Saturday, February 10, 2007

Wherever you are, you are with the BBC. Or so I thought

When I arrived home after a hard day's teaching on 23rd January, I tried to tune into the BBC world Service only to find that hid had been taken off the air. I tried so hard to find it, thinking that the frequency may have moved. It was nowhere to be heard.
ON 93.8FM, the BBC's station had been replaced by Lumen, a Slovak talk station. I later found out that the reason that the reliable BBC world Service was taken off the air was because the govwernment decided that all radio stations need to be understood by the entire Slovak population. This legislation means that stations can only broadcast in Czech or Slovak. It's a shame when the socialist government wants to encourage more people to learn other languages. It is also a shame for those who tuned in especially for the station's Learning English programme.
Although programmes on this station are often dull, it provides a service and also enbales me to sleep at night. Since it was taken off the air, my insomnia has gradually got worse.

The BBC World Service is still available on TV, and of course online. I am now dependent on 5-minute podcasts of the latest news.

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