Radio Days

Radio: Broadband internet and DAB digital has led to a revival of the medium in a lot of people's lives. The working person has always relied on it to relieve the boredom of days, as has the long distance driver - but now it belongs to everyone again, with a wider range of stations available than ever before. As I have found myself glued to my Xbox controller over the last few weeks I have often chosen to turn the sound down and put the radio on in the background. I have done some experimenting up and down "the dial", but mostly it has been about 2 stations - BBC's Five Live, for their excellent sports coverage and match commentaries; and Virgin FM, for some decent playlists and the musings of my old pal Vic Reeves as a newly christened DJ. Listening to Vic tonight was especially amusing as he hadn't heard of half of the bands being requested and kept going on about the best ever sandwich (his being beetroot and mayo!). I've also been trying to get my head around Podcasts on iTunes, a free subscription based service where anyone with an iPod can transmit their own station. Larger stations use the facility too, it seems, to broadcast shows and highlights of shows that folk might have missed and can pick up on the move... Or something - I don't have an iPod so just listened to a few really dodgy ones on my PC... Talk about a waste of time! But it could become huge when it becomes more user friendly and the quality shows are filtered out. All a long way from huddling around a big wooden box in the corner of the room waiting for the king's speech of a Christmas morning. Or maybe not so much... Kx