Tuesday, June 22, 2010

BBC Antarctic midwinter broadcast available online

Once a year, staff at the four British Antarctic bases - Rothera, Halley, King Edward Point and Bird Island - cluster round their shortwave radios to hear the BBC’s Gabrielle Walker present half an hour of music requests and special messages from their loved ones back home. The programme is produced and presented for the 45 scientists and technical staff who keep the Antarctic bases of the British Antarctic Survey running through the long, cold darkness of the polar winter.

This year’s broadcast took place at 2130-2200 UTC yesterday (21 June) on 5950, 7295 and 7360 kHz. But it’s now available online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/2010/06/100621_antarctic_midwinter_special_2010.shtml if you want to hear what the BBC describes as “possibly the World Service’s most unusual broadcast.”
(R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)