Dan & Nick are back!

Yay! Still repeats of course, but some funny French stuff in this first episode :-)

CBC Wiretap

I can't believe I never knew about this before now… it's a hoot!
Wiretap, on the CBC.

FOOC, Gao Yaojie

I'm listening to FOOC, for the first time in ages. Allan Little -- ah that voice, that writing.

And Dan Griffiths, talking about Gao Yaojie. I've never spoken to Gao Yaojie, indeed I can't understand much of what she says. But I've studio-produced when BBC Chinese interviewed her, and gone all through the Reuters and APTN feeds to find audio of her in the US.

From just that, I feel like I know her. She deserves all the recognition she gets, and well done to Dan Griffiths for writing and reading so well.

And right now they're in Bhutan, with some names that make me giggle -- go easy on me, I've had a lot of sunshine and some chocolate today.

Mike Figgis lecture

Mike Figgis is a movie director, but he talks about much more than that in this lecture. I enjoyed every word of it – that's how wide he spread his net! It's well worth a listen.

It was also the Radio 3 Arts and Ideas podcast, so you might be able to find an mp3 if it leaves the the Radio Player after seven days.

On The Wireless

I've just been to see a great show. It's called On The Wireless. It was on in the San Francisco Bathhouse on Cuba Street (Wellington, New Zealand).

It's fab! Three young men in dinner jackets perform an evening radio show, which plays three dramas. Many many parts are played over the course of the show, entirely by the three guys – according to the Facebook event, their names are Gareth Williams, Brad McCormick and Leon Wadham.
They do a terrific job on the accents – plus they do their own spot effects, and one even plays the keyboard! They are helped by a sound operator who hits his cues – everybit as good as any I've seen at the BBC Radio 4 recordings in the Drill Hall.

The stories are diverse, entertaining pastiches. Then there are the ad breaks…

If I have to criticise, maybe it's just that the final play could have gone in the middle, as there was an element of "I'm not supposed to be laughing here" which confused things a wee bit. But audiences like to think too so hey :-)

It doesn't really detract from an excellent show – I want more!

So yeah, if you get a chance, go see this show, and keep an ear out for the three performers.

SW Radio Africa concerned about Al Jazeera’s reports from Zimbabwe

From RNW's MediaNetwork, with an understated headline :SW Radio Africa concerned about Al Jazeera’s reports from Zimbabwe. Read it.

Manila Peninsula

Watching the army entering the hotel live on Al Jazeera. Bloody amazing.

NZ TV TX Pics

I wish I'd known about this website earlier: looks like a work of passion, and I love it!
Radio en Televisie zendmasten buitenland

Edirol R09 Mic Minijack

The mic input minijack on my Edirol R09 has broken. It's still in there, but lose.

It happened while I was recording very loud waves and wind on Makara Beach. So I was able to keep recording using the line in socket.

Now though my R09 is back to it's original, intended use: a pocket recorder that'll I'll always have with me.

And in the next few days, I'll be upgrading to a big-boy's recorder, a Fostex FR-2LE. Excited!

Got to use the Sound Devices 702 at the weekend. It spoils us it really does. Using Shure SM63s, with the gain up full, the limiter takes care of all the rest. No distortion… amazing.

Ronnie Barker sings Leonad Cohen pastiche Goon style

In the Lines from My Grandfather's Forehead on this week on BBC 7. I say.

Pakistan coverage

So Nawaz Sharif's return to Pakistan – second time round – was well covered, thanks to the magic of the mobile phone.

It was mildly electrifying (you know what I mean!) when CNN cut in just before the top of the hour to talk to him on the phone, not long before he left Saudi Arabia (or Saudi and Arabia as the Radio Live newsreader called it the day before). They asked some really good questions too – so working in a CNN affiliate at the time I was able to get straight in there and cut out a tape… cut… clip… actuality… Whatever.

BBC WS and I think World both had him on arrival – and he hadn't been shoved back onto the 'plane by anyone, so that seemed maybe more relevant. But you can't beat CNN to sell a story!

