trip to the Bay Area!
  • Moe: thanks!
  • Wow, this is mind blowing. Great job Robert. You keep posting your number. How many people that you don't know calls you?
    Cheers
    Al
  • Al: very few actually. Suprisingly few.
  • Joe Wheeler
    Great stuff Robert! You guys are facing some exciting times and I wish you luck at PodTech. Have a safe trip.
  • Its interesting that 'old-world' technology like the Beeb's 'World Service' can touch so many people.

    I guess that when bloggers/podcasters can really get their voices out to the thousands of taxi drivers listening to NPR every day in Boston, the 'new-world' technology will really have arrived. We are still only a step beyond the radio broadcast medium. TiVo is just a podcast for TV.

    Maybe the freshness and short lifespan of broadcasts is what does it. So make sure you make your trip safe so we start hearing from you again soon!

    Cheers
    Phil

    (you too can ignore my broadcast of a random, vendor-agnostic bus-tech blog)
  • Leo
    The link for The David Lawrence show is out of date. Should be: http://thedavidlawrenceshow.com/
  • I was in the library around 7:00 - if I had remembered you were going to be there, I would have stuck around!
  • Leo, thanks, fixed that!
  • Garrett, sorry I missed you! I got there at about 7:45.
  • Christopher Coulter
    Cool deal, fond memories of BBC WorldService on my shortwave radio back in the day...shame they reduced the American footprint, but my ole faithful Kenwood R-5000 brings in everything.

    Have a safe trip, and maybe pack a generator, power outage part 2, the final legacy of Enron... :)
  • The interview is still on-line.

    After going to the BBC WorldService link, click "Start Radio Player" (in the blue band partway down the page).

    Under World Service Shows by Type click "News and Current Affairs."

    Look down the list and click "The World Today 0300 GMT."

    After the 59-minute broadcast begins, notice that you can fast forward in 5-minute and 15-minute chunks. Skip ahead 45 minutes and you'll learn about what had them be in the Seattle Central Library and how Robert's interview went. That part begins around 49 minutes into the hour. There's a nice interview about the library followed by the interview with Robert.

    The particular news hour should remain online until almost 8pm PDT on July 25.

    I liked the credit given to the reputation of the Beeb, and what it means to Maryam. Nice job.
  • You know I'm always arguing with my friends who dislike paying the 'tax' that is the british TV license that funds most of the BBC, although admittedly only a smaller part of the world service

    I always win howveer (at least in my head) with the fact that we are taking quality, respected journalism out to the world.

    Not that theres anything wrong with local journalism in Seattle of course!
  • You were the No.1 Robert when I googled it just a minute ago. Great interview, brief though it was. I wonder how many people will be intrigued enough to look into blogging as a result of it.

    George Arney had such a BBC radio voice - very reassuring.
  • Great achievement
  • Really nice.
  • Pat Read
    Hi Robert,

    I was listening to you this morning at 4am-ish from the UK. I feel the World Service is really overlooked here in Britain as it's not on FM frequency during the day - you were very right about how trusted it is by different people and cultures across the globe.

    Good luck with the move - I can't believe you did an interview before driving for 13 hours!! Still, you did plug your book in the first 10 seconds, so Kudos to you, sir!!
  • That BBC show is rebroadcast in the Washington DC area via public radio station WETA at 4 am. Yeah very current news..and this station wonders why they have no audience.
    LA Times has an interesting article on the rebirth of AM. WIth KFI at the top of the LA spring ratings. But then again in the bay area KGO has always been number one.
  • BBC World service is shown and broadcasted everywhere else BUT the UK. :(
  • LayZ
    Justin, you forgot to add "biased" to your description of the "quality" of BBC journalism.
  • Hey Robert, next time you're in Portland, drop me a line! We should have dinner or something. :-)
  • As I've said before. I wish you only the best.
  • Chris P
    Hi Robert,

    Probably missed the opportunity, but heading down I-5, turn left at Woodburn, Oregon and go to Mt. Angel. Ask for directions to the Abbey and go see the library there.

    If you are in to libraries and architecure, you will not be disappointed.

    cp
  • Robert - haven't taken the opportunity yet. So, thanks for all you have done for the blogosphere and for the world in general.
  • Cool post and great idea! The future of broadcasting and journalism is on the way...and it involves alot of real time activity.
  • I posted this two days ago but got a bad link - so I did it again like britney said

    http://www.flickr.com/groups/central/discuss/72...
blog comments powered by Disqus