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Old 2nd Feb 2020, 9:30 am   #21
electronicskip
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

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Originally Posted by Reelman View Post
You may have preconceptions about 4 but just try it for a change.
I have my car radio tuned to LW Radio 4 95% of the time , i find it destresses me going to and from work .
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Old 2nd Feb 2020, 9:38 am   #22
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

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Originally Posted by its ur aerial View Post
We now have hundreds of TV Channels, most of which broadcast dross, and Radio stations with DJ`s or presenters with no talent at all.
Ken G6HZG
There are hundreds of channels 24/7, to my mind that is an impossible task to fill with quality content. The advertising money for commercial channels still can be found to pay for this output so it must be felt that it’s money well spent. Somebody must be watching them, in the main it’s not me.
I am not normally a Radio 3 listener but have noticed the lunch time concert features Elgar’s violin sonata so I will be listening to that, even that is a repeat.
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Old 2nd Feb 2020, 10:22 am   #23
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

That's why I like Solid Gold Gem AM, no adverts at all. They rely on donations. Their output is very much like Radio 1 of the 1970s but with presenters that are relatively 'normal'. They have a sister station, Serenade Radio which is very 'easy' listening, still with no adverts.

Worth a try for us that remember the glory days!
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Old 2nd Feb 2020, 1:52 pm   #24
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

Here, Radio 3 is almost continuously playing. The variety is usually excellent; the presenters are mostly erudite and there's a strong chance to be exposed to new music. It's a shame that this year the 'Late Junction' broadcasting regime has been changed, but I find the station vastly superior to the only similar offering - Classic FM.

Strangely, while not a gardener, I find GQT a really marvellous programme. I feel as though if it's on, then everything must be All Right. I imagine the government would broadcast it in the event of a devastating war to cheer the populace, or at least let them know how to plant their aconites in the ruins.

The trouble with your own music playlists is that you don't discover anything new. I must be relatively unusual in that I'm a millennial who doesn't use Spotify or other services, and relies on older methods to find new music. R3 and Radio 6 Music fulfil that most of the time on the radio, but I do buy quite a lot of records through Bandcamp, where the curated lists and views of other people's collections can be a real eye-opener.

While renovating in December, it was Radios 3 & 4 on the Mayflower II. Enough presence to fill Georgian rooms!
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Old 2nd Feb 2020, 2:45 pm   #25
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

No one ever got stressed listening to this station:

http://www.alphaboysschoolradio.com/

-)
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Old 2nd Feb 2020, 5:55 pm   #26
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

Well I used to listen to Radio Caroline back in the day when it was a pirate and still do now that it is legal. Sometimes it is a not ideal and the adverts grate but it could be worse, and there is good music. They are also available online.
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Old 2nd Feb 2020, 6:28 pm   #27
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

Historically, I actually preferred the adverts over the mindless-waffle of a DJ/presenter giving his opinion over what we just heard/are just about to hear. Even the late John Peel could get deeply annoying sometimes!

Stimorol chewing-gum and the Infa-Draw method, then in later times "Loving Awareness" {a sort-of deity-free spirituality promoted by Ronan O'Rahilly} Expo-86 Vancouver and "Lotto 6-49" [the Canadian national lottery] - whether on Caroline or Laser-558 - were all ads I fondly recall.
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Old 2nd Feb 2020, 8:20 pm   #28
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

Was the 'Infra-Draw' method ever advertised on Pirate radio? My recollection is that it was only promoted on Luxembourg, but I may be wrong/
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Old 2nd Feb 2020, 9:03 pm   #29
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

I didn't suggest that the Infra-Draw Method was promoted by the offshore-pirates, only on "Lucky Luxembourg 208" - but that was still a 'deeply naughty' broadcaster as far as the BBC and the UK radio-authorities were concerned.

[I had not been conceived in the times whn Captain Leonard Frank Plugge ran his "Radio Normandie" but I'd have loved to hear his broadcast ads for "Gaumont British" cinemas... and which was also the place where Roy Plomley got his toe into the radio-game [in later years he defected to the BBC and founded 'desert island discs']
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Old 3rd Feb 2020, 10:28 pm   #30
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

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Originally Posted by electronicskip View Post
I have my car radio tuned to LW Radio 4 95% of the time, i find it destresses me going to and from work.
I find it distresses me.

