Pirates Ahoy

The FM dial in London is a mess of pirates blotting out many of the legitimate broadcasters.


I was talking to someone who once ran a pirate station he was moaning about the new wave of operators – He said: ‘They’re all a bunch of criminals with guns and drugs’ Whilst I thought there was a certain irony to this statement he is basically right.

Policing of the airwaves does not come under the jurisdiction of the police but rather the civil servants of Ofcom, this might have been fine in the days when a lone anorak with a battery transmitter was interfering with BBC Radio Kent, but now organised crime has got involved is it time to have a dedicated police task force that has the job of removing the drug runners and gangsters from our airwaves?

What rhymes with bucket?

Why Jack and Jill who went up a hill can improve the ratings of your radio station?


We all remember those childhood rhymes - they were simple and catchy – remind you of something? Yes the good old fashioned jingle, much maligned and much parodied still has a place on your radio station. Even it isn’t a whole rhyme just a catchphrase – how many people have started to use the Compare the Meerkat phrase ‘simples’?

The jingle started with ‘Wheaties’ an American breakfast cereal. In 1926 some smarty pants decided to write and air a catchy song about the stuff on a radio station in Minneapolis. A year or so later General Foods who made the cereal had only sold 53,000 packets across the US but 30,000 of the 53,000 packets of cereal had been sold in the listening area of the radio station – the jingle was born.

Digital switchover by 2069

It will take 60 years for us all to convert to digital radio - says UTV Media's Scott Taunton.  He claims there are 120 million FM radios in the UK.  Source Radio Today

DAB World

A sepia toned newsreel crackles to life and the Eton clipped voice announces ‘Plucky Britain goes it alone with DAB’ Has the world radio industry turned its back on DAB?


Given a choice countries that are embracing DAB are choosing DAB+ with its better sounding, better error correction algorithm. Broadcasting standards like HDTV, BluRay and DVD are worldwide. So just where does that leave the DAB standard on the world stage? Can Britain go it alone with plain old DAB and why are so many countries turning their back on DAB? A lot of questions for the UK industry to answer.
Read James Cridland's excellent response to this post below. 

Is it a newspaper? online radio station? TV streamer? or all three?

Online radio station SunTalk gave former X-Factor stars John and Edward their first live radio interview since leaving the show.
SunTalk producer Sam Gregory: "To have Jedward in the studio was a great coup for us - particularly as they've dominated the discussions on our show since the X Factor finals began. Their appearence demonstrates the unique way we can produce multi-platform content with audio and visual content for online and coverage in the newspaper" Source Radio Today

It's Good News Week

Read in the Evening Standard (which is FREE)  that Murdoch and son want to charge for their news content on the internet - think the idea is doomed do you?

The BBC has today said it has "no intention" of charging for online news, in a declaration that is unlikely to please James Murdoch and his father Rupert as they prepare to start charging for News Corporation content on the internet.

Sir Michael Lyons, the BBC Trust chairman, said the corporation has "no intention of diluting BBC commitment to universal access to free news online" as he outlined the areas director general Mark Thompson's ongoing strategic review will cover. (Source The Guardian)

Another fine mess

Germany, France and Austria have now put their DAB plans on hold, Malta the latest country to go with DAB has chosen DAB+ as a standard.  Here at home the Government are still keen to switch FM off in a few years time.. it looks like the UK is going it alone with its digital future. Read more at Radio Today (Pic credit creative commons)