BBC Radio Streams

I’ve just written this over on my BBC Radio Streams page:

I’ve got email from a couple of people saying that the Real Audio radio streams were finally turned off overnight. This means that the few links left on these pages (and any links that you have saved from earlier versions of this page) will no longer work.

I expected this day to come at some point. The BBC really want everyone to use the Radio iPlayer instead.

This does, however, pose a problem for people who where using the Read Audio streams to power internet radios and similar devices. I’m not sure that there’s a solution to this problem, but I’ll have a poke around and see if I can see if I can find a way around it.

Other than that, I’d just like to say thanks for using these pages during the five and a half years that they have been live. When I sat down to hack out a quick solution in November 2004 I had no idea how many people would find the pages so useful.

I’d also like to thank the BBC for the enlightened approach they took to my pages. They could easy have just asked me to close the site down, but instead they chose to turn a blind eye and take my pages as an indication of something that was missing from their site.

Update: I’ve just found this entry on the BBC Internet Blog. The BBC have introduced live streaming of their radio stations to various mobile devices. I haven’t investigated in detail, but this looks like it might be a replacement for the Real Audio streams.