Oxfam Alpaca

It's not related, but I've quite fallen in love with this ad since I saw it yesterday :-)

Radios for Christmas in Ireland

A few weeks back, a friend asked about getting a DAB radio as a gift for someone in Ireland. Here's more or less what I wrote:

There's isn't a full DAB service in Ireland, just a trial of the national stations, around Dublin and Louth. Some border areas can get DAB from the north, but I doubt anyone on the south-east, where Welsh TV is widely received, would be able to get DAB. Maybe, on a hill, with a big aerial on a big pole. But not all that convenient, especially when you have satellite.

There's only one set that'll be much use in Ireland, and it's from an Irish-owned company. This Morphy Richards, only available from one place in the UK.

Comparatively future proof DAB, and DRM, the international equivalent (only a handful of stations there -- including both my current and previous employers), plus a good old AM FM radio and SD card slot.

I should recommend a Web radio to be honest -- not those useless MP3 only jobs of yore, but the ones you see advertised on www.reciva.com – some available in Currys as well as online. You need to have a wi-fi router at home, but once you have that, you have a fab choice of stations -- though I'm not sure about battery life, if they even run off batteries.

Maaayybeeee a Sky Gnome, which basially relays the output of whatever you have ont he Sky box to about 50m away. Ideally though, you'll need a second Sky box, hidden away somewhere to let the Gnome user listen to whatever they like without disturbing whoever wants to watch TV!

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Since then: More people say Santa is bringing RTÉ a DRM transmitter tuned to 252kHz – yay!

Handy quote about the BBC

Online I'm reading an article from yesterday's Media Guardian. I haven't finished it yet, but so far there is this dandy quote (which you may interpret as you like!) about the BBC:

"If the BBC has a persistent bias, it's less political than, so to speak, attitudinal - a set of shared secular, liberal, urban, European values and prejudices so deep under the skin that many don't even notice they are there."


The article is by Timothy Garton Ash.

France 24

France24 has launched online, 24 hours before going launching on TV.

Overall I'm impressed! The presentation is nice. The anchors are standing, with a gooseneck mic to the left and right.
Standing improves your voice on-air, and every little helps in a glass walled studio!

I started watching a few minutes after it launched, but the stream was very jittery and I gave up, just a moment before Andrea Sanke's little outburst.
Later on in the night the stream has been a lot smoother.

I like the way the camera switches to a wider shot between the cue and a new package. But in one package I saw, an English speaker (Nancy Pelosi) was voiced over into French, and it wasn't corrected for at least 2 hours. And they have been repeating the same packages, not reversioning.

The news agenda really doesn't look like anything new, I have to say. Lots of agency footage, with, so far, the same perspective as we would expect from the two market leaders.

There's isn't much incentive to chose it over CNN, BBC World, or EuroNews. It hasn't struck me as a different European offering. I think I'll stay with Al Jazeera International for a different perspective. A couple of CCTV 9 style promotional pieces haven't done too much to endear! But I must say again, it is very slick, I''ve only seen & heard it over online streaming, and I enjoy looking out for voices familiar from RFI!

After less than ten hours on-air, the "Frenchness" seems to be in the features more than the bulletins. But I'm not going to judge them this early, of course!

Quote from Jon Snow

I spent a pleasant afternoon in the SOAS library on Friday. Amongst the reading, was Jon Snow's autobiography. I didn't get much past the opening chapters,(time constraints, nothing to do with his writing style!) Anyway, he modestly introduces:
"my wider tale, one from which this reporter emerges at least as blemished as anyone he reports on".

To us all!

Outlook – Ramallah & Jerusalem

I'm listening to Outlook's Schoolday 24, bringing 16 year olds in Ramallah and Jerusalem together. Gripping stuff. Like the similar programme on World Have Your Say in September. Awesome.

Children on the radio, and China

One of the first feature programmes I made was in China Radio International, on Children's Day. Incidentally, in China June 1st is referred to as International Children's Day – while most non-communist countries use that to refer to the UN Children's day, on November 20th.

I went off to one of the international schools outside Beijing – what a school! It was only my second or third interview, and I wasn't to great – I didn't write down their names, and so kept forgetting them. Oops. And it was a little bit difficult to mic me and three children – one with a very quiet voice.

Anyway. They managers in CRI weren't terribly impressed with the content of the interview. I'm deeply ashamed of the utterly awful studio intro and closing I added – gaaaa! I'm not a presenter, no way!

Being a good new producer, I asked one of the bosses what I should have done to make a better show for Children's Day. "I would have interviewed one of their teachers".
So who would I interview on Teacher's Day, I thought. Frankly, I wasn't too impressed. I knew as much then as I do now, that Children need to be heard, and need to be listened to. We can learn a huge amount from children, about growing up, about living, about how adult prejudices are carried on down to younger people.

Later, on the webite of Glenn Hauser's World OF Radio, I saw a report that that week, the CRI engineers had been testing a new DRM capable transmitter, relaying that day's news & feature hour something like 8 times. That resulted in co-channel interference of a regular transmission from another country. But that report finished with something like "a good journalistic job on the interview with foreign kids". I was unsure it wasn't tongue in cheek, but my was it rewarding!

Incidentally, after a few weeks of DRM test transmissions, that transmitter out in Kashi (Kashgar), was more than likely used for jamming, of Chinese language shortwave transmissions from abroad, such as my current employer!

But that'll not change anytime soon. We can hope to get more young people on the radio though

We simply have to get children and teenagers on the radio more!

Maybe if teens and younger are on the radio more, there would be less acceptance of doing something as "far out there" as having a 12 year old host of BBC World Service's The Interview. Not sure on that…
And teenagers may seem to have the digital technology and society to simply go and "Broadcast themselves" (to paraphrase YouTube). Not everywhere they don't.And compare the people who listen to the World Service with those who use MySpace…

Finally, Auckland's 95bFM has children's programmes: I've only listened once though, so I'll have to tune in again this weekend and publish on that later.

Generation Next

BBC Global News Division is doing a week of programmes about children and teenagers, and it's quite simply fab! Mostly on the BBC World Service, along with BBC World and BBCnews.com.

Yesterday was Schoolday 24, and I can't praise it enough. If you can't get to listen again online, at least grab what you can during the rest of the week on the radio.

This morning, heading into work, I was listening to young teens in Dar es Salaam, Delhi, and London discussing how they view the US presence in Iraq. Later, the Chinese Service did a live hour-long programme with Radio Guangdong, with a phone follow-up later on in World Report. Heading out of work I caught a global debate on science with young people.

And last weekend walking to Sainburys I heard Michael Palin interviewed by a 12 year old boy.

Sure, I work in the World Service: but I had nothing to do with any of the Generation Next output (other than putting one phone call through) – and I wish I had! It's awesome stuff, and I'll be listening back online.

London Chinese Radio

Just a quick catch-up. London Chinese Radio has continued doing live shows via Sound Radio in Hackney every Sunday (16:00 - 17:00). We've only missed a couple of live outings so far.

We're looking forward to the second round of community licences being advertised in London and the Southeast next year, and expanding our media literacy angle.