23rd December 2007

 Father Christmas has revived that other Wireless Waffle Site!

21st December 2007

Waffler

It is the season of goodwill, but have I just imagined it or has the other wireless waffle site disappeared? Looked at it this evening and saw that the server it was on had expired.   I know how I would feel if that happened to me so I just want to say I am sorry that has happened to whoever runs the other wireless waffle site.  If he or she wants to submit any articles for this site I would be happy to host them in my magazine section.  BEWARE IF YOU VISIT THE OTHER WIRELESS WAFFLE SITE http://www.mf2fm.com/blog/ IF YOU CLICK ON ANY OF THE LINKS IT RELEASES A VIRUS CALLED EXPLOIT - TOP MARKS TO MY AVG ANTI VIRUS FOR FINDING IT AND ISOLATING IT!    DO NOT MISTAKE THAT SITE FOR MY GENUINE WIRELESS WAFFLE

My Mirror site at http://wirelesswaffle.ecv.vg is being rather slow or non existent at times. This is due to circumstances beyond my control. The site is provided free by 2ip.com and I am very grateful to them for it. I choose to put some items on this site and apologise if you cannot always access them. If Virgin gave me more than 55mb then I may be able to contain everything on one server.   I have posted a comment and request on their site asking why this is so.

News from other sources

Radio Today
19 December 2007

Ofcom is inviting declarations of intent from prospective applicants
interested in taking over the licence currently held by Radio Jackie. If
more than one declaration is received, the licence will be fully advertised
next year.

If Radio Jackie is the only company to submit a declaration, Ofcom has said
they will still need to reapply for the licence, albeit under a fast-track
procedure.

The Kingston-upon-Thames station's licence is due to expire on 28 February
2009, and the closing-date for the receipt of declarations of intent from
prospective licence applicants is 3.00pm on Wednesday 16 January 2008.

Anyone wishing to put in a bid is expected to pay Ofcom a £5,000 application
fee and a £20,000 deposit, which will be refundable upon receipt by Ofcom of
a valid application.

The new or extended licence will run to the end of 2015.

http://www.radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.2841.1

18th December 2007

Waffler:

I discovered Westside Radio on 89.6 from Southall on Monday.  It has a fresh on air sound, and has a different output to what one would expect from Southall.  Southall has become a broadcasting capital of sorts with stations on medium wave, satellite and FM.

I have also updated and edited the recommended stations journal, information section and history sections on the site. This is long overdue and I hope you will visit them soon.  

As a Christmas Treat I have also uploaded a copy of the site as it was in 2001  to the mirror site, which I am sorry to say has been exasperatingly slow to load today. Sadly there is not enough space to include all of the audio files.  I can supply a cd copy of the site if you wish for the cost of £4 to include postage - there are a few links that do not work but overall a good archive copy.  Please email wirewaffle@hotmail.com to order a copy, payment by Paypal is preferred.   I was fond of animated files in those days and had quite a few on site!   There is a link to this on the index page of the site

News from other sources:

Ofcom is inviting declarations of intent from prospective applicants interested in taking over the licence currently held by Radio Jackie. If more than one declaration is received, the lience will be fully advertised next year.

God, Pirates And Ovaltinies
Saturday 5 January
8.00-9.00pm BBC RADIO 4

God, Pirates And Ovaltinies, presented by Sean Street, Professor of
Radio at Bournemouth University, explores the tension between the BBC
and commercial radio stations, and the cultural and technical
revolution in sound broadcasting in the Thirties.

From 1920 to the late Thirties, the battle for UK radio audiences was
primarily a contest between the BBC and the commercial European radio
stations, such as Radio Normandy, Radio Toulouse and Poste Parisien,
all broadcasting populist sponsored English language programming.

Radio audiences were huge, especially among the working-class
population of Britain, and particularly on Sundays, which for the BBC
remained "The Lord's Day". The Radio Times listing for Sunday 5 March
1939 includes five religious programmes broadcast between 9.30am and
10.30pm.

The eventual birth of the famous children's show The League Of
Ovaltinies, broadcast on Sunday afternoons, was the commercial answer
to a public longing for entertainment, drawing vast audiences.

Presenter/Sean Street, Producer/Julian May

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A recent email I received:

We have just launched the 'Save the LV18' campaign and will hopefully be able to raise the £150,000 to keep this classic Lightvessel in her home port of Harwich.

Following the great success of the 'Pirate BBC Essex' broadcast in August, we have pleasure in announcing that the new DVD film, 'Pirates Waive Goodbye....?' was released on Friday. It's 108 minutes long and is available online at WWW.LV18.CO.UK - price £15.00 incl. p+p...OR by mail from:

'Pirates Waive Goodbye....?' , THE HIGH LIGHTHOUSE, HARWICH, ESSEX, CO12 3HH.

Cheques payable to 'LV18'.

The film includes an exclusive interview with Johnnie Walker, our new Patron of the charity.

Thanks for your continued support. Have a merry christmas and a healthy new year.


Regards,

Tony O'Neil.
Trustee, Pharos Trust,
LV18 Project,
Harwich Harbour.
Registered charity No. 1090325.

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BBC Radio 3 has unveiled details of its winter drama season.

Headlining the offerings is an adaptation of Douglas Coupland's 1998 novel Girlfriend in a Coma. Set in Vancouver, it follows the story of a teenage girl who falls into a 17 year coma, and details what happens to her friends both during and after that time. It is named after The Smiths' 1987 single.

Hitchhikers' Guide star Martin Freeman is to star in The Picture Man from David Eldridge. In the play, which goes on air in January, he will play a man distraught at the lack of community and civility in society.

Haasan Abdulrazzak's Baghdad Wedding, which won praise for its Lisa Goldman-directed run at the Soho Theatre, also forms part of the lineup.

Heart 106.2 has hired four new presenters to add to its 2008 line-up.

The London station has poached Matt Wilkinson from Nottingham's Trent FM to take over its evening slot. He replaces Paul Hayes who will continue his Club Classics shows on Friday and Saturday nights.

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In the first stages of a new weekend strategy Heart has also appointed three new women presenters.

Television host Natalie Pinkham will front new show Feelgood Friday from 4-6pm.

Also joining, to the 7-10pm Sunday slot, is former model Abbie Eastwood. Natalie B will take over an unspecified weekend show.

Mark Browning, programme director, commented: "I believe passionately that commercial radio should be at the forefront in nurturing new radio talent.

"This new line-up includes new shows and fresh faces, each with a very different background, which will further strengthen the radio station in 2008."

Also, Simon Beale's 10pm-1am weekdays programme will be renamed from Late Show to Heartbreakers and now offer "new as well as classic ballads".

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The Toronto Star carries a feature about RAM-FM, the only Palestinian-licensed, English-language radio station in the Holy Land. RAM-FM’s founder and patron is Issie Kirsh, a South African entrepreneur who was among the prime movers behind Radio 702 in South Africa.

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This New Years Eve BBC Radio 1s Pete Tong Annie Mac Eddie Halliwell plus drumbass dons Pendulum take to the decks to create the ultimate Radio 1 soundtrack to the biggest night of the year.  From midnight till 5am, BBC Radio 1 DJ's are taking to the decks to provide a five-hour extravaganza of stop-less dance music.

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All-round radio legend Tony Blackburn has joined Hull and East Yorkshire station KCFM 99.8 to host a weekly show each Friday.

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EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK: Over a year on from their change in ownership, both Century FM stations, based in the North West and North East, of England will relaunch in January 2008 as Century Radio, with a new logo and new production.

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Another shameless plug. Just to let you know my documentary "When
Pirates Ruled the Waves" is being broadcast again over Christmas and
the New Year. The hour-long documentary commemorates the 40th
anniversary of the Marine Offences Act, and was originally broadcast
on 20 BBC Local Radio stations over the August Bank Holiday. Some are
repeating it over Christmas, others are taking it for the first time.

It includes interviews with Ronan O'Rahilly, Johnnie Walker, Tony
Blackburn, Kenny Everett, Roger Day, Ed Stewart, Tom Edwards, Keith
Skues, Ray Teret, Martin Kayne, Dave Williams, Alan Turner, Graham
Webb, Roger Gale, Jack McLaughlin, Screaming Lord Sutch, Tony Benn,
George Saunders, and Gary Leeds of the Walker Brothers.

For those who can't pick up the stations, all BBC Locals have
the "listen live" facility on the internet.

Listeners across the BBC South region will be able to hear it on
Christmas Day at 1800, during the excellent Roger Day Show .

CHRISTMAS EVE MONDAY DECEMBER 24

BBC RADIO OXFORD - 1700

CHRISTMAS DAY TUESDAY DECEMBER 25

BBC COVENTRY AND WARWICKSHIRE - 1800

BBC RADIO KENT - 1800
BBC RADIO BERKSHIRE - 1800
BBC RADIO SOLENT - 1800
BBC SOUTHERN COUNTIES RADIO - 1800
BBC RADIO OXFORD - 1800
(*** THIS WILL BE BROADCAST ACROSS THE BBC SOUTH REGION AS PART OF
THE ROGER DAY SHOW)

BOXING DAY WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 26

BBC RADIO NORFOLK - 1800

THURSDAY DECEMBER 27

BBC RADIO DEVON - 1600

FRIDAY DECEMBER 28

BBC RADIO LEICESTER - 1600

SUNDAY DECEMBER 30

BBC RADIO YORK - 1700

NEW YEAR'S EVE MONDAY DECEMBER 31

BBC RADIO CAMBRIDGE - 1800
BBC RADIO JERSEY - 1800
BBC RADIO LEICESTER - 1800

NEW YEAR'S DAY TUESDAY JANUARY 1

BBC RADIO SOLENT - 1230
BBC RADIO KENT - 1300
BBC RADIO HUMBERSIDE - 1900

PLUS :

KENNY EVERETT : THE BBC LOCAL RADIO YEARS.

My Sony nominated documentary "Kenny Everett : The BBC Local Radio
Years", which was first broadcast at Christmas 2001, will also be
carried on the following stations over the festive period. It means
that every BBC Local Radio station will have carried the programme,
so the set is complete. So thank you.

BROADCAST TIMES

CHRISTMAS EVE - MONDAY DECEMBER 24

RADIO NORTHAMPTON - 1200

NEW YEAR'S EVE MONDAY DECEMBER 31

RADIO LEICESTER - 1300
------------------------------------------------

THANKS
PAUL ROWLEY
BBC POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

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Radio Today
13 December 2007

The UK's first online commercial sound archive featuring classic radio
programmes broadcast on Independent Local Radio during the 1980s is about to
go live, funded by the Arts and Humanities Council.

The 'Independent Local Radio Sharing Archive - the Felicity Wells Memorial
Collection' was launched by broadcaster, radio historian and academic,
Professor Seàn Street, at the RadioCentre in London yesterday.

The project is a partnership between the Centre for Broadcasting History
Research at Bournemouth University, and the British Library Sound Archive.
It contains broadcast material from local commercial radio stations during
the 1980s, including Capital Radio, Piccadilly Radio, Radio Clyde, Red Rose
Radio, LBC and 2CR. It demonstrates commercial radio's programme policy and
production methods during the period and as such provides a unique insight
into commercial radio's response to challenging issues during the era.

The archive includes documentaries such as 'AIDS - The Facts' (LBC, 1987,
when the death toll in the UK was 300 people) and 'Heroin - the Killing of
Christopher' (Mercia Sound, 1985) as well as plays, phone-ins and
interviews.

Project Director, Professor Seàn Street, who wrote the winning bid says "The
'Independent Local Radio Sharing Archive - the Felicity Wells Memorial
Collection' is a unique online resource available for educational purposes
and other non-commercial usage. It contains a wealth of material from the
early days of commercial radio including music and speech-based features and
documentaries. These were made by the local station and 'shared' across the
rest of the UK independent radio network - a forerunner to syndicated
programming".

Professor Street continues "This is the end of a long road and the archive
is only the first part of a three-part online project to make available UK
Commercial Radio's history for educational purposes. In all of this we are
grateful to our partners, the British Universities Film & Video Council
(BUFVC) who have associated the catalogue information and content, and on
whose site our collections will be hosted for future generations of radio
scholars and historians."

