Newstalk goes “quasi-national”

Newstalk 106 has gone "quasi-national" today – kinda like a radio version of Shaws, almost nationwide. Not being in Ireland, I can't hear it, and when I have the chance to listen to online streaming at this hour, Ray Darcy on Today FM is still my choice!
I listened to Sean Moncreif on Newstalk yesterday, and on the one hand, I think, "oh my god how do they hope to make this nationally relevant", but on the other hand, it is so phone-in based, it might just work. Good luck to them either way!

LCR on Sound Radio – Grace & Barry

This weekend, London Chinese Radio will be on Sound Radio again: this time it's Grace and Barry, our first all-Chinese on-air team. As usual, 4 -5 pm Sunday evening, 15:00 – 16:00 UTC, on Sound Radio 1503 MW in London, and streaming online.

Li Xu & Peter – congrats

Well done LiXu & Peter on last weekend's show – a couple of songs, a live studio interview, and a couple of good informative packages. And it was 100% in Chinese – our first hour with no English, well done everybody!  We're still finding our feet: we need more experience on the technical side, but we are clearly on the way to getting a format together. Cool!

London Chinese Radio on Sound Tomorrow!

Reminder for tomorrow! London Chinese Radio is giving us another hour or live radio tomorrow, Sunday 24 September 2006.
Sound Radio, East London, 1503 MW, from 4 - 5 pm, that's 15:00 - 16:00 UTC.
Further afield you can listen online, on the Sound Radio stream.

This time it's old hand Li Xu and greenhorn Peter.

Infinity?

A rather challenging thought there from the official website of pop-rockers Silbermond (in the videos section).


Enough to set me up for a listen to A Brief History of Infinity on the BBC World Service – I haven't heard part two yet though. Thankfully, they acknowledged the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy reference :-)

It was comparatively close to the contemporary in narration and musical style, by BBC standards at least. Rather scientifically correct, huzzah! It's a good couple of shows.


They haven't given it an archive page yet, but the audio is available, on the website and via your favourite podcast software.

Lonely Planet on Camden

Lonley Planet has done one of its Travelcasts (podcast to you and me) on Camden, the area of London I'm about to leave.
The podcast captures Cadem excellently – at least to me, someone who lives here (and loves it). How does it sound to people who've never been here?
Let me know in the comments!

The only reason I'm leaving Camden, to be honest, is the high noise level at night. My flat is particularly bad, over the main road with pretty much no sound insulation! But Camden is itself a fab place, check it out, or if you're not in London, listen to the podcast!

On T-enterhooks for Morphy Richards

Oh dear…
DRM anoraks have been regular visitors of late to this page in the T-Online store. It's where the Morphy Richards DRM radio is for sale, at €100 less than the Sangean offering.
At first, it was advertised as available in one week… after a bout a week, that changed to three days, then reportedly 2 days, and then…
Well, on the DRMRX forums one person say it as unavailable, while now it's out for 4 weeks.
Oh dear.

My upcoming travel plans mean I probably won't get a DRM radio until the second generation of consumer sets anyway. I fixed my father up with a Sky Gnome and dedicated (second hand) digibox, for about the same price as the Morphy Richards, so no excuse to get one there either!

If only Peter Senger could get DRM chips into all those cars made in Germany, we could really get excited about it.

London Chinese Radio

Big congrats to Zhang Rui and Gao "don't call me Daniel" Han, on bringing London Chinese Radio to East London – LIVE! – on Sound Radio just now.

Isn't Zhang Rui 100% pro? She really could work on any top-flight Chinese radio station – but she's ours! Daniel brings his energy, youth and English creativity to the show like none other can.

I set out to listen in the Regents Park, and left Audio Hijack Pro to record the show for me – but I set it to the Real Audio bookmark, and it turns out Sound Radio have moved to MP3 streaming since I last listened online. So I only have about 30 minutes or so ROT, that I made manually.

ZR and GH dealt very well with technical problems! Thankfully Michael the funky Sound Radio SM was on hand to save the day.

I haven't heard from our hosts yet, but I hope they're as thrilled as the rest of us, and can brief and guide our other volunteer presenters.

The vanishing room

So it took me rather a few weeks to come up with those two very short reviews… Oops!

Ah well, they're done now.

AKG K27i folding headphones

White headphones in the same segment as Sennheiser's PX200s.

In short, the AKG K27i don't sound as good as the Sennheiser PX200s. I'm referring here to sound gathering for radio, on the cheap, with consumer MiniDiscs or my new baby, the Edirol R09.

The AKGs have more bass then the Sennheisers, unnaturally so. They "enhance" the sound, which may be fab for music, I don't know! But generally, I'd opt for the PX200 when it comes to sound quality. The same has to be said for comfort. The K27is are a bit tight on the ears. After about a month of daily use, that has improved slightly, but the 2 year old PX200s feel better for now.

However, there are some very attractive plus points to the AKGs. They block out a lot of extraneous noise, more so than the PX200s, and wind noise is much less of a problem. In a windy location, the sound of the wind blowing around and hitting the AKG's is lower, less boomy and less flappy than the Sennheisers. This is a huge advantage in our line.

The other big advantage is the inline volume control – it's tiny, and saves a lot of battery for people like me who have a compulsion to constantly adjust the volume on anything, especially headphones!

They are pure white, with dark grey trimmings, so a whole lot more visible than the PX200s. It's an iPod thing, I guess. I'm quite neutral about the look of the things, but one BBC studio Manager I showed them to was well impressed with the look, so that's a good sign!

Pure PocketDAB 2000

The PocketDAB 2000 is a bulky pocket DAB radio with pause & record features, an MP3 player and recorder, and an FM radio.

The plus points: The ReVu facility, which allows you press pause and time-shift a DAB programme.
Having the other option of FM is handy.
A useful dock is included.
DAB reception is both Band III and L Band.

The negatives:
Pig ugly.
Bulky.
Average battery life – maybe 4 hours.
EQ only works on DAB.
FM tuner is awful.
Windows-only software.

Way too expensive!!!!!!!!

That's basically it really.