A tradition on Midwinter is to listen to a broadcast done by the BBC for BAS stations – see press release from BAS/BBC below. We crowded into the comms room with champagne to listen on HF at 7:30pm local time but it wasn’t that clear so Rob meanwhile downloaded from the internet and we listened again to it in the bar area.

Rob tuning in the HF to catch the broadcast

To listen to the special message compiled by the BBC click on the link below and listen out for celebrities Prof Brian Cox (06.25), Eddie Izzard (14.37) and Michael Palin (27.25).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/2011/06/110620_antarctic_midwinter_broadcast_2011.shtml

If you don’t have time to listen at the moment here’s what it says on the web page:

Produced and presented for an audience of just 43 – the brave and hardy scientists and technical staff who keep the Antarctic bases of the British Antarctic Survey running through the long, cold darkness of the polar winter – the Antarctic specials are possibly the World Service’s most unusual broadcasts.

Once a year, on 21 June, in the dark days of the southern winter, staff at the four Antarctic bases – Rothera, Halley, King Edward Point and Bird Island – cluster round their short-wave radios to hear the BBC present half an hour of music requests and special messages from their loved ones back home.

There’s special messages from surprise celebrity guests, and a selection of music that reveals a deep longing for sunshine.

This year the broadcast is presented by Martin Redfern, who was fortunate to spend a month in Antarctica three years ago, reporting on research and visiting field sites and the Rothera base.

As a result says Martin, “We feel we are talking to friends, we can imagine the scene down there and although we were only there for a few weeks in Summer, we know how food fantasies turn to salad and fresh fruit.”