And then t turned out France24 got him too!

I've only just discovered Onion Network News

How Can We Raise Awareness In Darfur Of How Much We're Doing For Them?

London Huayu EXCLUSIVE on illegal immigration raids

A big story in London this week was official raids on illegal immigrants in Chinatown.

Who got the scoop? London Huayu Chinese Radio.

Two of their volunteers were on the ground, in the community, with a Zoom H4 and a camera.

Check out their coverage.

I am really proud of the guys!!!!

It's there on the Community Media Organisation website too.

Last day at bFM

Today was my last morning, for now, as a news volunteer at bFM.

This is definitely what I'll miss most about Auckland! I've listened to bFM breakfast for years, and I was thrilled to be there.

The team are great. Jose Barbosa has been lovely, very patient, understanding and encouraging.
The other news vollies have been great – and they'll go as far they want to, too. Plenty of talent!

Bonnie is incredibly hard-working producing Breakfast, and it's host, Mikey Havoc, really is like that. A real people-person.

Degen again…

Oops… I dropped my Degen the other day, out of my jacket pocket and onto the tarmac. Btteries came loose but otherwise fine… I thought.

I was just outside the house, and when I got in I realised the audio was muted even when cans weren't plugged in.

So I took a deep breath and opened it up, eventually smoothing out the lower contact on the
headphone jack, to allow the audio to the speaker when there wasn't a plug in there.

Put it back together, it was working again. Except for some distortion when the volume was a little bit loud – not too loud mind! It sounded like something loose on the speaker. I opened it up again but couldn't access the front of the speaker, without removing it. I don't have the gear or confidence to do that.

After a while the distortion got too bad, so I thumped the radio on my knee. Well it works with some machines.

This time, it didn't.

But it did make the aluminium face plate start to peel off.

Straight in there, I peeled it back enough to see the speaker, under its little gauze veil. I gently touched the centre paper with a small screwdriver, and the distortion went away.

Cool!

Super-glued it back down. Looks kinda bumpy. Let's call it character.

Degen D1105 in NZ

My Degen 1105 finally arrived by post from Ireland on Saturday. Hurray!

It works a treat here. FM reception of Radio National in central Auckland is absolutely fine – no more of that hiss that came with the Pure PocketDAB 2000 (which, incidentally, has failed the exact same way the first one did, but after an even shorter time).

My 1105 has lost it's telescopic antenna, but still gets all the local FMs fine. On the move is also fine, as it uses the headphone wire as antenna when it's there.

Shortwave hasn't done much for me so far – a bit of Radio Australia, some China, and a couple of unidentified, maybe Russian language.

Mediumwave… it's like I expected, and my it's odd. Nothing, certainly during the day, from any other country.

All in all, rather happy to have it here.

Spectrum

Most of the best radio I've heard so far in New Zealand has been on Radio New Zealand National. I have a particular fondness for Spectrum. I am proud to tell people of the training I received from Spectrum's Jack Perkins, back in CRI.

Here are a sample of two of their good recent shows.

Migrant workers from Roratonga in the second world war.

The Silver Fern Tape Recorders Club.

All available as podcasts too, so you can have mp3s rather than the mwa I've linked to above.

Dannistava

Had a thought about Danny Baker this morning while I was brushing my teeth.

We all call him a radio genius, some call him a radio god.

But given he's tubby short and bald, shouldn't we call him a radio Buddha?

But this evening while I was walking back from the kebab shop, with the kebab inside my jacket keeping one side of my belly toasty, I realised why not: were does re-incarnation fit in? It doesn't, cos he's so much in the 1970s and what not.

So radio god he is then!

Chris Watson & Sarah Blunt collaboration coming up

[UPDATE: 3.10.2007: Only just noticed I had the title wrong on this post, corrected it today. Slow-poke.]

