All posts by Andrew Mark
Below are all of Andrew Mark's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Further to Mark's point above, editorially in Gloucestershire it is not just those parts of southern Gloucestershire (as opposed to South Gloucestershire) like Lydney, Stroud and Cirecester that are in the BBC West region editorially. The major centres of Cheltenham and Gloucester are too, which is why households in both places on cable and satellite get BBC West as their region on BBC1.
So the vast majority of Gloucestershire's households get BBC West.
Add to that the fact that BBC Radio Gloucestershire is in the BBC West radio cluster, there is a real need for Mendip to carry BBC Radio Gloucestershire on Freeview; and the absolute nonsense that Ridge Hill carries ITV West, but not BBC West to be sorted.
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Sorry Briantist, you are wrong about Gloucester and Cheltenham being editorially part of BBC West Midlands. We are in BBC West, which is why Points West has a reporter based at BBC Radio Gloucestershire, and as I have said above, those of us living in Cheltenham and Gloucester get Points West on channel 101 on cable and satellite. I also was told by the West regional controller a couple of years ago that the only reason that Ridge Hill was not carrying BBC West (like ITV West) was the financial cutbacks.
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Briantist - You have quoted a report made in 1968. I have had information from the BBC West regional manager in the last couple of years, which I believe to have more credibility. Clearly we are not going to agree over this issue, so I see little point in continuing the conversation.
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Sadly for the Yeovil area, Coker Hill will not launch in September....... just Mendip, Taunton, and Hutton.
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I'd agree with many comments above. Here in Gloucestershire, we are very well served by BBC Points West. Forming a region that ran from south of Birmingham to Lands End would be crazy and meaningless in terms of social geography. (We have had experience of ITV's botch of West and South-West areas, and that was too big...).
Savings for me, if required, could come from dropping the bulletins in the BBC1 breakfast programme, as here in the West, the bulletin feels like a Radio Bristol bulletin, with little inclusion of stories from BBC Radio Wiltshire, BBC Radio Gloucestershire or BBC Somerset Sound. Breakfast is a time for BBC local radio.
I'm not that convinced about Inside Out either. Couldn't those stories be a significant item in the main evening regional news?
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Over the years, there have been many, many complaints in these website pages, and elsewhere including to MPs, from people in North Gloucestershire who have to suffer BBC Midlands Today, and cannot get BBC Points West.
The usual response is to get Freesat (or Virgin Cable, if you live in Cheltenham or Gloucester) both of which will give you BBC Points West as your default BBC region....but at a cost.
There is another solution, which is to use the BBC Iplayer, and go to "settings" to select BBC West. I have a NowTV stick in my backup TV in our kitchen/diner, through which I access BBC West via the IPlayer.
My NowTV stick cost 14...much cheaper than an aerial or satellite being put up, and also less than a cable instillation.
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Monday 4 November 2013 10:01PM
This is strange. Sunshine are offering nothing to engage Gloucestershire since the DAB started. I can see no reason for people here to listen to this station (which actually sounds worse than the others on this Mux) other than its slightly quirky musical mix. If what I wanted wasn't available from Gloucestershire, I'd be far more likely to listen to a Bristol station, which we have a closer affinity with, than one covering Monmouth and Hereford.
Questionable maps too, when you click on the transmitters, as the topography of Gloucestershire means that many areas shown to be covered are actually not getting a signal (just driving around in my car and listening on its DAB radio proves that.)