The BBC shipping forecast

[Hwyl]

A nice report (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6940597.stm) on the BBC. I'm concerned that this statement Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer describes the forecast as "baffling". "It scans poetically. It's got a rhythm of its own. It's eccentric, it's unique, it's English.It's slightly mysterious because nobody really knows where these places are. It takes you into a faraway place that you can't really comprehend unless you're one of these people bobbing up and down in the Channel." is worrying. It shows he truly does not understand his audience.
The shipping forecast is perfect, every word has a precise meaning, it saves lives.

I try not to compare the services in the US with the UK, but when I hear the random electronic language on the VHF forecasts, I truly miss the BBC forecast.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

I remember scuttling across Norfolk heading for Lowestoft at 9pm on a dark October evening getting ready to move a contessa down to Ipswich when out of the blue the radio produced the start of a shipping forecast for the previous March.....

The first thought was W.T.F.
The second a sort of "Oh goody - re-runs of great forecasts of the past.

Then, about South Utsire, it was interrupted (!!!) with the explanation that this was a program about "The Shipping Forecast".

Waves of relief.

Shipping forecast (http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast/shipping)


Actually it was the program linked from the page Gareth linked to