Really looking forward to this, it looks fab:

BBC Radio 4
NATURE – The Sounds of Britain 1. Wicken Fen
Date / Time: Monday 10 September at 21.02 – 21.30
repeat Tuesday 11 September at 11.02-11.30

Producer : Sarah Blunt
BBC Natural History Radio Unit
SYNOPSIS

In the first of a short series of richly evocative sound portraits, writer and naturalist
Paul Evans and wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, capture the spirit and sounds
of wild Britain.

In the first programme, a wonderfully lively, lyrical and entertaining narration written
and read by Paul Evans, and illustrated with sounds of the wildlife and habitat
recorded by Chris Watson, offers a very personal and fascinating exploration of the
reed beds, ditches and dykes of Britain’s oldest nature reserve, Wicken Fen.

PocketDAB 2000

Still no improvement in FM reception. I've been checking for stations 10.7 below the RNZ Nation frequency of 101.4, but no sign. Tonight I'll try leaving the batteries out all night if I can, to see if this helps reset it or something.

DAB is good on the high ground around Grey Lynn too, I discovered today.

Looks like I brought the wrong radio to NZ...

In my last minute semi-planning, I decided not to bring any shortwave radio to New Zealand - any means either of the Sony 7600gr with wonky telescopic antenna, and the much smaller Degen DE1105 -- with no telescopic antenna at all.

All I brought then was the Pure PoketDAB 2000. There is a DAB trial here. But my how the signal is weak. It's not useable downtown -- so far the only place I've been able to enjoy it is in Ponsonby, up high. I don't know the details of the intended coverage are, but where I've been -- from Parnell to Ponsonby -- it's not a goer.

So I'm mostly using the FM part of the PocketDAB. It doesn't have RDS, which can slow things down a bit. Some stations it receives well, and some it really doesn't! The most frustrating examble is Radio New Zealand National. 101.4, pretty much everywhere in downtown, the quay, Parnell and Ponsonby at least, sounds like a leaky cable radio singal. If I had brought the beat-up Degen, at least I could use AM...

Ah well!

BBC World Service Trust in Georgia

I missed this announcement, but still, better late than never. I was vaguely involved, for a few days, and I'm really happy – and mightily impressed to see it taking off.

Georgia's first community radio station goes on air

The BBC World Service Trust has launched a radio station in Georgia that has people stopping in the streets.

People gather in the town centre of Ninotsminda in Georgia's Javakhetu region, to listen to the country's first community radio station. 

…

Telly news

Just been watching the coverage of six Bulgarian medics returning home from Libya. Who had it first? France24. They had pictures of the plane landing, while CNN's Breaking News graphic quoted a Libyan official as saying they were unlikely to serve their sentences in Libya. 

I was only channel-hopping, so my observations are limited. 

On Al Jazeera, there was a clear in the pictures compared to CNN and France24 – I think they were anchoring out of KL so that would explain that!

CNN got some pretty good commentators, once they got going. The only thing that had me tuning away from France24 was one of their studio commentators, I think the EU editor, who freaked me out a wee bit!

Richard Sambrook in the papers on WS

Richard Sambrook has written an article for The Independent titled "Why The World Service Matters". As you would expect, it's pretty much spot-on.

My opinion, though, is that Sambrook doesn't take enough credit for the strength of the English output – Nigel Chapman came in and cut out most of the non-news content, and that in turn means Richard Sambrook, as head of Global News Division, has a greater responsibility there.
I think Richard Sambrook is a proper visionary, much more than the "management-visionary" that means Bush House is all about change these days. As a journalist, Sambrook believes in the BBC values. At times those values seemed to not apply to the upper management, the people outside and above the language services.

But who knows, maybe that's all changed since I left :-)

The World Service is fab, and deserves a load more money – hopefully the public service remit for BBC World, and the advertising on BBC.Com can help there. Don't forget other parts of the World Service have websites which could, and I think should, be commercialised. I'd have no problem with radio services getting more air-time thanks to money from top-notch British advertisers.

New Dalet screenshots

Tod Maffin has posted screenshots of the CBC's current version of Dalet. Quite interesting. I've never used it, but have been tempted for quite a while.

