Something from Aunty

I’ve been trying to reply to the BBC Internet Blog post by Chris Kimber on the fact that we’ll soon start seeing higher quality podcasts from the BBC - but it’s not working so i’ll reply here instead.First, as I’m replying on my own blog instead of underneath the story itself I need to give you the jist of the story.

Basically all Music, Drama and Comedy podcasts from the BBC will be getting a bitrate increase. All the Beeb’s podcasts are currently put out at 64kbps. Now they will be made available as wonderful 128kbps.

What does this mean? Well it basically means that they’ll sound better. OK so the music podcasts only have 30 seconds of a specific song but I’ve got into some great new bands from that 30 second sample.

The post also hints at the BBC Podcasts and asks users for their favourites - this is where my response was going to come in.

Had the form not suggested I was trying to slip Invalid HTML into the post (there was no HTML) I would have said that I love lots of BBC podcasts.

More specifically I love Friday Night Comedy, Heroes, Adam & Joe - actually it would take to long to go through the list as the bulk of the 100 or so podcasts I subscribe to are BBC ones.

But what would be nice is for more of the brilliant comedy from BBC Radio 4 to be made available as podcasts.

There are new shows being commissioned all the time and maybe one or two of these could be cleared for podcast at the same time?

I know some BBC Radio people have read my blog - I’ve got the comments to prove it and you’ve linked to me - so how about clearing some of the new BBC Radio 4 comedies for podcast?

A sitcom or two would add a lot to your offering. I love the panel games and the round table chats but you can’t beat a good sitcom.

I know we’re not going to get the next series of From Hell - I’m resigned to buying the audiobook for that - but it would be nice to have something.

Also - it would be a great way to build an audience for a new show, a cult audience among a rapidly growing podcast audience.

It would also have been nice to have had a Monday Night Comedy podcast that alternates between I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue and Just a Minute but with the VERY sad passing of Humph I doubt it will happen.

But if Humph is replaced and the show brought back (ask Stephen Fry) I’d love to see those shows podcast - if anything has geek cred it’s Mornington Crescent!

Oh and just to sign off - Samantha would have written the foreword to this blog post but she was teaching at the Opera House. The director was so impressed with what she did for the Tenor he couldn’t wait to see what she’d do for a fiver.

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