Wrong shipping forecast

Black Sheep

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Did anyone else notice that Radio 4 broadcast the wrong shipping forecast at 0520 this morning?
They read out the forecast for Monday 17th instead of Weds 19th.
But how do I contact the BBC to point this out?
 

38mess

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The shipping forecast has been very iffy of late, especially the wind forecast. I tend to look at windguru before making any decisions. But even these guys get it wrong from time to time. But I guess it's just a forecast.
 

Blueboatman

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By the by I popped onto the MET OFFICE website to try to get

1- Their sense of that last storm that passed through the UK.

2- Data from both shore and sea stations to plot the actual passage of the storms low
by barometric and wind speed and wind direction ..

WHOOOSH

.. NOT A CHANCE 😀😀😭

Dumb (with pretty pictures) has gone ( remarkably) Dumber 😏

Awesome website though . And I filed out their ‘user satisfaction ‘ survey to inform them politely of these awesome observations .
 

Black Sheep

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Yes, that's what I did in the end.
I was rather hoping for a duty officer that I could contact so they could get a correction out, and ideally update the Sounds App for anyone who listens that way. They were predicting light winds when the correct forecast for today has strong winds warnings.
I was rather surprised that their systems are lax enough to pick up the wrong forecast, and more surprised that there wasn't a producer to spot that the wrong date was being read out. And then astonished to find that the only ways to contact the BBC seem to be snail mail, Twitter (on an account that does not receive messages!) or Facebook (but again I couldn't find a way to send a message to them).
 

Black Sheep

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Thanks! It would be useful if the BBC listed that number on their "how to contact us" page!
I called, and got transferred to "bbc audio services" who took the details, and promised it would be with management tomorrow. I suggested that tomorrow is too late (tbh, now, 3 hours after the error, is probably too late anyway, but they could at least pull the forecast from the Sounds app) It's an overnight process. They cannot work outside the process. There is no way of speeding up the process, or working outside the process, even if there is risk to life.
I have now given up. I am grateful that the BBC continues to broadcast the shipping forecast, but can't help feeling that they don't take it seriously as a safety service. And am deeply disappointed that there's no way of contacting them in a timely manner when there's a problem.
 

ylop

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I have now given up. I am grateful that the BBC continues to broadcast the shipping forecast, but can't help feeling that they don't take it seriously as a safety service. And am deeply disappointed that there's no way of contacting them in a timely manner when there's a problem.

If I thought it was genuinely a safety issue I would probably have called MCGA HQ as I assume (1) they will have a mechanism of communicating with the providers of the shipping forecast; (2) if they agree it is a safety concern they may wish to include an alert on the Maritime Safety Information Broadcasts.

I imagine that that its not quite as big an issue as you think:
1. How different were the forecasts
2. How many many people actually listen to them as there main/only source of forecast
3. How many of those people would not spot the date error (presumably anyone who listens on sounds is particularly careful that they have clicked the right day's broadcast)
4. Forecasts are never 100% accurate anyway so what they said on Monday might be sensible for what happens today.
5. If there were very different forecasts presumably the fact it didn't accord with your own barometer or observations would be an alert
 

Wansworth

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Not long ago it was an essential service both for safety and for commerce,many a night we listened to the forecast to see if we could get off the berth and make a passage to load another freight and listened to with attention if we could make it home to load on Monday,a weekend in
 

GHA

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By the by I popped onto the MET OFFICE website to try to get

1- Their sense of that last storm that passed through the UK.

2- Data from both shore and sea stations to plot the actual passage of the storms low
by barometric and wind speed and wind direction ..


WHOOOSH

.. NOT A CHANCE 😀😀😭

Dumb (with pretty pictures) has gone ( remarkably) Dumber 😏

Awesome website though . And I filed out their ‘user satisfaction ‘ survey to inform them politely of these awesome observations .
It's all there for free. Just need some time on goole to make use if it or get chatgpt to write some code for you. Massive amount of data is available. just got to know where to look before blaming any lack of data.

DataPoint API reference
 
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