The archive is supported by the UK's trade body for commercial radio.
Commenting on the significance of the archive, Andrew Harrison, Chief
Executive of RadioCentre said "The UK's first online commercial radio sound
archive is a fantastic resource which will enable schools, colleges,
researchers and broadcasters themselves to access easily and listen to
commercial radio programmes from the 1980s. The archive has an abundance of
programmes that capture the mood of the time and ensure commercial radio has
its rightful place in broadcasting history. We're absolutely delighted that
the archive is being launched at RadioCentre".

http://www.radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.2816.2

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DECEMBER 13th 2007              

Waffler

We are getting nearer to Christmas so I would like to wish everyone a happy break and a good rest from work and routine.  

I was listening on Saturday night to Brain of Britain on Radio 4 and heard that the name of one of the contestants was rather unusual. His name was George Doodah.  Also one of the questions asked the contestants to spell out TIM in phoenetic language (the great old radio Tango India Mike!  I was hoping on Monday to get a copy of it on the BBC Listen again. Unfortunately the show is broadcast on a Monday and then repeated on Saturday night. The new programme was on line in the evening and I could not get a copy of that. If anyone has one please can you email and let me know wirewaffle@hotmail.com . Thank you in advance.

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News from other sources

Radio Today 7th December 2007

Emap's 38 radio stations, including Magic 105.4, CFM, Radio City and Wave
105 have been sold to Bauer for a total of £422m in cash. The amount
represents otional interest on the base purchase price at a rate of 10% per
annum in the period from 30 September 2007 to completion.

As previously reported, the sale is conditional up on completion of the
disposal of Irish stations Today FM, FM104 and Highland Radio as announced
in July.

Emap intends to return approximately £1 billion (equivalent to approximately
460 pence per share) of the proceeds of the disposals to shareholders. The
precise method and timing of the return of proceeds will be announced in due
course.

http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.2791

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Big L 1395 is now 24 hours on air and on line with the following format:

a.. 00:00 - 01:00 : London Calling
a.. 01:00 - 04:00 : Ray Anderson
a.. 04:00 - 05:00 : Big L Goes Dutch

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One of the UK's smallest radio stations is continuing to makes waves by attracting quality guests and highlighting local issues. Radio Scilly, run by Keri Jones, has broadcast an extended 25 minute interview with an islander who survived when his cruise ship collided with an iceberg in Antarctica.

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Bob Flood was a tour guide aboard the MS Explorer which made global headlines last week. The ship has, ironically, visited Scilly as a cruise liner on a number of occasions. Bob returned to the Isles on Friday afternoon and he immediately agreed to the live interview with Keri Jones because “by telling Radio Scilly everyone on the islands will know what happened and I won’t have to go over it with everyone again and again”.

Bob’s moving account described the sequence of events from the chilling “abandon ship” message by the captain to the severe listing of the cruise liner and the fears of the passengers when the vessel was plunged into darkness while taking on water. As a tour guide, Bob was aware of the seriousness of the situation, made worst when the lifeboats had problem launching and then their engines failed to turn over. If they had hit an ice flow without engines, the passengers would have been crushed to death.

The entire interview is available on the Radio Scilly website and the audio has been given exclusively to Radio Scilly’s mainland content-partner, Atlantic FM.

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Ugly Phil is returning to radio as part of 104.9 XFM’s Christmas schedules. The Former Kerrang! 105.2 presenter will host the weekday breakfast show for two weeks, between Monday 24th December and Friday 4th January.

Ugly Phil (real name Phillip Surridge) left West Midlands-based Kerrang! 105.2 in September once his contract had expired. The show was replaced by the station’s multi-award winning Tim Shaw and former Big Brother winner Kate Lawler.

John Hilcock replaces XFM’s controversial Xu format on mid-mornings for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day. Weekday afternoons are covered on various days by Graeme Smith, Samanthi and Marsha.

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Tuesday 04 December 2007  

IPC Ignite, publishers of NME magazine has teamed up with Xfm founder Sammy Jacob and music company DX Media to launch NME Radio. The station will broadcast via 'various digital platforms' from mid-2008 and will be presenter-driven with alternative music 24 hours a day.

NME publishing director Paul Cheal says: “For NME, it's the next logical step. With an average readership of 499,000 each week and 1.6m unique users on NME.COM every month, the NME brand already has fantastic reach amongst an audience who are notoriously difficult to target. Launching a radio service which allows that audience to hear NME recommended artists first, as well as the very best in indie music, is very exciting for our readers, users and of course our advertisers. Partnering with DX Media and the founder of XFM – Sammy Jacob, and housing the operation here at the Blue Fin Building, illustrates just how seriously NME is taking this venture and how important a platform we see NME Radio becoming.”

Sammy Jacob – DX Media's managing director – adds: “'Indie' has become the mainstream although it might be fairer to say the mainstream has become indie, and in the process – like so many other credible genres – has marginalised the very foundations upon which it was built. NME Radio will re-address the balance – giving much needed exposure to the great new acts that tend to get ignored by traditional broadcast media thereby making radio more relevant in an increasingly fragmented market."

NME Radio will have in-house and national sales house representation. NME Radio will also become part of integrated pitches for the IPC Ignite sales team, allowing clients to extend their campaigns across all platforms.

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Madness frontman Suggs is to leave Virgin Radio due to tour commitments.

Neil Francis will take over his weekday afternoon slot with immediate effect, while Nick Jackson will move from weekends to the weekday drivetime slot.

Suggs started presenting Afternoon Tea as part of a schedule tweak at the station announced last December. He joined the station in 2005.

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Macquarie Bank has handed back its licence to operate a local commercial radio station on FM in Plymouth.

The licence was awarded to Radio UK Holdings, of which Macquarie is the parent company, in March 2006. Today, Ofcom said that Macquarie "has now decided not to take up the licence".

At the time, it was understood that Macquarie planned to launch a station called Diamond FM. The award was controversial as Macquarie's submission was picked over entries from locally-based groups including Drake FM, Radio Plymouth and Plymouth Live.

The licence will now be readvertised by Ofcom.

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30th November 2007

Waffler:

Good to see that Radio 2 can attract star names, like David Beckham, to its programmes.  It is however a pity that this influential broadcaster does not give any opportunity for new broadcasters.  Radio 1 when it first started in 1967 had a spot for new deejays.  Peter Young - the excellent PY the Pork Pie on Smooth Radio on Saturdays was one of those. There were others but I forget their names without diving for a reference book.

I am pleased to see that many people are reaching this site both by the mirror and the main site. I hope in time the web bots on Google will cancel all the links to the Ntlworld site, it must be annoying for people who find them when random surfing. I know that I have been jockeying across a wide range of sites since 1999.  Fortune City and 0catch.com, Compila are among the many supporters of my radio hobby site. There are ghost links forwarding you on to a non existent wirelesswaffle.co.uk site. 

I listened in to Big L and Radio Caroline on Sky this morning for the first time in ages. Someone was sitting in for Stuart Russell on Caroline. Mike Read sounded great on Big L, good on air voice and excellent communicator and pop historian.

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Thursday, November 15 2007, 10:03 GMT

By James Welsh, International Editor

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Ofcom is planning to relax commercial radio stations' quotas for locally produced content.

Currently broadcasters have individual licence agreements but most demand more than ten hours of local shows each day.

In its The Future of Radio report published on Thursday the regulator said this should be changed to an across-the-board ten hour minimum on weekdays. At the weekend it recommends at least four hours.

It is a response to industry demands for less regulation to help stations make money.

Ofcom has also recommended small stations could share "a large proportion" of their local content with nearby stations.

And it said network programming, shared nationally, could now be used for a maximum of three hours a day during weekdays.

Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said: "We are confident that our revised proposals strike the right balance between easing financial pressures faced by industry and safeguarding the interests of listeners."

The RadioCentre, the industry body which called for local programme demands to be cut, said it "broadly welcomed" the proposals.

They are now out to consultation again until December 21.

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BBC Radio Bristol is set to switch its main frequency to 94.9FM, and provide a better signal, from Monday 3 December 2007. Managing Editor of Radio Bristol, Tim Pemberton says: “This is good news for our listeners in and around Bristol as it will mean we now have a high quality signal on 94.9FM. 

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David Beckham has signed up for a Christmas Day Radio 2 show. Listeners to the BBC national station are being invited to ring in and ask the former England team captain questions on the two-hour slot.

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The BBC is working on a prototype for a new "future-looking" digital radio receiver called Olinda, which will combine DAB, wi-fi and social networking, and will allow users to see what their friends are listening to.

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GCap Media's South Hampshire station Ocean FM has been issued a yellow card by Ofcom for not operating within its Format. The station has failed to play predominantly current Adult Contemporary tracks, instead concentrating on adult and alternative modern rock.

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23/11/2007 11:17
Manchester United Radio
Local and match-going fans can tune into Manchester United Radio (1413am) on
every home matchday to hear exclusive interviews with players and coaching
staff, as well as live commentary and post-match analysis.

A host of special guests, including past players, club staff and expert
pundits, also drop into the studio to chat to experienced host Matt Proctor.
Match commentary is provided by David Hooton and Wilf McGuinness.

The next show will be Manchester United Radio's 400th and will be broadcast
on Tuesday 27 November (16:30 GMT until 23:00 GMT), the night United host
Sporting Lisbon at Old Trafford. In addition to interviews with manager Sir
Alex Ferguson and coaches Carlos Queiroz and Mike Phelan, Matt Proctor will
also speak to John O'Shea and Danny Simpson.

Tune in to United Radio on 1413am.

(www.manutd.com)

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Radio Today
26 November 2007

GCap Media's outgoing chief executive Ralph Bernard has spoke up about his
disappointment in the lack of commitment from Ofcom about the switch-off
date for analogue radio. He has urged the Government to set a date to enable
broadcasters to "make a business plan that makes sense".

Speaking to Marketing Week, Ralph says that GCap's national multiplex
Digital One has "a lot of issues" and the arrival of second multiplex next
year will "swamp" the market.

"Digital One is a big challenge. BT has pulled out and Core and Life are
being removed and we are seeking replacements but there is not a great queue
of people waiting to take over."

http://www.radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.2744.5

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Music Week
November 20, 2007
By Anna Goldie

Virgin Radio has announced it is to axe digital station Virgin Radio Groove,
while also shelving plans to launch Virgin Radio Viva on the new Channel 4
Radio digital platform next year.

http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1032366&c=1

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Financial Times
By Ben Fenton, Media Correspondent
November 19 2007

Oneword, a digital radio station owned by Channel 4 and UBC Media, seems
certain to disappear from the airwaves within a few months.

The station, principally spoken-word and aimed at ABC1 listeners with an
emphasis on literature, has lost money since its inception and is believed
to be losing more than £1m a year.

Its main problem arose from the fact that shortly after launch, the BBC
produced BBC7, another high-market arts and comedy channel, which competed
directly with One-word.

The publicly funded rival was identified in 2004 as the principal reason
that Oneword got into such financial trouble that Channel 4 stepped in to
buy 51 per cent of the company from UBC.

It was originally intended to call the station Channel 4 Radio, although
that title was never used and it is now to be appended to the flagship
channel on the second digital radio multiplex, operated by a consortium that
Channel 4 leads.

Tim Gardam, a former BBC executive commissioned to write an independent
report into its digital output, said then that BBC7 had "been an important
factor in the failure of its commercial counterpart, Oneword, which was a
potentially high-quality proposition".

He said that it demonstrated how the BBC should not be using its enormous,
and state-funded, powers as a broadcaster.

Neither Channel 4 nor UBC was prepared to comment on Oneword's future.

But someone with knowledge of the situation said: "It is highly unlikely
that the station will exist in a year's time, certainly not in its current
format."

It is believed that Channel 4 has entered into talks with a third party, not
a broadcaster on terrestrial or digital platforms, to replace Oneword with a
similar programme. It is unlikely that Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator,
would allow the slot on the Digital One multiplex to be filled by anything
radically different from now.

Channel 4's exit from Oneword will infuriate commercial radio owners who
campaigned against the broadcaster being granted rights to the Digital Two
multiplex.
They argued that if they were to do so, the television company would
immediately pull out of Digital One commitments.