Alan is Free!

Great news! I'm going to leave the picture of him to the side for a while. 

I got a text this morning just before 8, asking if I'd heard the news, he's been released  – great news!

Doc On One: My Father Takes a Vacation

Last week, RTÉ's Documentary on One was called My Father Takes a Vacation.

It's a lovely piece. It uses tingly music, the type that may be becoming a radio cliché, but still works well! It uses what sound like answering-machine tapes, another near-cliché meaning Dublin – those screaming traffic lights near Trinity – and delicious editing.

It uses a first person narrator and is compiled excellently. The narrator is a young man, and it comes across. Great images are painted throughout the documentary. It's a dream of a travel doc!

You can listen to it in Real Audio linked from the RTÉ website, or in the Documentary On One podcast.

Here's what the webpage for My Father Takes A Vacation says:

Martin Johnson's mother died of cancer eight years ago. The Johnson family lived in Sweden at the time and after his mother's death Martin's father decided he needed a break and disappeared, leaving Martin and his siblings alone in Sweden for a month.
Two years later Martin Johnson's father cycled along the southern coast of Ireland. After that he continued to disappear periodically. He now lives a new life in New Zealand, having left his three children behind in Sweden.
This is a travel documentary about trying to understand a father, about what Martin's father saw in Ireland, about loss and most of all why one most keep on moving on.
Martin Johnson produced this documentary, following in his father's footsteps from Dublin to Dursey Island in West Cork. In the documentary Martin also meets a fisherman from Dunmore East who talks about leaving home as well as Dennis who owns a Bed & Breakfast in Castletownbere and who lost his wife five years ago and a farmer on Dursey Island - to name but a few.
Producer: Martin Johnson
Supervising Producer: Peter Woods

Surviving the Century

This week's World Stories on BBC World service is called Surviving the Century.

It was made by my colleague Haimo Li, and it's good! The first transmission is this morning, with repeats over the weekend, and of course the Podcast.
Have a listen, in stereo if you can.

Music on special interest stations

Where do you think music fits in on special interest programming?

Special Interest, I guess, means the same thing as Community programming. Feel free to object!

How important is music to community programming? If the community is very broad, the music will be wallpaper to many listeners. Wallpaper is a part of general listening radio, cos it's on all day and you need some breaks. But when you're tuning in once a week for an hour, how much do you want to hear music?

Music can be great on such programmes. "Nostalgia" music can really help define your commununity. But if you are a "special interest" community, chances are you're a small community. And nostalgia for one person might be meaningless for someone just a few years older.

Some nostalgia that works goes back to childhood. As an example, the Ray Darcy Show this morning opened with Caroll Spinney – aka the vocie of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street. That's been on TV for nearly 30 years, so it clicks with a lot of people.

Thoughts? Comment me!

Out and about

I've been a busy boy of late. And I've hardly had the chance to listen to the radio. But I've noticed a couple of things, such as:

Around Alexandra Park road, a portable DAB radio'll get a good singal wouthout any aerial at all.
The pure pocketDAB 2000 uses the headphone cable as it's antenna, and without plugging anything in, the signal metre shows a good strong signal, on the residential roads around the Ally Pally TX site. I'd like to see if it works out to Wood Green.

And yes, I understand the pointlessness in seeing if you can get a signal without being able to hear it!


You can see the Crystal Palace mast from the Putney Bridge tube bridge. A nice clear view of it.

The 1296kHz antenna for BBC World Service DRM in Orfordness is like a pair of 3 element beams, stuck into the ground with the boom running along the ground.

No not a good description, but those masts suddenly make sense to an amateur like me once I can visualise that :-)

George Cook – spoof

This is funny, if you know George Hook from Newstalk and rugby on TV

Martin Williams on Thirdcoast!

The Thirdcoast Festival have Martin Williams on their frontpage – hurray! Martin trained me up in my first week in the BBC. He does creative features for Resonance FM – and tries to infiltrate the BBC with creativity too ;-)

Here's hoping being featured by Thirdcoast gives him the recognition he deserves (like an award or two!).

