Traffic Info on BBC Radio Suffolk

number6number6 Posts: 1,128
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For weeks now, presenters at BBC Radio Suffolk seem completely unable to operate the Traffic Info buttons. Many times it flashes on and off, interrupting whatever I'm listening to, without any traffic info and more recently not working when it should do.
Have others experienced this?

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  • Danny H 73Danny H 73 Posts: 86
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    number6 wrote: »
    For weeks now, presenters at BBC Radio Suffolk seem completely unable to operate the Traffic Info buttons. Many times it flashes on and off, interrupting whatever I'm listening to, without any traffic info and more recently not working when it should do.
    Have others experienced this?

    Sounds like a problem with the new Vilor studios..
  • satman17satman17 Posts: 2,607
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    Listening to Mark Murphy
  • number6number6 Posts: 1,128
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    satman17 wrote: »
    Listening to Mark Murphy

    Do you mean Mark Murphy on the Mark Murphy show on BBC Radio Suffolk with Mark Murphy!
    Does anyone love their own name any more than him?
  • number6number6 Posts: 1,128
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    No traffic alert today on breakfast or drive shows while I was on road.
    Have they stopped using it?
    BBC Essex worked fine so it's not my radio.
  • davelovesleedsdavelovesleeds Posts: 22,364
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    I often get BBC Radio Humberside interrupting sometimes for minutes on end with no travel news.

    My gripe is why can't they switch just as the travel starts and then switch back as soon as it ends. This morning I had Liz Green on BBC Radio Leeds inanely rambling on about saveloys and having some tedious banter with the traffic guy before I had to manually switch back to the sanity of Radio 4.

    Also quite often on the 7.30pm travel news the link doesn't kick in until maybe half way through the report.
  • Fred FlintstoneFred Flintstone Posts: 795
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    I often get BBC Radio Humberside interrupting sometimes for minutes on end with no travel news.

    My gripe is why can't they switch just as the travel starts and then switch back as soon as it ends. This morning I had Liz Green on BBC Radio Leeds inanely rambling on about saveloys and having some tedious banter with the traffic guy before I had to manually switch back to the sanity of Radio 4.

    Also quite often on the 7.30pm travel news the link doesn't kick in until maybe half way through the report.

    BBC kent are just as bad and i don't even live in Kent!
  • technologisttechnologist Posts: 13,334
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    Why don't you complain at the BBC and ask for an explanation.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

    TF has t be signalled a few seconds before the item so as to allow the signal to propagate and your radio to switch .. They all take different times..
    But many presenters get it very wrong ,,,
  • Paul_HayesPaul_Hayes Posts: 170
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    At the station where I work, the "on" and "off" signals for RDS are built into the travel in and out jingles. You do occasionally get rogue moments in songs that set them off, but we have a silent RDS off we can play to switch it off again.
  • number6number6 Posts: 1,128
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    Why don't you complain at the BBC and ask for an explanation.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

    i rang the station, twice, and whoever I spoke to had no idea if it was working or not and asked me to tell them if it was on or off. Doh !!!
  • technologisttechnologist Posts: 13,334
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    number6 wrote: »
    i rang the station, twice, and whoever I spoke to had no idea if it was working or not and asked me to tell them if it was on or off. Doh !!!

    The local station is unlikely to know and your comments are unlikely to have been noted
    .. That is why I suggested complaining via the BBC website or 03700 100. 222
    That will get logged , the log read by people ,
    some one in LR and may be distribution asked to comment .

    Also if there are many complaints it may highlight where in what is an elderly and complex system there are errors ....
    . Bearing in mind some re engineering with the new transmitter contract ....
  • Mark CMark C Posts: 20,736
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    Paul_Hayes wrote: »
    At the station where I work, the "on" and "off" signals for RDS are built into the travel in and out jingles. You do occasionally get rogue moments in songs that set them off, but we have a silent RDS off we can play to switch it off again.

    Those tones don't directly control the receivers, they control the RDS coders at the transmitter site.

    BBC radio use a different system, that fires the flags from a server in London, and distributes the flags to the relevant local and national transmitters. Has to be that way
    for the Beeb, because R1-4 and neighbouring BBC LRs will carry the flags. The ILR DTMF system is very good though, and far more operationally foolproof.
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