The person familiar with the situation said: "Oneword is a format that is
not working. Channel 4 has other pre-occupations, including three other
stations on Digital Two."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/76dc5836-9640-11dc-b7ec-0000779fd2ac.html
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Radio World
November 9, 2007

WorldSpace said it now has 177,644 subscribers globally, a net loss of about
12,600. It has lost $123.5 million in the first nine months of this year.

The listener drop reflects a loss of subscribers in India and the company's
earlier decision to stop marketing in Europe as it plans to start mobile
service there.

The international satellite company is based in Silver Spring, Md. Seeking
to "shore up its liquidity," it is talking to potential investors and
partners about equity and debt financings.

"The company hopes to conclude a transaction in the next few months," it
stated.

In the third quarter, WorldSpace had revenues of $3.3 million, roughly flat
with the same period a year earlier. Its net loss for the quarter was $36.7
million, up from a loss of $28.9 million at this time last year.

For the first nine months of the year, WorldSpace had net revenues of $10
million, compared with $10.6 million a year ago. To date this year, it has
lost $123.5 million; at this time last year it had lost $94.8 million.

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0103/t.9608.html

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E4 Radio to give Radio 1 “a run for their money” - Thu, 08, Nov, 2007

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Channel 4 director of radio, Nathalie Schwarz has accused Radio 1 of drifting away from its core youth audience and has pledged to offer a better 16 to 24 year-old focus on E4 Radio which is set to launce next summer.

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Ofcom raps Invicta and Real - Thu, 08, Nov, 2007

Invicta FM in Kent was rapped by Ofcom for lack of clarity in an on-air competition and upheld a listener complaint. In a separate ruling Ofcom found against Real Radio Scotland for giving undue prominence and promotion to Sainsburys, Ford and Coca Cola in separate competitions.

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16th November 2007

Waffler

At long last my ntlworld site has been taken down. Hope you have found me on the new server. Thanks as ever for your interest and support

News from other sources

A bunch of radio DJs are hoping for a Christmas Number 1 as they sing their own version of Shakin Stevens' Merry Christmas Everyone. Around 20 presenters from around the industry have given the song a modern slant in hope of raising money for charity.

Rock Radio's breakfast presenter Kieron Elliot will be reaching an all time high next month as he jumps from a plane from 5000ft, at a speed of around 140mph, totally naked. It's all in aid of their new nominated charity, Nordoff-Robbins.

BBC local radio stations around the UK are once again taking part in the national Children in Need charity day throughout the day and into the evening. Special programmes will broadcast along with the television show from 7pm till late on BBC One.

Sir Terry Wogan said today that the amount of money raised by BBC Radio 2's Auction of Things That Money Can't Buy for Children in Need represented "the most amazing, the most wonderful day I've ever had on radio".

During the day, Martin Ainscough from Wigan bid £250,000 for Aled Jones and Katie Melua to perform a gig at Revolution in Manchester to raise money for the Prince's Trust. The bid took Radio 2's Children in Need auction total for 2007 so far to £649,000, which is already higher than the 2006 total of £512,450.
Other top bids included £75,000 for the opportunity to have lunch with Sir Terry and Sir Roger Moore.

15th November 2007

Waffler

Some news for you.  I was chuffed after retuning my free to air satellite receiver to get Radio Tatras International. Unfortunately tonight they were playing Dance music which is not to my taste. Pandora came on with her Rock programme which was good. I will be tuning into listen to Eric Wiltsher and Petra. 

I make no apologies for my comments about Virgin above - they really do not reply to or read emails from customers. It is too big to care!  However no complaints so far about my cable service. I love the facility to catch up with tv programmes free of charge - it is as good as a video recorder.

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News from other sources

The MV Norderney, which was the home of offshore broadcaster Radio
Veronica from 1964 to 1974, looks set to return to the Netherlands.
The plan is for the ship to be anchored in Zwolle, where it will be
used as a discotheque.

The mayor and councillors of Zwolle are enthusiastic about the plan,
but before they finally agree they want to consult local residents.
An information evening has been arranged for Tuesday 11 December,
when the residents can give their views. Councillor Gerard van
Dooremolen told the Dagblad van het Noorden that "It seems to us
fantastic to have such an important icon from Dutch pop history in
Zwolle. It can become a real tourist attraction."

The ship is currently anchored in the harbour of Antwerp, Belgium.
Several previous attempts to bring the ship back to the Netherlands
have failed because of planning refusals or other objections. This
one seems a bit more promising as it already has the backing of the
local authority.

(Source: Dagblad van het Noorden)

http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/former-radio-veronica-ship-to-become-
disco-in-zwolle

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Iain Lee has quit London's LBC talk radio station after three years.

The former host of Channel 4's 11 O'Clock Show and RI:SE presented a regular weekday evening programme on the station. Nick Abbot, who currently hosts a Saturday night phone-in show, will take over the slot.

"I was given the creative freedom to make the show I wanted, and for that I will always be grateful," Lee told The Guardian.

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Channel 4's director of radio has declared its new stations will mount a challenge to the BBC's dominance of the airwaves.

Nathalie Schwartz told the Radio Advertising Bureau conference in London that 54 per cent of radio listening is currently to stations run by the BBC. Its share of speech radio listening is 86 per cent.

But she promised Channel 4's new stations, due to launch next year, would pose a threat on several levels: "We want to reverse that trend. It is about time commercial radio got its market share."

Speech station Channel 4 Radio is one of three digital services it will launch next year. Schwartz said it "will set the political agenda of the day".

"Why should the BBC have it all their own way?" she added. "When you think of radio drama why does it have to be The Archers?"

Schwartz said E4 Radio would show up BBC Radio 1's weaknesses: "Radio 1 was set up for 16 to 24s but their average age is 32 and it is about time this 16 to 24 age group gets what they want.

"This project is almost going back to the days of pirate radio - giving people amazing access to the national airwaves."

Pure 4, the third station on Channel 4's multiplex, will offer "music and modern culture" and be on air by July 2009.

Channel 4 is also leading the 4 Digital consortium which is bringing eight new channels to the air including Closer and Sky News Radio.

BBC Radio Five Live managing editor Moz Dee has defected to UTV's TalkSport, it was confirmed today.

Dee will take over as programme director of TalkSport and new digital station Talk Radio early next year, when current programme director Bill Ridley retires from the station after eight years.

TalkSport chief executive Scott Taunton said: "I’m delighted to announce that Moz Dee is joining TalkSport and Talk Radio. Moz has a wealth of experience in speech radio, which will be invaluable as UTV continues to invest and grow its radio assets. He will have a pivotal role in the launch of Talk Radio in the summer of 2008 and as well as driving forward the company’s flagship station, TalkSport. I look forward to working with him in the near future."

Dee has previously worked as a presenter and head of sport at the station; he left to join Five Live in 1999.

"I've had eight fantastic years at Five Live. It's been a privilege to work with Bob Shennan and the team.

"The decision to leave clearly wasn't taken lightly. But the opportunity to work with UTV, TalkSportand the new Talk Radio station was too good to resist. UTV is a dynamic commercial operation and Talk is a fantastic product. I look forward to contributing to their continued growth and success."

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30th October 2007

Waffler

I slipped up with my last date entry!   I advanced to November instead of using October for the date. I have since rectified the fault which was not noticed by any site visitors (well  you didn't email to let me know!)

The date for my change of internet delivery from ADSL to Cable is getting closer.  I have an account open on both up until the 7th of November so I hope to be able to put out a re-direction notice on the web when it seems likely the ntlworld account will cease.

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News from other sources

fm South Wales has announced a selection of key presenters ahead of the station's launch on November 29.

Former Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable is to present the 7pm to 10pm show on weekends, and local DJs including Goldie Lookin Chain's Rhys and Eggsy will present the weekday drive time show from 4pm to 7pm.

Other key signings include Justin "Welshy" Waite, who previously worked on breakfast shows at Capital and Red Dragon, and Dainton and Pritchard from MTV's Dirty Sanchez.

The station has not yet announced its breakfast show team.

Long-time Xfm drivetime DJ Ian Camfield is leaving to join K-Rock in New York.

He has been at the station since its launch a decade ago and has also presented its Music Response strand and The Xfm Rock Show.

Xfm said he would still contribute from the US while his replacement would be announced "in due course".

Camfield, who will be K-Rock's drivetime DJ, commented: "Leaving the weekday Xfm schedule was a hard decision to make as I believe Xfm is in the best position it has been in for ten years.

"On the other hand I am of course extremely excited about being able to realise my dream of broadcasting in the United States while still maintaining my links with Xfm in the UK."

Xfm programme director Adam Uytman added: "We all know that opportunities like this don't come along very often and we are pleased that we are in a position where we can support him with his future plans.

"Ian has played a big part in Xfm's history and we are looking forward to continuing our relationship with him - just from further afield."

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Emap Radio's director of programming Mark Story has told Digital Spy it has plans to take its men's magazine titles to digital radio.

The publishing giant owns dozens of magazines and has already brought Heat, Smash Hits and Kerrang! to the airwaves. Closer will follow next year.

Story said its wealth of expertise and on-hand enthusiasts in many areas would help Emap as digital develops and brings more diverse, niche channels.

"There are a lot more ways we can do stuff there," he explained. "We can gain credibility because we are coming out of magazines. Also you have to get people who believe in something."

He said the area Emap was looking at now was men's titles. He confirmed there were more specific plans for particular titles that can not be revealed yet.

Story added of the men's sector: "We can do something exciting there."

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SALE OF LANDMARK TELEVISION CENTRE AFTER 47 YEARS SET
TO NET CORPORATION UP TO £200 MILLION

THE decision to sell BBC Television Centre
headquarters signals the end of the corporation's
47-year history at the London site.

Located at Shepherd's Bush, it was the BBC's first
purpose-built centre for television production and is

the home of BBC Television and BBC News.

The building opened on 29 June, 1960, and the BBC News
Centre, which transmits almost all of the
Corporation's national television and radio news,
opened at the same site in 1998.

It is now due to be sold in 2013. By then, some
operations will have moved to Salford, near
Manchester.

The Wood Lane building was designed by architect
Graham Dawbarn, who based the design

around the shape of a question mark which he drew in
the middle of a sketch of the site's triangular shape.


Experts yesterday said Television Centre could sell
for up to £200 million.

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Global Radio and Sky have scrapped a joint venture to turn LBC 1152 into a
24 hour Sky News branded station. The plans, agreed between Sky and
Chrysalis before Global took over the company, also included launching a
national service via the 4 Digital multiplex next year.

Instead, Sky will look for an alternative radio partner to help operate the
Sky News Radio service nationally.

In a statement, Sky and Global said: "The decision has been made for
commercial reasons and follows the takeover by Global Radio of Chrysalis.
Sky, Global and other third parties are exploring alternative options to
launch a Sky News Radio Service."

http://www.radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.2576

Radio Today
18 October 2007

As part of the jobs cuts announced by the BBC, additional cuts are being
made by axing non-core activity by BBC Regions. These include scrapping
plans for new BBC local radio stations in Bradford, Cheshire, Dorset and
Somerset.

In addition, BBC buses [ presumably currently promoting and supporting
programmes, not a transport service?- Moderator]run by local radio stations will
stop operating by
March 2008. Job losses from the BBC bus are in addition to the one job per
station, per year, each station are expected to cut over the next three
years.

The news is part of a bigger plan to deliver "a smaller, but fitter, BBC" in
the digital age, Director General Mark Thompson said today. Every part of the
BBC
will be required to make efficiency savings.

Original story in full at:
http://www.radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.2577.2

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18th October 2007 

Wafffler

The stark news about the BBC cuts, necessary to offset a shortfall in revenue they say.

Ironically I received my new TV licence today.  It allows me to install a TV receiver at these premises.  I consider that the Pirate BBC Essex broadcast this year was worth every penny of the £135.  In the Evening Standard today they broke down the costs from each licence fee for radio programmes. 75 pence goes to Local Radio!  £1.17p goes to National Radio. TV gets £7.54. Not fair that I say!