London Chinese Radio Media Literacy Project

London Chinese Radio is doing a project on Media Literacy. I've been roped in to making some content for it too, and I'll not be in London for much longer so I'd better get the finger out!

Media Literacy can be difficult to define. The whole concept is based round community strengthening. But the name is quite daunting, as much for people who take part in community Radio as anyone.

At the first meeting on the project, no one really had an idea. For some, literacy meant to do with books and literature. After a while, the idea of ability was generally accepted.

Then there came the problem of media. If you weren't a media student or practitioner, then media was too distant a term.

Yet everyone thought "Online Literacy/ability" was important to them.
This does point to the age range of our users, plus the fact that immigrants tend to use the internet a lot (speaking from personal experience here!).

It's a good project – but without even a studio, it's a real pressure to reach the proposal's full potential.

I feel without a building, it's difficult for the broadest community value to be maintained at a clear level. When we all go home and use our own facilities to make our own content, we use our own values and goals. That's what podcasting and blogging is about. Podcasting is like YouTube – you can chose to only use established broadcast content if you like. Blogging is personal, though builds up a sense of community in who comments on, links to, and quotes your blog.
But community radio is about good old fashioned community centres, in a geographical location. The common language of community media should be the place and the way of life.

But all that's separate from the problems of East-West – we white Europeans might not give a toss what the people in the Chinese Embassy think. But for people from the PRC, the embassy staff are to be respected (I'm more "laugh/cry" about them, but anyway). Likewise the difference in production values.

And of course, all us media types have huge egos, and every one of of thinks "I'm right"!

New Racial Harmony website

My colleague Britt Yip has launched a new website on positive news in race relations. www.RacialHarmony.net I've written an article for it -- truth be told I wrote it quite a while ago and can't really remember what it says.

Still, the website is on a very worthy cause, and if you have a positive story, or opinion, about Racial Relations, send it in!

Natural History Unit God

I briefly met a senior producer from the Natural History Unit today -- Sarah Blunt. She produced the Sounds of Life, that I blogged giddily about below. Quite inspiring -- she uses layers so very well! And she is clearly very passionate about what she does.

She recommended the DolphinEar Hydrophone as a good way to get into that area. I wished I had one on Sunday, when I found frog spawn in Richmond Park.

Most impressive, not only did I not fall at her knees in admiration, I was reasonably coherent. Yay!

Cool sounding job

Advertised elsewhere on the web:

Wanted: Production Assistant, Monocle Web & Broadcast

Production Assistant, Monocle Web & Broadcast

Monocle.com is the broadcast arm of Monocle, producing high-quality audio and video related to subjects covered in the magazine. The website, and corresponding mobile channels, aim to 'raise the bar' for internet-based video, both in terms of editorial and production values.

Monocle is looking for a highly motivated, skilled all-rounder to join our core team in London, helping with the creation of both the website and the new broadcast-led formats it carries.

Looks like RTÉ are about to do DRM :-)

RTÉ have a notice up on Aertel (this one) saying that 252 kHz will be off air from 09.00 on 26/03/07 until 18.00 on 30/03/07.
"Network requires this outage for the transmitter replacement project. At the end of this outage the new transmitter will be operational".

Yay!

The Now Show returns to Radio 4

I've just heard the first episode of the new series of the Now Show on Radio 4. I have two tickets for next week's recording, but after hearing tonight's show, I'll not be using them!

New website: Media Helping Media

I just noticed a link to the Media Helping Media website, on Richard Sambrook's blog.

It describes iself thus:
Media Helping Media is for all involved in promoting freedom of expression in countries where the media is under threat.

Given the tightening up planned for the BBC Chinese Service, I hope Media Helping Media becomes widely used.

Degen DE 1105 review update – it's broken!

