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Problems with a defective bong...

     BBC Mulls Big Ben's Bong Ban
   LONDON (AP)
   Big Ben's chimes, which traditionally announce the queen's
Christmas Day message and ring in the New Year, might not make it
onto BBC airwaves this time around. Seems the main bell has lost its
distinctive bong.
   A decision has yet to be made, and some British Broadcasting Corp.
officials think it would be a big mistake depart from tradition by
banning the bong this holiday season.
   Big Ben's bells have traditionally been used on BBC airwaves as a
lead-in to news bulletins, but disappeared temporarily in March after
cracks were found in the hammer arm of the 132-year-old main bell
that sounds the hours.
   The original Victorian hammer was removed and replaced with a new
$15,000 steel hammer.
   But ever since the 13-ton bell went back into service in August,
BBC executives have been unenthusiastic, so much so that they have
begun phasing the chimes out of regular broadcasts.
   "It just sounds wrong," said Simon Schute, the BBC's general
manager of operations and engineering, responsible for setting up
microphones in the Big Ben belfry, 334 steps above the street.
   "I'm no expert on bells, but this one has a sort of curious start
and finishes sounding sort of small and clattery. It certainly
doesn't sound rich and important anymore," Schute said.
   Britain's Independent Television News has solved the problem by
continuing to use a 1967 recording of Big Ben. But BBC executives
won't hear of it.
   "We shall either use the real thing or nothing at all," said John
Breach, presentation organizer of Radio 4, the BBC's flagship
domestic channel.
   "These are the chimes of Big Ben. To play a recording would not be
the same. It's not part of our tradition."
   BBC Radio 4 replaced the bong with pips, the electronic signal of
Greenwich Mean Time, to introduce its daily news at 6 p.m. and
midnight and the weekend morning news.
   "We don't mix pips and bongs," said Breach. "Listeners have missed
Big Ben, but the decision was made at a more senior level than myself
that the sound quality wasn't as good as it used to be and the switch
to pips was permanent."
   Breach said listeners understood the reason for the change, but
BBC executives fear the public may not be so patient with a change in
a holiday tradition that dates back to midnight, Dec. 31, 1923.
   Every year since then, the live sounds from Big Ben have rung in
the New Year and introduced the monarch's speech on Christmas Day.
   "We're still trying to decide what to do. I believe we will decide
to use the bell. After all, what is more important, tradition or a
faulty bong?" said Breach.
   BBC engineers have experimented with moving the microphones which
transmit the live bong. They tried placing directional microphones on
a nearby building in Parliament Square. Nothing worked.