A link to the online article is here - sorry I was too lazy to make the link shorter!   It does not appear to have the excellent beeb facts that I got the figures from but that is on page 8 of today's paper in the article below.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23416929-details/BBC+inflicts+MORE+repeats+on+viewers+as+1,800+jobs+go+and++programme-making+is+slashed+by+10+per+cent/article.do

The BBC's version from their website

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17th October 2007

Waffler

It seems to me that the person at the BBC who needs to go is the man at the top Mark Thompson.  Even Greg Dyke would have sorted out his staff better at a time of crisis. He will shortly be announcing thousands of redundancies, and no doubt put a sword in the side of a magnificent public broadcasting organisation. Mind you he is probably trying to get used to reporting to the Trust Ofcom set up, that cannot help organising programmes or staff!  If only the bosses at the helm of the BBC had permanent staff contracts and stayed for 30 or more years.  There is no incentive to someone with a large salary to hold on to their job forever. They will get employment at an equally high amount elsewhere.  I await tomorrow's announcements with interest.  I would like to see a reduction in the licence fee but do appreciate the programmes we currently receive.  When abroad I get miffed that the World Service Radio and TV do not cover UK national and local news fully.  The World Service is of course financed by Government.  Free radio started at the BBC believe it or not, freedom from bias and transparent honesty at all times. 

I have listened in to Polish Radio London and so far am not that impressed. I obviously do not undertand Polish but heard a large proportion of UK music. At least it is a break from non stop Asian stations in London.  London Greek Radio is good but not that powerful in my part of London.

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News from other sources

The BBC Asian Network has secured a UK radio first by setting up an exclusive rendezvous with the much talked about Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor, stars from the yet to be released 'Saawariya'. The interviews will be aired on the network's 'Love Bollywood' show on Saturday 20th October, ahead of the film's debut at the box office on Diwali (9th November).

GCap Media's Gold network has agreed to give away £100,000 to community youth organisations across England. The station, aimed at 35 to 54 year olds aims to encourage 16–25 year olds to get involved in volunteering.

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17 October 2007

The BBC Trust met today (Wednesday 17 October) to consider the Director-General’s six-year plan.  Mark Thompson will announce the details of his strategy tomorrow (Thursday 18 October).

Speaking after the Trust meeting today, Chairman Sir Michael Lyons said:

"All of us at the BBC have constantly to remind ourselves that the guaranteed and privileged funding at our disposal is coming from people who have no choice but to pay it. This is the public's BBC and the public pays for it with the licence fee. And those same people have made it absolutely clear that they want quality, value and something a bit special in return. After six months of very detailed work by the management and rigorous testing and challenge from the BBC Trust, we are confident that the plans we have approved today will safeguard the core values of the BBC at a time of radical and accelerating change in technology, markets and audience expectations."

The Trust has issued the following statement:

Approval of the Director General's strategic framework Delivering Creative Future represents the conclusion of six months of discussions in which the Trust has brought the concerns of audiences and the delivery of the BBC’s public purposes to the centre of the debate. 

The Trust is confident that the management's strategy should safeguard the core values of the BBC at a time of radical and accelerating change in technology, markets and audience expectations.  Inevitably, there are difficult choices to be made, heightened by a tight funding settlement. But at the heart of the strategic plan remains a firm commitment to the delivery of the BBC's public purposes through high quality and distinctive creative content. It includes efficiency savings to free up resources for programming and measures to reprioritise spend to extract greater value for audiences.

The final outcome reflects the challenges we have set for the BBC in the course of our discussions:

• Distinctiveness: safeguarding investment in areas in which the BBC's reputation as an outstanding public service broadcaster rests – news, knowledge-building, drama, comedy – with output that is distinctive and defined by creative risk-taking; scaling back investment from areas which are not delivering enough public value; and  ensuring no increase in peak-time repeats on BBC One.
• Sustainable quality: securing maximum value out of every licence fee, with a new 3% annual efficiency target; using new technology to deliver quality, accessibility and convenience to audiences; and reserving a creative contingency fund so the BBC can respond to unforeseen creative opportunities.
• Value for all: modernising the BBC for the 21st century, reaching out to new audiences without jeopardising the support of its existing loyal audiences. Indeed, demonstrating clearly to those loyal audiences that the BBC will protect that which they already value.

The Trust does not underestimate the challenge which this sets for the BBC and for its staff and contributors. We value the continuing commitment and creativity of staff – they are the people who deliver the vision. There is a shared ambition between staff and audiences that the quality of the BBC's programmes and content should be safeguarded and, as implementation of this strategy unfolds, the Trust will remain vigilant to ensure this is not put at risk.

What the Trust has approved

The BBC Trust is responsible for setting the Corporation's strategic direction and its high level budgets so that the BBC meets the six public purposes laid down in the Royal Charter.  Once the strategic direction is set and the clear destination agreed with the Trust, it is for the Director-General to develop in greater detail how that vision will become a reality.  The six-year strategy the Trust has approved includes:

• A commitment to a wide range of distinctive, quality programmes on television, radio and online to reach the widest range of audiences; improving the accessibility of BBC programmes, particularly for those audiences who don't currently receive full value for their licence fee; and a new approach to local BBC services.
• Safeguarding the existing range of quality provision in BBC news and current affairs and, through greater efficiencies, creating new ways for new audiences to access quality BBC journalism; and doing the same for factual and knowledge programmes.
• 10% fewer programmes commissioned, so that our programme core is of high quality and is distinctive, delivered when and where most convenient to audiences, thereby extracting most value for the public.
• Confirmation from the BBC Executive that the BBC can deliver total annual net efficiencies of 3% each year.

How the Trust will call the Executive to account for delivery

Today's decision is an important milestone.  But it is not the end of the story. The Trust will call the Executive to account for delivery of the strategy in a way which matches our shared vision, the goals we have set and the aspiration of audiences. For audiences, priorities include the delivery of distinctiveness and maximising efficiency to recycle resources to quality programmes. 

Early actions we have called for include more detailed strategies for formal learning; a strategy for network commissioning across the UK; and, as part of bearing down on costs not directly linked to programming, detailed strategies on distribution and technology. We have approved in principle the sale of Television Centre and requested a more detailed strategy on the BBC's property portfolio.

Among the Trust's further work:

• We will continue to listen carefully to audiences and staff for we understand the complexity of the changes to be made and are intent that our decisions serve only to strengthen the BBC's ability to serve its public purposes.
• We shall require detailed reporting from the Executive against the strategy and report annually, paying particular attention to the perception of quality and delivery of public value.
• We shall review each BBC service at least once during the six-year period. Audience research and opinion will form a key part of each service review.
• Where needed, we shall subject specific proposals to formal processes of approval, including Public Value Tests if necessary; consider the impact of significant changes on regulatory obligations; and, as part of these processes, consult audiences and other interests as appropriate.
• We shall work with the Executive to firm up definitions of distinctiveness and innovation and ensure that they are fully understood and followed up within the BBC.
• We have invited the National Audit Office to work with us on measurement of efficiency savings. Our aim is to improve the BBC's accountability to licence fee payers and assure everyone that quality is not being affected in the drive for savings.  The BBC's efficiencies will be independently verified each year and progress included in the Annual Report and Accounts.
• Each year the Executive will present a detailed three-year rolling budget for approval by the Trust.
• The Trust's study later this year of the BBC's economic value will include a specific assessment of each of the UK nations.

In all this work, the Trust will maintain its oversight of the BBC's output and ensure that it meets our expectations of quality and range.  We shall continue to put the interests of audiences at the heart of our engagement with the Executive, and we shall report back to audiences as the strategy is delivered over the years ahead.

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TV chat show presenter Jeremy Kyle is to host a new Saturday morning radio show that will go out on 42 GCap Media commercial radio stations across the UK including Capital 95.8 in London and BRMB in Birmingham..

From bbcworldservice.com

This year the BBC World Service celebrates 75 years of broadcasting. In this
audio archive, each of those years will be looked at in a special
one-minute-long programme, based on our vast radio archive.

Presented by Helen Boaden, the BBC's Director of News, the series will look
at how mass communications have changed the world, and how the world has
changed the media.

The series begins in 1932, with the rather downbeat words of the BBC's
founder, Lord Reith: "as to programmes - don't expect too much in the early
days... The programmes will neither be very interesting nor very good."

It covers innovations in broadcasting and charts changing styles in
reporting.

But the highlights are those unforgettable moments from radio and television
that bring 20th century history to life: the abdication speech of Edward
VIII; the Hindenburg airship going up in flames; the War of the Worlds panic
in the US; Charles de Gaulle speaking to the Free French from the BBC in
1940; Churchill's famous speeches; Hungarian Free Radio's last desperate
call for help as Russian tanks rolled into Budapest; the first man on the
moon.

And in amongst those well-known moments is some astonishing radio, from
propaganda jazz songs from World War II, to the sound of Radio Mille
Collines, the station whose hate-filled broadcasts played such a key role in
the horrific Rwandan genocide in 1994.

This 75th anniversary has given the BBC World Service a chance to look back
at what has been achieved by broadcasting over the years, to dig through its
archives, and to find some truly amazing gems.

Taken altogether, they provide an insight into not just the history of
broadcasting - but the history of the world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1122_75_years/index.shtml

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10th October 2007

Waffler

Some more news for you.  I must check up on Polish Radio on the London DAB service and report back!   Thank goodness at least Capital Gold has left the airwaves, it was unfair having GOLD going out as Capital Gold and GOLD on two channels in London. 

Please also note that the ntlworld site will probably disappear at the end of this month - stay with us at http://wirelesswaffle.ecv.vg/  this will continue.  I do not want to lose any of you!

I have just caught up with some comments from the other Wireless Waffle site and reproduce them in full after this paragraph.   I think that the man or woman, who will not identify themself by name - just the adminstrator, runs a very professional looking site. It is also different from mine in that it covers technical aspects very well.  I have checked within the page source and discover that the author to the site is Richard Womersley, G1JAJ. It seems that he is easily upset and has read and written far too much into what  my usual tongue in cheek approach to some matters regarding radio and the web. I will not apologise for indentifying and being miffed that a name I conjured up on the net in 1999, and was running as an A5 newsletter for three years or so before that has been duplicated.   If  anyone wants to use the name, then by all means it is a free world let them continue.  I was the first to Waffle and will continue to for as long as I can.  The world wide web has space for 2000 Wireless Waffles.   Good luck to the blogger and I invite you to visit the blog with attitude regularly.  Wireless Waffle I am not worried, nor have ever been at all about losing visitors to his site, I have received favourable comments ever since this site was launched and thank everyone for their comments and support.  Please email me at wirewaffle@hotmail.com with comments on this or the other site.  On the matter or html not being correct, I do realise that Internet Explorer corrects most inaccuracies in html.  I used to write the site in html in notepad in 1999. I find the knowledge of basic html useful when things when pictures or links do not show on line.  I see little sense in the academic effort of some web bot identifying faults in Microsoft Frontpage.  Please see how well the competition has done with its html  http://validator.w3.org

Thursday 20 September, 2007, 10:10 - Much Ado About Nothing
Posted by Administrator

Wireless Waffle isn't one of a kind. There's another Wireless Waffle on the web. Whilst I claim no originality for the title of this blog, it does irk me that the man who runs the other Wireless Waffle is so upset that I accidentally stumbled across the same name as him that he feels the need to take a poke at this site on many occasions.

When I first launched this site, Keith, who runs the other Wireless Waffle, contacted me with a nice e-mail and suggested that we exchange links. I put up a link to his site with a nice button that I took time to make myself (see right) but when a reciprocal link failed to materialise on his site I took it down, and thought nothing more of it. But putting 'Wireless Waffle' into Google, I recently noted that the <title> of his site has been changed to:

Wireless Waffle - A fine radio site not the blog copying its title

If that's not enough, the description of his site says:

Wireless waffle is a specialist radio site ... it is not to be confused with the blog which is using the same title - this other site is more technical and whilst we do not have the copyright on the word waffle they could have thought of a different title...

Fair enough, I could have thought of a different title, but I didn't, but neither did I specifically pick the name on purpose to upset anyone. I was not aware of Mr. Knight's site until he sent me an e-mail.

