You will have heard of the BBC, but I would like to give you some background information. Accroding to Wikipedia: “The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation the “BBC“, formally known as ‘The British Broadcasting Company’ is the world’s oldest and largest broadcaster. The BBC is funded by an annual television licence fee, The licence fee is classified as a tax, and evasion is a criminal offence, which is charged to all United Kingdom households owning equipment capable of receiving or recording television broadcasts; the level of the fee is set by the UK Government under a multi-year agreement with the Corporation. It operates under a Royal Charter granted by the British monarch.”

The BBC website has something called the iPlayer that allows you to listen live to current radio shows, and listen again to ones that have been broadcast in the last week. You can use this to practise you English listening, but perhaps a better way is to use another section of the BBC website called the BBC Podcast Directory. Lots of content is available such as Entertainment, Factual, News, Learning.

Podcasts are defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary as “a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player”. What this means to you is that every week you can download an mp3 of the radio show, and keep it as long as you want to. You can either goto the various websites and download them indivitually, or use a technology called RSS and if you have something like itunes or google reader it will tell you when there is a new mp3 available to download.

Lesson Materials

Presentation: link.

JAM: MP3, transcript (0 Min – 4 Min 04 sec).

INSSW: MP3, transcript (o Min – 9 Min 20 sec).

Futher Study

Just A Minute (JAM): Listen to JAM, JAM BBC Homepage, Wikipedia Article, British Comedy Guide Page, Fan Website, Full Transcript.

I’ve Never Seen Star Wars (INSSW) Radio: Listen to INSSW, Wikipedia Article, British Comedy Guide Page

I’ve Never Seen Star Wars (INSSW) TV: “Watch” INSSW, Wikipedia Article, IMDB Page, British Comedy Guide Page

British Radio Stations

BBC Radio 1: Contemporary Music: Listen Live, Podcasts, R1 Homepage, Wikipedia Article

BBC Radio 2: Middle aged persons music: Listen Live, Podcasts, R2 Homepage, Wikipedia Article

BBC Radio 3: Classical Music: Listen Live, Podcasts, R3 Homepage, Wikipedia Article

BBC Radio 4: Spoken News and Reports: Listen Live, Podcasts, R4 Homepage, Wikipedia Article

BBC Radio 5: Sports: Listen Live, Podcasts, R5 Homepage, Wikipedia Article

Classic FM: Listen Live, CFM Homepage, Wikipedia Article

Virgin Radio: VR Homepage, Wikipedia Article

Capital FM: CFM Homepage, Wikipedia Article

Liverpool Radio City: RC Homepage, Wikipedia Article

Jazz FM: JFM Homepage, Wikipedia Article

British TV Stations

BBC1: BBC1 Homepage, Wikipedia Article

BBC2: BBC2 Homepage, Wikipedia Article

ITV: ITV Homepage, Wikipedia Article

Channel 4: Channel 4 Homepage, Wikipedia Article

Channel 5: Channel 5 Homepage, Wikipedia Article