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.