But the rhetoric doesn't stop there. In a post he made on his site on 16 September he says,

I am wondering if you would miss the Wireless Waffle site if I decided to close it? ... There is another site, a blog, which insists on calling itself Wireless Waffle which is far more technical than this. The chap who publishes this has pictures of ladies in various poses and states of undress. I am one of those that favours proper websites rather than blogs. Blogs do not demand any knowledge of html and that is part of the fun of operating a site.

Now this is just downright misleading, and in some cases completely wrong. He is insinuating that:

* My use of the occasional saucy picture demeans the content on this site. There are many pictures of men in various states of dress as well as women and anyway this kind of thing has been adorining British seaside postcards for many years. These pictures, with their associated captions are intended to add some levity to what can be rather colourless topics.

* That my use of 'blog' software to publish the articles I write devalues them. I use blog software as it makes presentation look nice and it's easier to find articles and for people to browse around.

* That I know nothing about HTML. This couldn't be further from the truth. Take a look at the other content on the host site for Wireless Waffle, such as my Javascript tools, or my Random Town Name Generator. All of these are written by me, using nothing more than a text editor, and most pages are in XHTML which is notoriously more difficult to write in than HTML. If you're going to level that kind of accusation at someone, at least make sure your own site is valid HTML!

The most serious accusation is that by starting this site, I have damaged the viewership of his site to the extent that he is, in essence, accusing me of forcing him to close his site down.

The reaction of many people to so many unfounded accusations might be to retaliate, but I'm not that kind of person. Mr. Knight's site is an interesting read with content that most of the readers of this site would no doubt find of passing or of direct interest. I suggest you take a visit (click on the button above) and have a look around. And pop back here afterwards and leave a comment on this post to let me know what you think.

 

News from other sources

The Czech government has extended the contract with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on the lease of its seat on Wenceslas Square in Prague centre to the end of March 2009, Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek told reporters today. The original contract was to expire this year. In the meantime, a new RFE/RL seat is being built in Prague Hagibor by the Orco Property Group company. It is to be completed by the end of 2008.

The BBCs internationally famous English radio programmes can now be heard on FM for the first time in the Maldives capital of Male.

BBC World Service is to receive £70 million of extra government funding over the next three years.

Good news from Cardboard Shoes is that his boss in Norwich has confirmed
that Pirate Radio Skues will continue on Sunday evenings for the foreseeable
future.

The programme goes out on BBC Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire,
Northants and 3CR, 21:00 to 0100 (UK time) and on the internet.

http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/kneesflashes/happenings/julaugsept07/julaugsept0701\
.html

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Polish Radio London has now started broadcasting on the London 3 DAB
multiplex, labelled PRL, website:

http://www.prl24.net/

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BBC Inside Out West Midlands had a feature on pirate broadcasting last
night. You can watch it online at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/westmidlands/

It's 18 minutes 30 seconds in.

The Ofcom spokesman said "30% of listeners across the UK complained
about interference from pirate radio last year."

This is complete nonsense, it implies that there were 15 million
actual complaints. The figure comes from a survey done on behalf of
Ofcom in April.

"New research conducted for Ofcom by BMRB suggests that 30% of all
listeners across the UK suffer interference on FM, which they believe
may be caused by other broadcasters or stations."

"We went on to ask those who did suffer interference whether they
believe this interference is caused by illegal or "pirate"
broadcasters. It is important to note that this research considers
only listener perceptions rather than being a scientific objective
analysis of interference. Listeners may not know what is causing the
interference, even if it is illegal broadcasting. However, 14% of
those who say they experience radio interference believe this is
caused by illegal broadcasters."

14% of 30% is 4.2% and, as clearly stated, it proves nothing anyway.

So much for the BBC broadcasting accurate information or Ofcom being
honest about the problem.

The sample size used was 2118.

Survey is annex 3:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/radio/reports/illegal_broadcasting/

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1st October 2007

Waffler

A splendid day on both Radios 1 & 2 yesterday.   I caught and hour of Tony Blackburn and Chris Moyles.  I thought that Keith Chegwin would never get off the phone reminiscing.   Later on in the day Radio 1 had a good A-Z programme of clips, not all old, they mixed a few of the sounds as well which made it sound like a disco mix!  The 2 hour John Peel tribute was very good.  Kenny Everett, Smashie and Nicie and Brian Matthew all did some great programmes on Radio 2.  Obviously dear Kenny was with us on tape, or digital form, bless him!

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News from other sources

The UK commercial broadcaster Big L, which uses a mediumwave transmitter in the Netherlands on 1395 kHz, has decided to introduce a programme in Dutch, which will be aired on Mon-Fri at 0300-0400 UTC in the morning, when most Dutch people are still asleep. It appears that the programme is aimed at Dutch-speaking truckers in and around the Netherlands. According to the website mediumwave.

The Radio Rewind site has now expanded to cover Radio Two with
sections on history, people, shows and jingles. Quite a lot of
interesting information there already and if it expands to anything
like its coverage of Radio One history, which for example on audio has
over 2000 clips, it will be a very valuable resource.

http://www.radiorewind.co.uk/

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BBC Archive Trial website has just appeared, it is supporting the BBC
season India & Pakistan '07 to give you the chance to delve into the
archive and watch television and radio programmes from the past.

As well as clicking enter the archive, which gives you access to all
sorts of television and radio archive material dating back to 1935 on
India and Pakistan, you can also click on The Sound Archives, and hear
an interview with Simon Rooks on the archive, similar for the TV
archives, also has the BBC Programme Catalogue which you can search.

Very well designed and fascinating site in my opinion:  (Mike Barraclough of BDXC says that!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/archive.shtml  

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Big L's tme at sea !This series is in 4 parts, and is available online, documenting 1967's
Summer Of Love and the events surrounding it.

All files encoded in MP3 at 96kbs stereo.

http://www.bigl.co.uk/summer-love-0
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23rd September 2007

Waffler

Looks like winter is on its way. After some lovely sunshine on the weekend it seems that some cooler weather may be on its way. What better time than to sit down by the radio and listen to some good speech or music programming.  I am going to try to concentrate on speech radio for a while now.  I do normally managed to get some Radio 4 listening in, it reminds me of when I used to work for the greatest Broadcasting organisation in the world.  I also enjoy Nick Ferrari, Steve Allan and James O'Brien on LBC from time to time.  Vanessa Feltz phone in is superb also.  The only other excellent station is Resonance Fm which can be received here weakly on the radio, that has a mix of avant garde speech and music programming.   This country was years behind with music radio, alas the Americans started up much early. There is a whole days commercial programming on the internet archive site for download, and I believe that was recorded in 1938.   

Last night on Radio 2 the Elton John Red  Piano show was superb. The concert was announced and tailed by Chris Evans.  When listening to Johnnie Walker's excellent autobiography on cd, I realise now that it was not Johnnies idea to go off the drive time programming.  Radio 2 was making way for Chris to do his show.    I do not normally enjoy Russell Brand on television but his Sunday night show on Radio 2 was very lively. It seems more suited to Radio 1 but Radio 2 is noted for giving us surprise turns from time to time.

 

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News from other sources

 

 

Mogadishu’s independent Shabelle radio station announced on Wednesday it was shutting down after security forces surrounded its offices and opened fire, destroying equipment over the past two days. ”We are sadly announcing that our media network has ceased all its media activity after forces from the transitional government of Somalia randomly fired at our premises,” Shabelle said [...

Oxford University Press are publishing Life on Air, A History of Radio
4 by David Hendy on September 27th.

Matthew Banister will be interviewing the author at Borders in Oxford
Street, London on October 3rd, 1830 to 2000.

Book details:
http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199248810

DXing.info
September 14, 2007

Several broadcasters around the United States turned on their digital AM
transmitters last night, as soon as it was allowed by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC). As a result, interference caused by digital
transmitters to analogue broadcasters has increased considerably. Until now,
digital IBOC broadcasting was only allowed during the daytime to minimize
interference. Skywave propagation during the night enables digital hiss to
spread much further.

DX listeners have reported several strong stations switching to IBOC
immediately after midnight, September 14, resulting in severe
adjacent-channel interference. Among the strongest stations using IBOC at
night are WHO Des Moines IA (1040 kHz), WTAM Cleveland OH (1100 kHz), KFAB
Omaha NE (1110), KEX Portland OR (1190) and KFBK Sacramento CA (1530 kHz).

Many dxers fear that widespread adoption of IBOC can render the AM
broadcasting band useless for long-distance analogue reception. For example,
Clear Channel Communications, which is the largest radio station owner in
the U.S. operating more than 1200 stations, is planning to begin nighttime
digital broadcasts on all its stations capable of doing so. However, many
other radio stations are still reluctant to switch to IBOC because of high
costs, marginal improvement in reception, and low penetration of digital HD
receivers.

http://www.dxing.info/news/index.dx#iboc

Community station Salford city radio now testing on 94.4
http://www.salfordcityradio.org/

 

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Radio Today
20 September 2007

Insight Radio, Europe's first radio station for blind and partially sighted
people has launched on the Sky platform with full Electronic Programme Guide
facilities thanks to television and radio transmission company WRN.

The Glasgow-based community radio station, formerly known as VIP On Air
operates under an Ofcom licence on 101 FM locally, and now across Europe on
Sky channel 0188.

The station provides blind and partially-sighted listeners with quick and
easy access to information and public services as well as leisure,
recreational and social opportunities. The station is funded by the RNIB
with support from stakeholder organisations including Glasgow City Council,
East Renfrewshire Council, South Lanarkshire Council and the British
Wireless for the Blind Fund.

WRN are the technical partners for the service.

Full story at http://www.radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.2471

 

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Daily Mail
By Jenny Johnston
14 September 2007

Squeaky clean, he was the housewives' favourite DJ. But his unashamed new
autobiography reveals a very different Tony Blackburn...

John Peel, if he is listening, must be spinning in his grave. Tony
Blackburn, his old airwaves adversary, is talking about one of the seminal
moments in the history of British popular culture - in a way only Tony
Blackburn can.

(this article at
http://www.dailymail.co.uk:80/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=48187\
9&in_page_id=1879 )

The head of programmes for BBC 6 Music, Ric Blaxill, has quit his position following the corporation admitting four more breaches of editorial standards today. The former Capital Radio creative director is the most senior casualty of the growing scandal. Ric was working at the station during the competition fixing on Liz Kershaw's show.

BBC Radio 3 is pleased to announce a new five year deal as the principal media partner of the London Jazz Festival extending the existing deal which has run since 2001.

From Monday we're introducing a fresh musical sound to the BBC World
Service. Including new programme music, new indents and other branding
elements heard through the day, this new sound is designed to make our
musical identity contemporary and easily recognisable. Like any radio
station the BBC World Service is constantly adapting to the changing
needs, and means of consumption, of listeners in the many markets we
serve.

A number of network programme titles are expected to be relaunched in Scotland as part of the drive to increase the level of BBC Scotlands network production.

More and meet the composer:
http://er.bsysmail.com/go.asp?/.pages.070920.behindthescenes/bBBC001/uT4547/xW5D\
341

Preview of station sound (of course there will be a ringtone!):
http://er.bsysmail.com/go.asp?/.pages.070920.sneakpreview/bBBC001/uT4547/xW5D341

(BBC WS email newsletter)

Edited copy from Radio Today)

BBC Radio 2 have revealed details of their special programmes which will be
created to celebrate 40 years on-air, to be broadcast on Sunday 30th September
when the station will be celebrating along with little brother Radio 1 and
Radios 3 and 4.

"Smashie And Nicey" will record a
special Pick of the Pops and the network will air an edition of the Kenny
Everett Radio Show from the archives. Paul Hollingdale, Ed Stewart and
Michael Aspel will also make appearances.

The nation's most popular radio station is also inviting listeners to vote for
their Ultimate Icon - an enduring personality that
they believe best represents popular culture over the past four decades.

Read the full story and see the day's schedule at:

http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.2437

The Radio Academy site now has audio of the event available for download:

http://www.radioacademy.org.uk/record.jsp?type=event&ID=81

Graeme Stevenson in the Old Time Radio Mail list (http://www.oldradio.net)
alerts to the following programme which sounds of great interest:

The ' Archive Hour ' on BBC Radio 4, Saturday 22nd September, at 8pm UK time
(1900UTC) about the American, German and Czech radio coverage of the 1938 -
39 Czechoslovak Crisis.