I'm someone who has been known to listen R4 all day but those days are long in the past. I even listened to it a lot when I was at school, even though my other regular fare was Caroline, RNI, Luxy and Radio One. These days I find listening to the news programmes utterly depressing - on top of the gloom it's variations on the same issues again and again - so I tend to stick with the matter-of-fact 6pm news to find out (some of) what's going on more generally. The wide breadth of news and topics once covered that kept my interest has gone and I am now very selective with my listening. The World Service, once an overnight companion - and sometimes in the day on the 41m band ground wave (Wooferton?) - is even worse - simply dreadful - though perhaps much of this can be blamed on the removal of Foreign Office funding.

As someone who has spent a lot of working life working on his own the radio has been a daily companion for decades, however, I find there is less and less to listen to on my analogue radios. There's little on 'popular' radio for me - at best it's pop and vacuous prattle and at worst it's repetitive playlists and even more repetitive ads. I've long grown out of this sort of radio. Radio 2 was my choice for years but I'm somewhat too old for its more recent Radio One Revisited incarnation. I work from time to time in a place where the young chap (early 30s) had it on all the while. Thankfully, he has left. I thought it was just me who was the fuddy-duddy until I discovered the other blokes who are mainly in my age group too couldn't bear it either. Silence is now the order of the day.

I listen to the Radio Caroline North weekends and it's peculiarly atmospheric listening to 1368kHz at night and 648 during the day (only members of this forum will understand this - 'normal' people would consider it bonkers) but one weekend a month of revive-45s is enough for me.
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Some 30 ago I repaired a TV (22 Inch Thorn 9600) for the Controller of BBC Radio 3. She made me a cup of tea and we got chatting about Broadcasting and the BBC, she then informed me how she was being pressured into achieving a increase in R3 Audience figures, this was at odds with her beliefs, that large Audience figures don't necessarily equate to quality Broadcasting.......... Too right.
If that was thirty years ago heaven knows what it must be like now. The BBC, now merely one broadcaster amongst many and a few TV channels amongst hundreds, and feeling that its back is against the wall, is desperately chasing younger audiences in order to have a profile and justify its (hoped for future) licence fee income. R3 might be the most highbrow of the BBC stations but many will claim it's been all too ready to dumb down.

Fortunately, I've always liked classical music. I've listened to Radio 3 for years and it has now become a refuge. (I'm making the most of it as the BBC seem determined remove any programming and presenters I like from their various stations.) When there's programming on R3 not to my taste I go to Classic FM when confined to analogue. Beyond analogue radio the new DAB Scala Radio is enjoyable and good company - it is lighter in tone but 'adult'.

I've been in my 'shed' today so I have the privilege of DAB and online. I like a bit of jazz and, as it is an almost extinct species on the BBC, TSF Jazz (France) and WBGO (NPR Newark NJ) are my go tos on the computer. Serenade Radio is another frequent listen - they have recently added archive recordings of Music While You Work to the output! (I value WBGO and Serenade enough to have membership at the former and contribute to the annual fund drive of the latter.)

Last edited by Junk Box Nick; 3rd Feb 2020 at 10:37 pm. Reason: typo
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Old 3rd Feb 2020, 11:07 pm   #31
peter_scott
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

If like me you are stuck in the interwar era then try https://radiodismuke.com/

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Old 4th Feb 2020, 12:10 am   #32
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

I have become quite a fan of Angel Radio over the pat few months. They broadcast on FM & DAB in Hampshire and via the Internet to the est of the world, playing nothing later than the music of the late 60s, muich of it earlier. I also from time to time listen to Serenade Radio, but haven't yet sampled either WBGO or Radio Dismuke
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Old 4th Feb 2020, 12:35 am   #33
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

Radio 4 mostly, there always used to be something interesting on, so much so that I would find I had stopped to listen.
IMHO it's gone too woke.
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Old 4th Feb 2020, 3:00 am   #34
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

Just looked up the Angel Radio website - love the old (really old) radio pic in the header.

