BBC radio london programmes - why do my recordings end up "mono"?

[Vangelis forthnet]

On Sun Sep 8 23:51:10 BST 2013, Mable Syrup wrote:

>When I download progs from BBC radio london,
>(snip)
>my player claims that they're mono.  They also appear as mp3.
>(snip)
>Is this expected?

Hi Mable Syrup :-)

 Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it :-(
All local radio stations content is provided by the BBC online
as mono streams only:

Live content is served in two formats:
1. rtmp stream, encoded in AAC-LC @ 96kbpsABR (Mono)
(flashaac liveradiomode)
(e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio/bbc_london/listenlive )

this is a MediaInfo excerpt from capturing such a stream:

_audiodatarate                   : 96.000
_audiocodecid                    : mp4a

Audio
Format                           : AAC
Format/Info                   : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile               : LC
Codec ID                       : 10
Channel(s)                     : 1 channel
Channel positions          : Front: C
Sampling rate                 : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode        : Lossy

2. MMS stream,  encoded in wma 9.1 @48kbpsCBR (Mono)
(wma liveradiomode)
(e.g. http://bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/bbclondon.asx )

Audio-On-Demand content is served as

1. rtmp stream, encoded in MP3 @ 80kbpsCBR (Mono)
(flashaudio radiomode)

This is what you got with Get_iPlayer in your posted example (pid=p01fjv45)

2. MMS stream, encoded in wma 9.1 @48kbpsCBR (Mono)

This has always been the case for ALL local stations, not just BBC London 
94.9
You may wish to read this 3 year old archived thread from the now defunct
BBC iPlayer message boards :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbiplayer/NF13735684?thread=7748121

Also, please take a look at this post from 2009 in the BBC Internet Blog:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2009/08/improvements_to_bbc_local_radi.html

They vaguely speak about the low quality of the feeds, not much has changed 
since then,
I'm afraid...

If you are interested in higher quality stereo audio streams for BBC London, 
you'll have to
explore other avenues (a DAB radio with a recording capability maybe?
an FM radio card in your computer? - can say really, as being overseas...)

Hope I've helped...

Regards,
Vangelis.