11 September, 2007

BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be moving multiplexes at the start of October,
meaning you will need to rescan your Freeview box in October to avoid losing
those radio channels. There is a caption currently displaying on the BBC
Radio channels explaining this change. There's also a new look to all the
BBC Radio channel MHEG screens (not BBC World Service) to incorporate the
redesigned BBC Radio logos. The BBC Radio press red screens say this
multiplex change is needed to allow for DSO (Digital Switchover).

http://www.entertainment-iuk.com/?p=140

 

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On Saturday, 22 September Scotland's only international radio service,
Radio Six International, will attempt its most complicated – and
riskiest outside broadcast. The LV18 is a former lightship which –
under the care of the Pharos Trust – was first used for radio, with an
added radio mast to support the mediumwave transmitting aerial, in
1999 and since then has played host to a variety of UK-licensed
re-creations of former pirate stations, including Radio Northsea
International, Radio Caroline, and Radio Mi Amigo, as well as recent
broadcasts from Pirate BBC Essex.

Radio Six International will broadcast its weekly Saturday Sounds
programme live from the ship on Saturday, with special features
including an interview with Tony O'Neill from the Pharos trust, and an
episode of The Barnacles, a comedy feature first created when the ship
was being used for RNI.

The programme will be broadcast live on 9290 kHz shortwave to Europe,
the Near and Far East and Pacific regions, 945 kHz mediumwave to the
Baltic states, 88.5 MHz FM Stereo for Tawa and Redwood in New Zealand,
100.5 MHz Digital in Riga, Latvia, and around the world online at
http://www.radiosix.com.

(Source: Tony Currie, Radio Six International via Media Network)

Broadcast is 0700-0800 GMT.

 

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16th September 2007

Waffler

I have added some new shortwave, fm and am logs to page 6 of the magazine - you may like to give those a browse to see what is available in the North West of London.

I first re-discovered Steve Allen on LBC when I was in hospital in May. He was on during a week day at round 5am in the morning and made me chuckle with his views on life and people. I am delighted to find that he is also on at a more social hour on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  I really cannot get to grips with LBC identifying as Londons Biggest Conversation.  It will always be London Broadcasting to me.

I am wondering if you would miss the Wireless Waffle site if I decided to close it?   It does take a bit of time to keep things running and I will always do my best do to this as long as I get feedback.  That feedback should be your own ideas on radio. I did once have an interactive guest book on the site but that was not used very much.   There is another site, a blog, which insists on calling itself Wireless Waffle which is far more technical than this.  The chap who publishes this has pictures of ladies in various poses and states of undress.  I am one of those that favours proper websites rather than blogs.   Blogs do not demand any knowledge of html and that is part of the fun of operating a site. So there we are please contact me on wirewaffle@hotmail.com and let me know if you want the site to carry on.

My favourite music station at the moment is Smooth Radio on DAB, and also Chill.   I am cheesed off that I cannot listen to Hayes FM, its is all due to a pirate station called Passion FM on 91.8. I sent an email to Ofcom and it has not been acknowledged, so congratulations to Passion Fm, they obviously are not going to stop your programmes.

The azanorak site www.azanorack.com has some superb offshore recordings on it, have a search for mock Radio Caroline chart shows, they are excellent. Lots of sixties tunes in top quality mixed with Caroline jingles and adverts. I loved the one about a Murphy transistor for the pirates with a special bandspread.

News from other sources

 

Broadcaster SMG has postponed the sale of Virgin Radio after receiving offers below the £80m target price.

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Indonesians have donated hundreds of radio sets for people in the Yahukimo district of Papua region where a new radio station has been launched. Indonesia’s only independent radio news agency, 68 H, has launched its new radio station, Pikonane, in the Yahukimo area.

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Kenny Everett on BBC Radio 2

Tuesday 11 September 2007 - 18:48:17  

BBC Radio 2 have revealed details of their special programmes which will be created to celebrate 40 years on-air. Smashie And Nicey will record a special Pick of the Pops and the network will air an edition of the Kenny Everett Radio Show from the archives. Paul Hollingdale, Ed Stewart and Michael Aspel will also make appearances.

As part of its 40th anniversary celebrations, BBC Radio 2 is inviting its listeners to vote for their Ultimate Icon – an enduring personality that they believe best represents popular culture over the past four decades.

Nominations for the voting have opened and the winner will be announced on Radio 2 on Sunday 30 September 2007 during a special day of programming to mark the network's 40th birthday.

Lesley Douglas, Controller, Radio 2, says: "This special day will give listeners old and new a chance to sample some of the gems of the past 40 years. To welcome back some of the stars from the original line-up, to re-live some of the musical and comic gems is really exciting.

"And, of course, I am thrilled that Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse have agreed to bring back Smashie and Nicey for a one off Pick Of The Pops special."


Programme schedule for Sunday 30 September

Breakfast Special With Paul Hollingdale, 9.00-9.55am
Paul Hollingdale – the first voice heard on Radio 2 – returns to present a special edition of Breakfast Special, featuring music played on that first programme 40 years ago, and sharing memories of life in the studio.

Five To Ten, 9.55-10.00am
A recording of Paul Simon performing a live version of I Am A Rock from 1965 features in this new edition of Five To Ten – a predecessor to the current Pause For Thought – presented by Colin Semper. The former BBC Head of Religious Broadcasting presented Five To Ten on Radio 2's first day.

Junior Choice With Ed Stewart, 10.00-11.00am
Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart returns with a special edition of the hugely popular listener request show, Junior Choice.

The Kenny Everett Radio Show, 11.00am-1.00pm
Kenny Everett, one of the iconic figures of British radio, returned to the BBC in October 1981 after a spell in commercial radio. This programme is the first show he presented on Radio 2, broadcast on 3 October 1981, and contains Everett's unique mix of madcap humour and music.

Family Favourites With Michael Aspel, 1.00-2.30pm
Michael Aspel presents an edition of the weekly record request show that started life on the Light Programme in 1945 linking London with the British Forces Network in Germany.

Pick Of The Pops With Smashie And Nicey, 2.30-4.30pmHarry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse resurrect their spoof DJs Smashie and Nicey for a one-off two-hour Pick Of The Pops special, running down the chart from the last week of September 1967.

The Top 10 features records by Cliff Richard, Tom Jones, Traffic, The Flowerpot Men, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Small Faces and The Move, climaxing in the number one record – The Last Waltz by Engelbert Humperdinck.

Brian Matthew, 4.30-6.30pm
Brian Matthew presents a Birthday Special, guiding listeners through the Sixties with favourite music tracks and revealing interviews and anecdotes about the stars of the period, who were often personal friends.

As well as landmark music releases from the decade, Brian will play archive interviews with the individual Beatles, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Marianne Faithfull, Pete Townshend (talking of his ambitions to one day write a rock opera), Graham Nash, Chris Curtis, Matt Monro, Colin Blunstone and Petula Clark.

The interviews were often recorded very early in the star's careers. Many of the star interviews have not been heard before in the UK.

Semprini Serenade, 6.30-7.30pm
"Old Ones, New Ones, Loved Ones, Neglected Ones..." So began a programme that was part of the BBC Light Programme and later Radio 2 for more than 25 years and 700 programmes.

Pianist Alberto Semprini was born in Bath, but was of Italian extraction, and entertained a large and loyal audience with his brand of light classical music. This edition of Semprini Serenade featuring Semprini and the Serenade Orchestra, conducted by Vilem Tausky, was broadcast on 24 January 1971.

Sing Something Simple, 7.30-8.00pm
Sing Something Simple – "songs simply sung for song-lovers" – was a radio institution for over 40 years, first on the Light Programme, and then on Radio 2.

It featured half an hour of easy listening arrangements of popular songs performed by the Cliff Adams Singers. The programme came to an end with the death of Cliff Adams in October 2001.

This edition featured in Radio 2's 40th birthday celebrations and was originally broadcast on 16 March 2000.

Round The Horne, 8.00-8.30pm
Round The Horne is one of the classic BBC radio comedies. Radio 2 was only a few months old when it broadcast series four. This edition, Frankenstein's Monster, was first broadcast on 10 March 1968.



-
RadioToday.co.uk - non-stop radio news

 

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Via Euronet Radio:
>
> The very sad news is that the owner of the M.V.Communicator, Andrew
> Banks, has pressed ahead with his threat to scrap the Radio ship,
> showing a complete disregard for the historical value and background
> of the vessel.
>
> Several purchase offers were made to Mr.Banks owner of Pentland
> Ferries but he refused to sell.
>
> This is an extremely sad end to a radio ship that once was the home of
> Laser 558 and Laser Hot Hits, offshore radio stations that had
> millions of radio listeners in Great Britain and the mainland of Europe.
>
> To see the picture that confirms the scrapping and to read a press
> report please visit the LaserRadio.net website.
>
> http://www.laserradio.net
>
> Mike

 

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Oxford University Press are publishing Life on Air, A History of Radio
4 by David Hendy on September 27th.

Matthew Banister will be interviewing the author at Borders in Oxford
Street, London on October 3rd, 1830 to 2000.

Book details:
http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199248810

Event details:
http://www.radioacademy.org.uk/record.jsp?type=event&ID=87

 

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11 September, 2007

BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be moving multiplexes at the start of October,
meaning you will need to rescan your Freeview box in October to avoid losing
those radio channels. There is a caption currently displaying on the BBC
Radio channels explaining this change. There's also a new look to all the
BBC Radio channel MHEG screens (not BBC World Service) to incorporate the
redesigned BBC Radio logos. The BBC Radio press red screens say this
multiplex change is needed to allow for DSO (Digital Switchover).

http://www.entertainment-iuk.com/?p=140

 

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The Principality of Sealand says it has received a multi-million dollar investment opportunity to fund the launch of a new communications satellite. This would give the self-styled “independent micro-nation” total worldwide Internet freedom. The official Sealand website says that internationally unrestricted Internet broadcasting from the former military fortress would allow the realisation of a number of exciting new projects.

 

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Tony Blackburn is joining a large list of celebrities and former DJs helping BBC Radio 1 celebrate 40 years of broadcasting. Tony will join Chris Moyles to co-host breakfast on On Sunday 30 September with Bruno Brookes, Sara Cox, Zoe Ball, Ozzy Osbourne and Paul McCartney all hosting programmes.

 

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3 September 2007
Radio Today

The world's smallest radio station (not sure that's true! - Mike) has
launched in Scilly, from studios opposite Porthmellon Beach on St Mary's.
Radio Scilly went live at 2pm during a ceremony attended by around 100
invited guests. 67 islanders have signed up as presenters, serving a maximum
audience of 2100 people on the five islands, 28 miles off Lands End.

An evening event featuring the islands' bands The Steam Band and Touching
Cloth will be held at the Scillonian Club tonight and will see the launch of
a commemorative beer brewed by the Ales Of Scilly Brewery, Megahertz.

Keri Jones ran the first trial broadcast in 1999 before launching Radio
Pembrokeshire in 2001 and, due to Ofcom rules, had to sell his Radio
Pembrokeshire Group shareholding before staring Radio Scilly. It was his
longtime goal to live and work on Scilly throughout his Radio Pembrokeshire
days and his contract allowed him time off to carry out the RSL's as a
"busman's holiday". He now lives on the islands and will host the 0700-1200
show Monday to Saturday as well as undertaking Managing Director duties. The
station's other permanent staff are former Radio Pembrokeshire Content
Manager, Zoe Parry and Radio Scilly trial regular and James Watt, who is
from St Mary's.

The station will follow a mainstream local radio format with a high degree
of speech between 0700 and 1200, islanders will host music and chat shows
from midday and the evening slots between 1800 and 2200 will feature an
eclectic mix of specialist programming. Radio Scilly will also air a soap
opera, The Islanders, written by local accomplished playwright Maggie
Perkovic and performed by St Mary's Theatre Club. Radio Scilly will also
have its own staff weatherman, St Mary's based meteorologist Steve Douglas
who will provide hourly updates and "weather -on-the-tens" on
breakfast-essential in a sea faring community. Although the Ofcom commitment
is for just two hours of live programming a day, Radio Scilly intends
becoming the role model for small community radio stations and will be live
from 0700-2200 and will air local news bulletins 6 times a day.