Off to have a listen.
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Old 4th Feb 2020, 4:55 am   #35
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

Others will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that radio is a pre-WW2 Round EKCO, Terry
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Old 4th Feb 2020, 8:53 am   #36
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

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Originally Posted by knobtwiddler View Post
No one ever got stressed listening to this station:

http://www.alphaboysschoolradio.com/
Indeed! Thank you very much for that link.
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Old 4th Feb 2020, 9:02 am   #37
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

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Seemingly endless mournful dirges alternating with screaming over the top material - I don't think I'm any prude having been a heavy metal fan for years as well as rock enthusiast but this is a step beyond what I want to hear or tolerate. In fact the only tolerable station the other day turned out to be a Christian one much to my surprise (and horror)!!
Without knowing specific tastes it's hard to recommend something.

I maintain gear for Life FM, but don't really listen to them much these days - I'm out of their demographic (48) and have been mainly listening to Hauraki these days. If you don't mind rock then it might be worth trying - they're no longer a "classic rock" format, instead featuring male-skewed rock, alternative, electronica and a little metal in descending order. The Rock may also be an option but they seem to have a playlist of a dozen bogan anthems, aimed at younger guys.

Christian in Wellington will mean the Rhema Media brands Rhema or Star - Rhema Media haven't been able to afford a Wellington frequency for Life FM. If it was Star, then really the likes of Coast or Magic may also suit. I occasionally are subjected to them and Magic especially makes me want to gouge my ears out

The Sound, The Hits, More FM, The Breeze - all much the same, market themselves to advertisers as female skewed. The Sound is older, More FM and The Hits are aimed at middle aged, The Breeze is easy listening but a lot of overlap.

ZM and Edge are aimed at a younger market, although my wife has ZM in the car all the time (and leaves mine tuned to it instead of Hauraki!). Life FM is aimed slightly older, but again not in Wellington.

Special interest gets you to Niu, Iwi stations like Tahu FM and Tarana, and if you're into urban and hip-hop there's Mai and Flava. Not sure which of these are on-air in Wellington.

Then there's your local LPFM squirting out a watt of anything, all squeezed in to the 87.7-88.3 and 106.7-107.7. Anyone's guess what you can get!

...and finally a few local stations, from small ones like Cave FM in Gore, who co-site with us at Croydon, up to the likes of Radio BOP.

Actually if you like an eclectic mix from a guy who I'm guessing is in his late 50s and plays anything, try Cave FM - it's worth a try, and Robert aka Caveman collects vintage radios (the photos attached are from 2015, they're more organised now!)
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Old 4th Feb 2020, 9:50 am   #38
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

It has to be said, with poor AM reception these days, and what's available in our area on FM vs a dial which only goes to 100MHz, we have to date, improvised how not just music, but other forms of media (audio books for example) are 'sent' to our vintage radios.

We still enjoy our humble collection of sets, used often and are a talking point, though 'live' broadcasts are becoming rarer for us, as various favourite stations have had a presenter reshuffle, the programme dynamic has changed and has forced us into using web streaming and the like.

It has been a real eye opener for us, since this has exposed other genres of music otherwise not available locally. Imagine the summer months (ok, for the UK, hours), firing up the barbeque, friends and family all 'round for a jolly time, refreshing drinks on the go and Latino music from another country playing through a vintage radio! It's amazing how many folk 'get up and have a jiggle'!

Trying 'tin-pot' FM from just up the road is much like wallpapering the shed, some will notice, but generally, the poor set is just consuming valve-life, which is a real shame.

Tastes vary wildly, ours currently going through a perspective adjustment, keeping seasonal/traditional for Christmas, but the rest of the time, the world is now ours to be heard.

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Old 4th Feb 2020, 11:05 am   #39
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

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Originally Posted by Tim View Post
Radio 4 mostly, there always used to be something interesting on, so much so that I would find I had stopped to listen.
IMHO it's gone too woke.
What is this, to me, new expression, 'it's gone too woke'?
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Old 4th Feb 2020, 11:11 am   #40
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Default Re: Listening to the radio in the shed

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What is this, to me, new expression, 'it's gone too woke'?
Presume it’s this from the urban dictionary.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=woke
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