My Degen 1105 is more or less out of service. Why? Because the aerial fell out! The telescopic antenna is fitted into the body of the radio, so there’s no joint for it to turn around outside the set.
Two segments of the aerial have fallen out. So it’s fairly useless – you can put the segments back in, but they just fall out again, and the connection is unreliable, needless to say.

This reminded me to root out the DE 1102. All AM is dodgy on that, MF and HF. I think the ferrite rod came lose first, and then I poked around at it zapping the shortwave coverage.
I'm a bit disappointed at the build quality of the Degens now -- they feel very solid, but mine have both failed inside, mechanically.

MSF time signal changes

the UK's reference source longwave signal is changing, as reported on Media Network. They are moving transmitter site. So the fixed phrase will have to change! "MSF Rugby" is becoming MSF Anthorn.

During yesterday's test, I noticed the singal meter on my radio-controlled watch was blank – and that never happens when I'm in the UK or Ireland! It was 11:56, and the test was due to finish at 12:00, so I put the watch on the window sill and told it to "GET" – it hadn't updated in the early hours. The watch has a little signal meter, of three bars – that mean time data and date data are both being received. For a few minutes it could only get one bar. After that it reached two – which I think means time data is being received. Then by 11:58, it started to get full strength, but it kept fluctuating between level 2 and 3. After 12, I asked it to calibrate again, and it did no problem.

It's possible my wall clock missed an overnight calibration too, as I was half-woken by an odd whirring in the middle of the night. Once I figured out what it might be, I noticed that I could still hear the second hand ticking merrily along, so I imagine it might have been the minute or hour hands doing their thing.

I never opened my eyes though so who knows!


ooooh. But now I've jsut noticed: the wall clock is a minute slow! Golly.

BTW, the watch is this Casio, and it's fab!

Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro headphones

I was given a pair of these in late January. By all accounts they are very good. I’m not in any position to judge to be honest, as I haven’t much to compare them to.

I’ve been using them at home in the place of the DT-100s. So far I have this to say:
They’re very comfy. They block out a ton of outside sounds, I reckon more than the DT-100s.

So far the sound quality has only struck me in one example. I am now much more aware of the hiss in recordings made on the Edirol R-09 with its built-in mics.

I haven’t compared them directly, but for isolation alone, the DT 770’s absolutely wipe the floor with the Sennheiser HD-480 (modified by Canford) that we use as standard issue in the BBC. I’ve seen training videos of BBC Radio 1 newsbeat presenters using the DT 770s. Good!

Being very childish…

China National Radio have moved their web addresses to one: cnr.cn.

All very good, I'm sure. So I have to look for vulgar juvenile fun. Click the link for 中广演播厅。

And look at the web address that appears.

Sorry, but it must be done :-)

More in the Guardian

http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2021124,00.html

It opens thus:

Access denied


Frustrated by government jamming and dwindling audience figures, staff at the BBC's China service are worried about an increasingly uncertain future. John Plunkett reports on the dilemmas facing the corporation

Monday February 26, 2007………



There'll probably be an update tomorrow – after a big announcement today.

Article in the Guardian

So now I know why the press office sounded pressured today…
http://media.guardian.co.uk/radio/story/0,,2013029,00.html

Upcoming posts

I've been shamefully absent! But I promise to update the blog in the next week. I'll be adding to my reviews, of the AKG K27i headphones, the Pure PocketDAB 2000, and the Degen DE 1105.

I'll also add a review of sorts, of the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro cans.

In the meantime though: I'll be at the BBC Chinese stand in Chinatown on Sunday -- Chinese New Year -- so if you're around, come and say hello! We might even give you some freebies, if you're nice to us.
And speak Chinese.
And fill in a questionaire.

Maybe.

See you there!

Updating Blog – losing Chinese

I've jsut updated my blog, from the old Blogger to the Google Account thingamy. Fairly painless. All I had to do was re-order the sidebar, and retype the one bit of Chinese here, the link to Heather's blog. The Chinese doesn't look as clear as before, at least on Mac OS X.
Otherwise, all good.