The station has attracted signifciant media attention with a BBC2 TV crew
following the station's set-up for a fly-on-the-wall documentary. The launch
has also been covered by the Guardian Newspaper today and ABC Radio in
Australia!

Keri told RadioToday.co.uk: "We intend to become to role model for small
community radio stations. We want to sound just as polished and professional
as mainland stations because we want our volunteers to feel proud of their
involvement.This is an amazing community with a huge amount of talent. We'll
be showcasing that every day on our FM and online audio and video broadcasts
on www.radioscilly.com"

Audio from the launch will appear here soon.
http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.2403

 

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A new radio station is set to launch in Manchester this month. In addition to new FM stations such as Rock Radio and Salford City Radio, a team of around 20 radio professionals are busy putting the final touches together for Manchester Radio Online, which launches this Sunday, 9th September.

 

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BBC Radio 3 presenter Andy Kershaw is in jail today after being charged with breaching a restraining order, various newspapers have reported. Andy was arrested on Wednesday close to the home of his ex-partner Juliette Banner. He's best know for his stint at Radio 1 which lasted 15 years.

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Friday 31st August 2007

Waffler

I can recommend Bob Le Roi's site for a great collection of scrapbooks on all aspects of offshore radio.  It is jam packed with information about fort and ship based radio.  I have read these items as they have come out, but if you have never visited it I suggest you look it up http://www.bobleroi.co.uk/  He does a great selection of books and cd documentaries.  He even sells bibs and bobs from his studio, plus music cds etc at reduced prices.   Bob did such great work with the Redsands Radio Project with so few staff.

Passion Fm is blocking the frequency here for Hayes FM on 91.8 FM.   It is intended as a local station in Hillingdon and should be serving my area as well, even though we are on the borders.  It will be interesting to see if Passion are closed down or move off voluntarily.  How will Radio 3 listeners cope with the new station in that area?  

Listened to a great documentary this morning down by a New Zealand station, all about Radio Hauraki.  Some excellent anecdotes from people involve with the station, and clips.  The jingles sounded quite different and refreshing.  They told how the Tiri, ship they were on, was tied up at a quay whilst broadcasting. All the presenters wanted to go to the pub so they decided to sail in. Asked if the authorities ever prosecuted them for broadcasting inside territorial waters, they said they knew they did it but seemed to turn a blind eye.  It was suggested that if they had closed the station down, the officials would miss out on their fishing and sunbathing just off the coral reef where they were anchored. Little did we think when we heard the recording of the MV Tiri sinking on air, that we would hear similar in the UK many years later when the Mi Amigo sank complete with its record library and equipment.

Virgin Radio boss Paul Jackson is returning to Capital Radio after quitting his position as chief executive at the national AM'er. Paul has been appointed managing director of Capital 95.8, reporting to his former boss, now GCap Media’s London managing director Fru Hazlit.

Sorry some of the items in the news section are in a bit late and are historical. I was also sad I knew about the special day of broadcasting on 675 KHz commemorating Radio Veronica, and forgot to tune in. Hopefully an anorak somewhere is waiting to upload the best of this day!

News from other sources

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New Statesman
By Dan Hancox
30 August 2007

In between the BBC's reliable fleet of schooners and commercial radio's
glitzy speedboats lurk the pirates. Illegally transmitted stations, run for
the love of music rather than the pursuit of profit, have proliferated on
old-style analogue radio, on which the airwaves are relatively easy to
hijack. A quick scan of the dial in London gives listeners a snatched sample
of the many subcultures coexisting in the capital: True 100.2 plays
Essex-boy garage and React 99.7 focuses on new urban music, while other
stations are dedicated entirely to Turkish or Ghanaian listeners.

As radio moves into the digital age, the future looks uncertain for such
stations, but Rinse FM, London's biggest pirate, is facing up to the
challenge of adapting itself. The station, which has been on air for 12
years, specialises in street music and has fostered many of the underground
genres that feed into mainstream popular music, including grime, dubstep and
garage. It has long been essential listening for fans who want to hear the
music that street legends (and Rinse regulars) such as Wiley or Skream have
made that morning, rather than waiting 18 months through negotiations with
agents, publicists and record companies before the tunes are aired on legal
radio.

By moving on to the internet last year, Rinse broke with the old pirate
radio model of a local rogue transmitter on the rooftop of a council estate.
It is now available to listeners all over the world as Rinse.fm, an internet
station, and free podcasts can be downloaded on iTunes. This is the first
stage of a campaign to court a legal FM licence from Ofcom.

If Rinse does succeed in winning the licence, it will be interesting to see
whether it will be able to maintain the raw, distinctive style that draws
its core audience. The DJs on Rinse have a real intimacy with their
listeners, coming from a shared passion for music that is viewed with
suspicion by the mainstream. This has always been the key to pirate radio's
appeal; I have friends who, as teenagers, would drive around desolate bits
of Bermondsey just to find the best spot to get clear reception for So Solid
Crew's show on Delight FM.

This intimacy has not been compromised by the internet - rather, it has been
globalised. The quaintly amateurish banter, DIY ethics, unpredictable
schedules and cutting-edge music make Rinse still sound like the soundtrack
to a block party in east London; it's just a party with a more
geographically varied invite list. Bun-Zero, a Belgian DJ visiting the UK,
is guest-hosting the Sunday-night dubstep show, and his presence on a UK
street music station says a lot about the internet's power to bring global
subcultures together. "Big shout-out to the Finland crew," someone calls
out. And why not?

MCs Little Dee and Jammin' perform on a show by the grime DJ VectrA (Sunday,
9pm-11pm; normally Fridays, 11pm-1am) - and for an hour there's a riot on my
radio. VectrA plays Skepta's "Match of the Day", a murderous carnival-style
reworking of the football show's theme tune; Little Dee lets rip, and the
record is rewound in tribute. "It's too much," Dee says in deference to the
song as it is cued up again. The second playing gets an even more
hyperactive reaction. More records are rewound. The energy is building
tangibly. Then all of a sudden their time is up: VectrA mumbles something
about "going back to the hood", and they cut to a sober advert for an FE
college open day, of all things. There's no doubt that pirate radio keeps
you on your toes.

This listening experience is all the more exciting because you know that you
will not hear these sounds on Radio 1: as the success of dubstep and grime
has proved, Britain's boldest new music needs non-commercial stations that
are prepared to take risks. These genres have room to flourish on Rinse.

There are scores of stations like this up and down the country, broadcasting
on pirate frequencies and the internet, and each one provides a fillip to
fans depressed at the decadence of the music industry. Many of these DJs are
risking prosecution and lugging bags of records across town on wet evenings
for no money, just to play the music they love into the void. For that, they
are to be saluted.

http://www.newstatesman.com:80/200708300033


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Via Paul Rowley, uk-radio-listeners Yahoo group:

Just to let you know, I've done a revised version of my
documentary "When Pirates Ruled the Waves", which looks at the
development of offshore radio between 1964 and 1967.

18 BBC Local Radio stations are carrying it over the Bank Holiday.
All should be streaming it live on their websites

SUNDAY AUGUST 26
NORTHAMPTON 1100
BERKSHIRE - 1300 (REPEATED AT 2000)
MANCHESTER - 1700

MONDAY AUGUST 27
LINCONSHIRE - 0900
SWINDON / WILTSHIRE - 0900
SOLENT 1130
DERBY - NOON
GLOUCESTERSHIRE - NOON
3CR - 1300
SHROPSHIRE - 1300
CORNWALL - 1300
JERSEY - 1300
GUERNSEY - 1300
LEICESTER - 1400
DEVON - 1600
NOTTINGHAM - 1800
SCR - 1800
LANCASHIRE - 1800

A further 13 stations are planning to carry it later this year,
possibly at Christmas.

MERSEYSIDE
SOMERSET
YORK
LEEDS
STOKE
HUMBERSIDE
TEES
HEREFORD AND WORCESTER
CAMBRIDGE
WM
BRISTOL
NORFOLK
SHEFFIELD

It's forty years ago this month since Britain's offshore
radio "pirates" were outlawed. The Marine Offences Act made it
illegal to work for, supply or advertise on the radio stations which
has been broadcasting round-the-clock pop from ships and forts over
the previous three years.

The most successful station Radio London closed down on August the
14th, 1967, with many of its DJs like Kenny Everett, Tony Blackburn,
and John Peel joining Radio One which opened the following month.
But the first pirate Radio Caroline defied the law, with both its
North and South ships continuing to broadcast for another seven
months.

Our political correspondent Paul Rowley looks back 40 years in the
documentary "When Pirates Ruled The Waves".

Includes interviews with Ronan O'Rahilly, Johnnie Walker, Tony
Blackburn, Kenny Everett, Roger Day, Ed Stewart, Tom Edwards, Keith
Skues, Ray Teret, Martin Kayne, Dave Williams, Alan Turner, Graham
Webb, Roger Gale, Jack McLaughlin, Gary Leeds (Walker Brothers),
Screaming Lord Sutch, Tony Benn and George Saunders.

Radio extracts include the voices of Smon Dee, Chris Moore, Tom
Lodge, Jerry Leighton, Bob Stewart, Carl Conway, Don Allen, Dave Lee
Travis, Tony Windsor, Dave Dennis, Paul Kaye, John Peel, Robbie
Dale, Duncan Johnson, Paul Burnett, Ron O'Quinn, Jerry Smithwick,
Ted Allebery, Jonathan Hoare, Edward Cole, Tommy Shields, Stuart
Henry, David Sinclair, Ian McCrae, Rusty Allen, Del Richardson, Jack
Jackson, Richard Murdoch, Horis Batchelor, Barry Alldiss, Bob Scott
plus many others.

Plus extracts from Caroline South, Radio London, Caroline North,
Radio England, Britain Radio, Radio City, Radio 390, Radio 270,
Radio Scotland, Radio Essex, Radio Atlanta, Radio Sutch, KING Radio,
Radio Invicta, the Light Programme and Radio Luxembourg.

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From Radio Netherlands Site 

On 17 August 1982, the first Compact Discs (CDs) rolled off the production line of the Philips factory in Hanover, Germany. The shining disc was the invention that marked the start of the changeover from analogue to digital audio players. Now, 25 years later, the CD has become an everyday item. But the question is - will it reach its 50th birthday?

The very first CDs featured the Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss. At the time, Philips promised that whoever bought the CD would forever be able to play it without a loss of quality. In the meantime, we have learned that it isn't quite as simple as that, because CDs can lose data due to too much sunlight or high temperatures. But Piet Kramer, one of the developers of the CD, doesn't recognise this.

Project without a precedent
Kramer still stands squarely behind the product, which was developed in collaboration with Sony. The project, designed to deliver digital audio to the consumer, was in those days a risky technical undertaking.

The standard that the CD had to follow was laid down in the "Red Book", and published in 1980. Therein were written down the precise measurements, length and other technical aspects of the CD. The "Red Book" also included the patent rights of Philips and Sony. Philips developed the majority of the disc and laser technology, and Sony was involved in developing the digital encoding technology for a faultless reproduction of the original music.

Fledgling technology
Much of the technology that existed in 1979, when Philips and Sony began their fledgling cooperation, was still in the early stages of development. So the chips in the CD players were, for that time, the most advanced ever in a consumer product. The laser that read the finished CDs was no further developed than a design on a drawing board.

So the fact that within three years the CD was ready to come on the market can only be described as a technical wonder. Two months after the first CDs rolled off the production line, the first CD players were launched on the Japanese market. Europe and the United States followed a few months later. And immediately, the CD was a big hit. Sony, in particular, sold a lot of players and Philips, thanks to its ownership of the record label Polygram, made most of its profits from the sale of CDs.

CDs outsell vinyl
In 1986, more CD players than record players were sold, and by 1988 the sales of CDs outnumbered those of vinyl. The development and marketing of the CD certainly did no harm to Philips. It ensured that the company held on to its position as the most important European producer of consumer electronics until the end of the 1990s.

