Bose 500 smart speaker won’t play radio 2

[dogwithheads]

My Bose 500 has played BBC Radio 2 fine until today. When I ask it now gives me a BBC station in Welsh. Have unplugged for 5 minutes which gave me the display back which keeps dropping out ( known problem ) but still won’t play radio 2. Took Alexa off in settings and re added to no avail. Still gives me a Welsh station. And yes I am set for English U.K. This product is very glitchy and I’m disappointed .

Bose product name 500 smart speaker.

Country

Firmware Version

(1.0.7, 4.8.1, 1.7.0, etc.)

App Version

(4.1.1, 13.0.2, etc.)

What devices were you using that were affected and what version are they on

(Samsung Galaxy S9 on Android 11, iPhone X on iOS14, etc.)

Detailed description of the issue and steps to reproduce

What environment do you experience the issue in?

(noisy office, quiet kitchen, etc.)

When did you start to experience the issue? Did it work correctly previously?

Any troubleshooting steps you took

[Keith_L]

Hi dogwithheads,

Welcome to the Community, thanks for posting!

It's really strange that Alexa has started playing the wrong station when you ask for Radio 2! Removing and re-adding Alexa is a great step to start troubleshooting this issue, so thank you for doing that and letting us know.

Do you know which welsh station is playing when you ask for Radio 2? 

Also, what command have you been using when playing Radio 2 through Alexa? Are you saying "Alexa, play Radio 2" or "Alexa play BBC Radio2"? Do you still get the welsh station with both commands?

I look forward to getting to the bottom of this with you!

[dogwithheads]

I was using both of those commands and neither worked . Was suggested by Amazon to use Alexa skills. Still don’t really understand what that’s all about but apparently the command should be Alexa...ask the BBC to play radio 2 and it worked . But when my wife forgets and says Alexa...play radio 2 it plays BBC radio 2 like it used to. God help us when these things drive cars for us..

[Keith_L · Accepted solution]

No worries dogwithheads!

If using the command "Alexa ask the BBC to play Radio 2" is working, then it sounds like this is related to changes the BBC has made to how they organize their stations online in the UK. With Alexa, the BBC have introduced the "BBC Sounds" skill, so their radio content plays through their own servers rather than through a 3rd party server like TuneIn's service which is how most stations are played through Alexa.

If you continue to use the "Alexa ask the BBC to play Radio 2" command, you'll get the right station, I understand it can be easy to forget and accidentally use the other commands, but at least you can get Alexa to play the station you are after now!