actual date in introduction ?

[shearichard]

Thanks for making this, it's an interesting highlight on how structured the forecast is .

I notice the specification of "introduction" only allows for "today". It's many years since I listened with any regularity but I believe the forecast that is broadcast soon after midnight would generally have the date rather than "today".

Actually I've just listened on BBC Sounds to the 6 Feb 1754 broadcast and the announcer uses the date , rather than "today" there.

I noticed something else while listening to that forecast. The announcer repeated the phrase "all areas" when saying "there are warnings of gales in all areas, all areas, except Biscay, Trafalgar ...". The repetition seemed to be deliberate and I wondered if it was standard protocol ?

Thanks again for your work on this.

[jamespwilliams]

I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it.

As for “today” vs explicit dates, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_Forecast suggests that “some continuity announcers read out the actual date of issue as opposed to the word “today””.

The repetition seemed to be deliberate and I wondered if it was standard protocol ?

Possibly! When writing this, I mostly worked from the notes in the Wikipedia article, which didn’t mention the repetition.

It would make sense for it to be repeated, given the importance of the gale section.

If I get chance I may come back and fix some of these.