Piet Kramer, now a pensioner, didn't benefit financially from the profits that his invention produced:

The lustre remains
The revolution that was signalled by the coming of the CD 25 years ago has still lost none of its lustre for Kramer. He and his colleagues did not predict the extent to which the computer and entertainment industry would use the digital CD to store and distribute their data.

But even Kramer admits that the CD has had its day. The disc isn't threatened so much by other players as by a file format: MP3. So it's unlikely that there will ever again be an audio player that will dominate the market like the CD player did. Even Kramer concurs with that:

Waffler

I am very pleased that I was not away on holiday 40 years after the MOA was passed. This time I am enjoying Pirate BBC Essex and realise I have not posted to the diary for 10 days!   The whole broadcast to date has been exemplary.  The quality of reminiscences from broadcasters and listeners was tremendous.  I hope that the BBC will archive the entire output and make it available for public reference.  I have not recorded everything but tried to get one show or extract from each presenter.  At a distance in North West London it is pretty good on 765 Khz, but tricky to record due to electrical interference etc.   Sadly I was away in Cornwall when the pirates closed in 1967.  I was rather disappointed my parents decided to holiday there in 1967 as the offshore stations were out of range of my transistor radio by day.

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News from other sources

John Figliozzi writes: RTÉ Ireland now has an additional half-hour on World Radio Network’s (WRN) North American service, carried by Sirius Satellite Radio on channel 140. Already on the schedule daily at 0900-1000, 1400-1430 and 1700-1730 ET (1300, 1800 and 2100 UTC), RTÉ can now also be heard for an additional half hour daily at 1930 ET (2330 UTC).

Sanjar Qiam of the Salam Watandar Network writes: Radio Yawali Ghag of Sayedabad district was burned down by Taliban last night. A large number of Taliban fighters attacked the southern district of Sayedabad in Wardak province at around 02:00 AM today. A fierce battle broke out between police and Taliban using small arms and RPGs. The fight continued for three hours until the dawn, Taliban fled when Army reinforcements arrived from Kabul.

A Latin American internet radio station has been granted permission by Ofcom to broadcast in London on a temporary basis. XPressit FM will operate with an RSL licence from August 13th to September 9th and programmes will include Breakfast with Mexican actor Ernesto Leszek.

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Scunthorpe United and Hull City have both signed new three-year broadcast contracts with BBC Radio Humberside, meaning all Championship games this season will be covered with full match commentaries. The deals also provide for exclusive interviews with Radio Humberside before and after each match.

BBC WM presenter Ed Doolan has talked about how he thought he might die after having a heart pacemaker fitted on his 20th wedding anniversary. The Sony Award winning host said the last 48 hours was the first time in his life he's been really frightened.

Big L presenter Mike Read has attacked GCap Media's new Gold network for stealing the strapline used by Big L. The Essex-based international broadcaster has used It's all about the music for a year, but Gold launched across the UK last week with the same strapline.
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Bob Harris has started radiotherapy treatment for cancer of the prostate. The BBC Radio 2 presenter was diagnosed with cancer in February and has said this week how he finds the support of listeners and colleagues "very strengthening". His last show for now was on August 4th, but Bob hopes to be back in October.

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2nd August 2007

Waffler

From the BBC Essex website - a wow all the way for sure. My wife will not enjoy this at all I am sure!

last updated: 01/08/07

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26th July 2007

Waffler:

Some interesting news picked entirely from Media network's email  below for you.  Also in the World Radio section a feature on radio I heard a while back in Jersey in the Channel Islands.

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An email from the Pirate Hall of Fame on an exciting party, that the Waffler will not be at but looks like fun!

News picked from Media Network

The BBC is to establish an Editorial Standards Board to oversee the Corporation’s response to this week’s announcement of serious editorial breaches in a number of programmes. The Board, to be chaired by the Deputy Director-General, Mark Byford, will report to the Director-General.

The Board, which will comprise of directors of programme and content areas with other directors and senior staff, will also be attended by an independent director from the BBC Executive Board, Samir Shah.

The purpose of the Board will be to discuss key editorial standards facing the BBC overall and develop policy from it; to review the BBC’s editorial compliance systems and ensure that the programme of action announced by the Director-General this week is implemented as a matter of priority and in full.

The BBC, with the approval of the BBC Trust, has appointed Will Wyatt CBE, the former Chief Executive of BBC Broadcast, to conduct an independent inquiry to establish a full understanding of the events surrounding the publication by the BBC at a press launch for the BBC One Autumn season of misleading footage relating to Her Majesty the Queen.

Mr Wyatt’s inquiry will report to the Director-General in September. The Director-General will present the report to the BBC Trust in October. The findings will be made public.

(Source: BBC Press Office)

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BBC Deputy Director-General Mark Byford told MPs he had been “stunned” by the revelations in the phone-in scandal that has rocked the Corporation. ”What has happened is utterly unacceptable,” he said in an appearance before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee today.

Three senior staff members have been suspended after the BBC admitted last week putting fake winners on air in a number of phone-in programmes, including charity fund-raising shows like Comic Relief. ”I was stunned,” Byford added. “It was one of those moments, if you’ve been in the BBC as long as I have … you were stunned by it.”

He told the committee that the Corporation was working hard to eliminate any problems and said the vast majority of staff knew they should never deceive the audience. It has appointed the former chief executive of BBC Broadcast, Will Wyatt, to conduct an independent inquiry.

In response to the phone-in row, which has engulfed the whole British TV industry, media regulator Ofcom said today that broadcasters themselves would become directly responsible for the use of premium rate telephone services under new licence obligations. Broadcasters have in the past tended to blame production companies or firms supplying the phone services.

(Source: Reuters)

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Although Dutch commercial station Radio 10 Gold will continue broadcasting its current format after it stops using mediumwave, owner Talpa has launched three new Internet streams on its Radio Digitaal service featuring subsets of the Radio 10 Gold playlist. Listeners can choose from nonstop offerings of hits from the 60’s/70’s, the 80’s and the 90’s. These channels are branded as Radio 10 Gold services. Radio Digitaal now has a total of 16 different audio streams. The main Radio 10 Gold service is also available.

Radio Digitaal offers a low bitrate stream without registering, but registered users can listen to the streams with higher quality. The service is only available via Radio Digitaal’s own player. It supports all browsers except Opera. For Firefox and the Mac, plugins are required.

Radio Digitaal

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Dutch commercial radio station Radio Waddenzee/Radio Seagull is finalising the construction of the first studio on board the former lightship LV8, the ‘Jenni Baynton’. Even though the Harris Gates rotating fader mixer is not installed yet, there is a working studio and live broadcasts from the ship have started.

On Saturday 28 of July at 0500-1700 UTC there will be a special broadcast during day time, usually Radio Waddenzee air time. However as the two stations are going to share the studio until Studio 2 is ready, the first official use of it will be a co-production between Waddenzee and Seagull. A “Summer hit top 120” has been put together, and will be going out that day on 1602 kHz. Shows will be presented by both Waddenzee and Seagull DJ’s.

(Source: Radio Seagull)

Shortwave radio is an excellent medium for keeping tabs on global events. Signals can be received from around the world at absolutely no cost to the listener, with a wider range of content than most local radio programming. Shortwave transmitters can be operated at a relatively low cost by organizations or even individual hobbyists, lending shortwave a freedom of expression unparalleled by mainstream media. In addition, the multilingual and multicultural content of shortwave fosters the development of a great diversity of perspectives. “DX’ing,” or distance listening, is a rewarding hobby with little overhead required.”

That could have been written 30 years ago. In fact, it has just been written by Chris Handy, an Asian cultures and languages graduate student at the University of Texas, and published today in the Daily Texan Online. It’s not often nowadays that we see DXers getting the chance to explain their hobby to a relatively young audience, so full marks to Chris for bucking the trend of iPods and listening online, and getting back to basics.

Read the article

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24th July 2007

Waffler

A lovely afternoon today and I managed to spend some quality time in the garden.  Firstly cutting our large hedge out front, well large by my standards after being in hospital two months ago!    I also fired up the shortwave receiver and did two hours listening on and off, I will put my recent logs in the magazine section in a day or two for you to peruse.    

I heard a station classified in the Passport Radio as a clandestine radio station, broadcasting from Rampisham.  Rampisham is a transmitter site located in Dorset England, once a BBC transmitting station, now run by VT Communications. I do not know why they dropped the rather homely name of Merlin Communications.    I did some research on this station on 17700 Khz and have posted it in the news section below for your information.

Redsands Radio came through a treat on the weekend but unfortunately it was not audible today.  I find that the feed from the station at night on the internet is too poor quality. I hope somebody will upload some quality recordings of it.  I have some of the short test and clips from the first day. But I think things got better as the RSL moved on.

News from other sources

Media Network Weblog
22 July 2007

Dutch commercial broadcasters Arrow Classic Rock and Radio 10 Gold continue
to broadcast on mediumwave for the time being. Arrow is using 675 kHz to
broadcast a "second channel" which is a modified version of its main service
on FM. The mediumwave transmitter is operating at reduced power to reduce
running costs.

No press release has been issued, and there is no mention of the additional
service on Arrow's website. Media Network understands that discussions are
under way with other parties interested in the mediumwave frequency, so this
appears to be a temporary arrangement to keep the frequency active whilst
remaining within the terms of the licence.

Radio 10 Gold continues to broadcast on 1008 kHz. A spokesperson told
DutchMedia that the handover of the licence to GrootNieuws Radio cannot be
completed until formalities are completed with the Dutch authorities. At the
moment, it's not known exactly when the change will take place. As with 675
kHz, the broadcasts on 1008 kHz are using reduced power.

http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/?p=8474

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According to its annual report, Ofcom seized 661 illegal radio transmitters
in the year 2006-2007. It undertook 707 separate enforcement actions,
including 48 raids on studios used by illegal broadcasters. As a result of
its actions, Ofcom secured 61 successful convictions. The full annual report
can be downloaded form the Ofcom web site at www.ofcom.org.uk.

(RSGB)

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23 July 2007

Isle of Man International Broadcasting, the much-delayed longwave station on
279 kHz, seems to be getting closer to launch. On its website, an RSS feed
has been added. The station says that "in combination with our NEWS page,
our dedicated news feed will provide the latest information on the station
launch as it becomes available."

The Isle of Man International Broadcasting website is at
http://www.iomib.com/

(Media Network)

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24 July 2007
Waveguide

GCap Media today announced that its eighteen AM and DAB digital Classic Gold
radio stations will merge with the seven AM and DAB digital Capital Gold
stations to form the national Gold network which will go live on-air at
19:00 on Friday, August 3.

Andy Turner, Gold's Station Director, will oversee the development and
evolution of the network. There will be four hours of daily afternoon local
programming with traffic, news and weather provided locally and news
coverage increased to three minutes per hour.

Steve Orchard, Group Operations Director of GCap Media, said: "As announced
in our preliminary results at the end of May, GCap Media is committed to
investing in national brands with multi-media capabilities that appeal to
communities of passionate music fans.

"The new Gold network will greatly appeal to authentic music fans and will
reinvigorate the way classic hits radio is presented."

Veteran DJ Tony Blackburn will step down after four-and-a-half years as
breakfast presenter on Classic Gold.

Blackburn said: "After four and a half years presenting the breakfast show
on Classic Gold I have decided now is as good a time as ever to move on from
a
Network that I have enjoyed presenting on immensely. "The Classic Gold
listeners are a brilliant bunch and I hope they have enjoyed waking up with
me as much as I have enjoyed getting them up. I am sure that our paths will
cross in the future as I am in discussions with GCap about a series of new
shows.
"Classic Gold has been an enormously fun place to work and for that I have
all the management and staff, co-presenters, sponsors and advertisers to
thank."

waveguide.co.uk

http://www.evrel.ewf.uni-erlangen.de/pesc/peaceradio-AFG.html

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Information on my shortwave "catch" this afternoon

New radio for Afghanistan offers rewards for capture of Bin-Ladin   (from media network site)

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In full: BBC Trust 'impartiality' report guidelines

Monday, June 18 2007, 14:18 BST  (from digital spy website)

By Joanne Oatts, Media Correspondent