...Just a quick mention for two really fascinating videos - each for different reasons. The first is the former BBC Radio 1 breakfast presenter, Nick Grimshaw, in 2017 finding out what the station's team assistants do. Watch it knowing that it's half meant for media-savvy types and half as a promo for the station. The … Continue reading Behind the scenes (a bit more)…
Tag: Radio Technology
Behind the scenes…
...I always enjoy watching a radio show go out. It's the mix of technology: headphones, microphones (yes - those things again), mixing desks, computer monitor screens, and chairs with little wheels on the bottom of the legs. Seriously. Never try to broadcast on a dining room chair. It just doesn't work. You need to dissipate … Continue reading Behind the scenes…
I want to return…
...to thinking about what is 'radio'. I still stand by my view that it's the microphone which defines and determines the very essence of what radio is. Without it, there's no way our voices can be captured, recorded, processed and transmitted for the listener and the audience to enjoy. In that same blog post I … Continue reading I want to return…
Just look up…
...because if you look down all the time the tops of the buildings will start to dissolve and disappear. Good journalists – and academic researchers – always ask 'why?' To do any less is to commit sacrilege to both professions. When I was about ten years old my parents gave me one particular book that … Continue reading Just look up…
Mic it up…
…I've established that it's the microphone which defines exactly what radio is. That's because notions of 'broadcast', transmitters', 'wireless' and 'transistor radio' have, I think – over the past three decades – become either confused, redundant, or both. Pic: (c) Martin Cooper The microphone is the instrument which captures the human voice. Through the mixing … Continue reading Mic it up…
On the button…
...yet another explanation of 'PFL'...
“…Ha, but my life is but a box of wormgears.”
The musings of Marvin the Paranoid Android seem to sum up neatly some of the trickier bits of the lives we ourselves lead. (The quote is from Life, the Universe and Everything (1982), London:Pan Books, p. 45). Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide, created a genre-busting cross-platform cultural epic in the late 1970s … Continue reading “…Ha, but my life is but a box of wormgears.”
Tech determines it…
I love technology. I love the way it shapes my life. I love valves, diodes, transistors, microprocessors, plastic casings, rotary tone controls and sliding faders. Does all this stuff determine the culture around me? My answer (in a rather shy retiring way when talking about this amongst some academics) is yes: I'm a technological determinist. … Continue reading Tech determines it…
Automaton…
What is your attitude to pre-recorded radio shows? I spent the 1980s and 1990s presenting live radio shows, so they're very much in my blood. However, technology has changed enormously in the past few years. I think it's altered what 'radio' is. Let me start with an example. In Reidsville, North Carolina, in the USA … Continue reading Automaton…
Pre-fade Listen 