Little Star -- good documentary on RTE R1

I've a backlog of Documentary on One podcasts -- that's from RTE Radio 1. It's a weekly 45 minute slot.

At the top of the list was one from December. With a name like "Little Star", I assumed it was something Christmassy, and put off listening "for the time being".

I had a listen at the weekend, and it's really good! Bear in mind the podcast removes the cue, so I heard it without any info at the beginning. I hope the cue was short! Cos this documentary has lovely surprises in it.

It's a very good documentary. No flash effects, but an interesting enough story presented very well.

Reuters AlertNet MediaBridge

A pleasant surprise today in the inbox from Reuters AlertNet. Their MediaBridge.
They describe it as:

"tools and services developed to help journalists cover humanitarian crises through a handy one-stop shop on our website, "AlertNet for journalists":

http://www.alertnet.org/mediabridge/index.htm

New features include hotspot mapping, which allows you to search, scan and zoom in on the world's crises through an advanced Microsoft mapping system, and e-learning for journalists, where we'll be constantly adding new humanitarian training modules on topics ranging from how aid works to understanding famine.

This is in addition to our other tools developed as part of MediaBridge. All our free services can be accessed from the microsite link above, including up-to-date crisis briefings, aidworld contacts and the AlertNet World Press Tracker."

I've kicked the tyres, and I like it! I think it applies as much to someone bound to an office in London as elsewhere. I have an idea of the strength of radio, and wish I could use it for humanitarian good. After all, my first radio job was Reports From Developing Countries, and I still regret not having done a better job of it. But that's another story! Right now, I'm happy the Reuters Foundation has given us this. I've put a link in the side column, and I intend to be a regular visitor.

Music royalties might get paid by Chinese radio stations

Last month, that bastion of radio blogging, Radio Netherland's Media Network, carried this story.

Methods and standards of paying royalties should be promulgated this year. A law about paying royalties has been on the books for six years, it says, but since there wasn't a method in place...

In 2004, when I was a feature producer in China Radio International (CRI), I got a talking to for refusing to use James Bond theme music on an interview with Sir Roger Moore (Yes, it is far and away the biggest interview I've ever done!).

The interview was for Unicef, and made only one mention of Bond in the whole 23 minutes. But the main reason I didn't want to use the music was because it's very distinctive and I didn't want to be held responsible if an angry Hollywood studio came along demanding.. well, demanding anything at all. Working in CRI encourages cowardice (at least in people like me, and party members. But not everyone...!)

So. For the second time that year, the features editor Li Peichun sat me down and explained earnestly: look, we had a meeting once, and "we decided, copyright doesn't apply to us".

I got away without using the music, as we were close to TX.

It's going to be a huge shock to the system for Chinese radio stations to start reporting the use of music. However you can be sure the regulations won't be enacted, or maybe enforced, until the main broadcasters have the "methods and standards" all sorted out -- in other words automated into their audio databases and playout systems. I wish that were the case in the World Service! Still, it keeps me busy on admin shifts.

Some more stuff on royalties and copyright in China. In 2006, I believe CRI received a letter from AP's legal representatives, demanding they stop cutting and pasting AP stories onto their website. This would have suited some of the editors there: stories referring "the wrong way" to Chinese history, politics etc have appeared on the CRI website. (example) You can hardly blame the short-contracted and under-paid web staff, way down at the bottom of the pile there, for copy-pasting longer stories.
Of course if the editors don't check it properly, that's another matter.

The Sound of Life

I'm listening online to a series from July - September. It was on Radio 4, and is called The Sound of Life. It's about sound in the natural world, and in natural ecosystems (not Sound Ecology, something I've only just discovered. I'm looking forward to learning more about that, though it's a bit daunting for now).

The Sound of Life is a good programme. Traditional Radio 4, sure, but there is a lot of nature sounds, more so than in the usual nature and science programmes there. So far, I'm loving it.

So far means I'm on programme three of eight. Here is the webpage, with all eight episodes there to listen again.