RADIO

Goodby, BBC External Services. Hello, BBC World Service. The British Broadcasting Corp. announced the name change for its foreign news bureaus, citing the clunkiness of the former and the intelligibility of the latter. The term World Service long has applied to the BBC’s 24-hour broadcasts in English, but not to the 36 foreign-language services it transmits. The BBC first began international broadcasts in 1932 under the banner BBC Empire Service. That was changed to BBC Overseas Services in 1938 when foreign language transmissions were added. By 1952, BBC External Services was the in-vogue phrase meant to embrace all overseas output, English included.