Category: Audio
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Radio Stats Misuse
I watched Chris Addison’s enjoyable The Hunt For Middle England documentary over the weekend. A little long, but otherwise an entertaining piece. However, at one point, having been told that a town in Derbyshire might best represent “Middle England”, Chris pitched up at BBC Radio Derby to broadcast a request on their morning show for…
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Cowboy Junkies
I missed the Cowboy Junkies when they visited in January, so I had to catch this very acoustic set at the Union Chapel in Islington earlier this evening. The Union Chapel itself is an octagonal auditorium dominated by a massive pulpit and is still used as a church. As the event was unreserved seating, and…
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Streaming Radio – US v UK
So the big news in the US at the moment is the announcement by the Copyright Royalty Board of the prices for internet radio royalty rates. A summary can be found here on Radio and Internet Newsletter site. As that same site points out, the prices being talked about, based on a “per play” basis…
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The Police
So the “exciting” news today is that The Police, who recently reformed for the Grammys, are touring the UK this autumn. I have no real desire to either see them or not see them, but I am very interested in their ticket prices. First of all, I understand that tickets at Twickenham will cost £107…
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New Band’s Web Presence
It must be awfully difficult being an up and coming band. Sure, making the records and touring must be hard work, but maintaining your online presence is truly daunting. Since taking an advantage of an offer on the Virgin Radio site for a free track from the band Ghosts, I’ve ended up on their mailing…
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I Hate The Brits
Wrote this last week, but I forgot to put it live, so better late than never. And there’s yet more original research in this! I hate the Brits. I hate hate hate hate hate hate them. I really don’t like them at all. Now this is completely irrational, and I can’t exactly explain why. I…
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Five Live
A very interesting piece on BBC Radio Five Live by Tim Luckhurst in this weekend’s Independent on Sunday. He was an assistant editor of the station when it launched in 1994. I’m not sure that I altogether agree with everything Luckhurst has to say about the station. The basic tenet of his argument is that…
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The The
No, not the band. But the current obsession with bands whose names begin “The —-.” It can’t just be me, but there seem to be evermore of them – particularly in the indie/rock genre that my employer plays. It’s certainly true that there have always been bands with names that start “The”. Most obviously bands…
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Radio Gaming
Lots of excitement from Unique about them getting Chris Tarrant back onto commercial radio to host a series of programmes called Small Price 2 Pay. Tarrant is quoted as saying: “I am very excited about this new project for digital radio, where once again I find myself in the hot seat, giving away big cash…
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To Be DRM’d or Not To Be DRM’d
Steve Jobs has posted a long piece on the future of DRM in music. It seems that he can see the writing on the wall, and he ends the piece effectively arguing for the abolition of DRM (“It wasn’t out idea guv! The record companies insisted on it.”). There’s a certain amount of self-interest here.…
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Back To Square One
If it weren’t for the fact that I’m going to be at the match, I’d be tuning in to BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra this Sunday to hear an alternate version of the commentary. As this piece explains, back in 1927 from the first radio commentaries, each week’s Radio Times would publish a chart…
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Radio Comedy
Today’s Media Guardian leads off on a big piece about the state of play of radio comedy in this country at the moment. The piece is titled “Why Radio Comey Is a Joke”, although all it seems to do is question whether quite as many radio series are making it through to TV as they…
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Paul Temple and the Sullivan Mystery
Paul Temple is one of those radio detective serials, the likes of which no longer exists today. The radio serials were broadcast between the 1930s and 1960s with a number of different actors and actresses playing Temple and his wife Steve. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the series, you almost certainly will be familiar with…