Excuses excuses…

Just an excuse me for the current silence: I've had my eyes lasered (by the lovely people at Optical Express Shaftesbury Avenue), and that means a bit less computer work for a while.
I'll be on Sound Radio on Sunday, with Zhang Rui and Daniel, so I'll hopefully be more or less up to speed by then :-)

I've been listening to loads of radio in my recuperating days, more on terrestrial than the usual online and freeview-via-iMac stuff. I came across CRI a few times on shortwave. I'm not even sure it's an improvement on Realtime Beijing… But anyway, it made me realise, aside from all the moral considerations, I don't want to be associated with rubbish Chinese radio anymore!

Now to apply some more artificial tears!

Community radio – how do you guide volunteers?

How to guide volunteers in making programmes is a difficult part of community radio, when you yourself are not quite part of that community.
Ok I'll stop saying "you", and use "I" instead!

There are two issues up front: first, language. My Chinese simply isn't good enough to clearly express sentiments like: engage the listener, draw in the listener, surprise.

And secondly, maybe it's wrong to impose our radio values on Chinese people. Maybe Chinese people aren't going to be engaged by an intriguing introduction.

True, I don't ever remember hearing anything engaging like that on domestic radio in China (and certainly not on CRI!). It did engage, but by personality. There are some top-notch people at that on air in Beijing!

But being from Europe, I know I could say the same thing about most of what's to be heard over here.

But maybe that's just an excuse!



Let's look at some of the jobs foreigners do in CRI, as an example. Oh yes, I should have said: CRI is China Radio International, where I am ashamed to say I used to work. Well, not so ashamed that I don't actually say it.
You get a government news release, of a minister or his (very occasionally her) spokesperson, translated in English. It says even less than the government news releases here, just in more words. Basically, it says how great the minister is.

And then our job was to polish it – make it sound good. So, you can either turn it round totally, and say: There have, as feared by some, been problems with such-and-such, and the government has been forced to react: or you can just correct the grammar.

They experienced broadcasters who had to read the stuff would change the stuff around. Then their editor would change it again to sound less negative.

I vacillated in how I re-wrote these things. Sometimes I would write and editor-friendly version, and sometimes I'd just leave the rubbish as it was. Basically, because I was happy to show up Chinese politicians as empty wind-bags – better yet, I wasn't doing a thing, I was letting them show themselves up.

Now let's move the radio station, from a government propaganda unit, to an independent, community station in Europe. This is a hypothetical move, by the way: London Chinese Radio is not in that situation, and our content is utterly different.

So. The cue makes clear what we are going to be talking about. Then how do you open the package? The two choices on the table are:

1. Set a scene relating to the geographical community, without naming where you're going, then lead to an actuality that paints a picture of the package's topic,

or

2. Say that if you want to get to this place, here's where it is; and now the sound that paints a picture of the package's topic.


Maybe the choice is easy for a European (or maybe that's just me!). But how can I come along and say which should be used in a Chinese radio piece? I have met plenty of Chinese radio producers who would make the same choice as I would, but they are all here, in London. Maybe recent immigrants don't want that, and would simply switch off.

How much can I steer people making packages? Why, if only my Chinese was better… :-P

Back!

Woohoo! Back after a long time away… all thanks to nothing more than shoddy ISP services. In the true tradition of blogs, I'll tell the whole story in a post soon.
And f course a load of radio catching up to do! Like, for example, London Chinese Radio live shows, package making with more traditionally-minded volunteers, concepts of community media, and whatever else comes to mind :-)

Podmore!

Not podcasting, but Dave Podmore, the fab cricket comedy from Radio 4 – the first series has just finished on BBC7, and starting next Wednesday, the follow-up series. Check it out!

LCR: Chen Li & Kingsley

What a show! Really innovative stuff from Chen Li and Kingsley (who you can see in the training photos down near the beginning of the blog) – using the TV quiz type format to simply inform foreigners about Chinese culture.

Then we had a package from Yizhou – we first met her on Tuesday evening, and already she had a piece on the radio! That's part of what community radio is about.
It just a shame that the files on the playout system (I believe it's Myriad) went wonky while on air :( Chen Li, ex BBC Conti, coped fabulously of course! But we do have to move on now, to make sure we have backups. The studio has CD players, which we should have lined up with all our main actuality.

This coming Sunday it'll be Zhang Rui and I, and hopefully we can have all our audio on my iPod and plugged into the desk just in case :-)

LCR on Sunday 8 October 2006

I don't know who the host is this weekend! I think it's Chen Li and Luke. Tune in at the usual times (as below) to find out!

Black History Month

It's Black History Month here in the UK. For now, I don't think I'll be producing any radio relating to it though: I haven't come up with any leads for London Chinese Radio (well, there is one, short fun piece, but it needs someone who speaks both Swahili and Cantonese or Mandarin, and I haven't found one yet!).

As for whatever stuff I might do myself (on occasion!), I don't have quite enough really!

The most promising – and disturbing – lead comes from my surname. Am I descended from Anthony/Antoine Walsh, this guy, a man who made his fortune and was honoured, for dealing in slaves, out of Nantes.

The little investigations I've made say I'm unlikely to find out without a lot of work – maybe as much as working out 300 years worth of family tree. I'll not get that done this month then!

What I do know is that Antoine Walsh is a "Kilkenny Walsh", as am I.

The way that man made his money was deeply immoral. For some reason, I feel the need to tell people about it. But I still haven't found something terribly interesting to say about it on the radio.


My other ideas for this month are a whole lot lighter… but I'll type them up some other time.

Grace & Barry LCR Music special

Grace and Barry did the LCR on Sound Radio show yesterday, and gave us a new format for the hour: a music special, with a large number of songs and expert analysis of them by Barry. I think I prefer the format of the previous week, but we simply must celebrate the diversity and experimentation. Very well done! I think we should seriously getting a specialist music show for Barry.

Unfortunately I was stuck outside the reception area for the first 25 minutes or so, meaning I missed the opening. So now I can tell, that with a Degen 1105, you won't get Sound Radio 1503 in Shepherd's Bush, Bayswater, or Paddington!

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.

Busy busy busy

All busy in London Huayu land, for or first scheduled live transmissions, coming up in a couple of weeks! The magic words are: Sound Radio 1503.

http://www.soundradio.org.uk/index.php

and as ever

http://www.londonhuayu.co.uk/