I got my freesat email to say they have launched.
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channel 4, E4 & more 4 go Free To Air (FTA) 06/05/08
clock linked from 625.uk.com

Balcony TV on RTE
RTE show on Youtube (3 months now)
RTE on youtube no dogs & embeddable
worth noting

psp radio from ilikeradio.net download onto the PSP here

this is how I first remember News24, but as of 21/04/2008 News 24 is now (the) BBC News (channel?) the new name does not include brackets. let me explain. ‘The Channel’ refers to itself as BBC News and other BBC outlets refer to it as the BBC News Channel. Why re brand with built in confusion? I notice the Sky News has followed the CNN direction on minimal background to OSG very odd at first but one can get used to it. What ever the graphics ~ let us hope they dumb up not down the content.

Is radio better for kids than TV? asks Zoe Williams in the Guardian. No surprise I love radio. But no matter how hard i try I can’t force my children to listen to radio. I scanned the band today 88-108 30+ stations 2 played music, the city is Dublin Ireland. very metro, how odd, 2 played music. Ads and chat and talk & news and bloody phone ins. the kids want music. They want their music, not Larry Gogans choice or Ian Dempseys choice [old DJ syndrome]. Their own their music is what they want, they have it on little memory sticks with headphones. They are more into that and DVDs and over repeated crap on telly than any stale radio. Even making it digital means nothing, what you can’t get DAB in the car daddy? chuckle. not fitted as standard.

When i was young, C60 was hi tech. 7″ was played on the stack system long before stack meant separate hi-fi units to a tuner amp. Stack meant an arm held 45’s aloft the turntable dropping the next disc down on the platter like a jukebox. The point isn’t, think of how quaint it was, we didn’t own much media thats the point, we shared media (record radio tapes) with siblings and friends and parents (yes we played their radio stations and they ours).

If Disney put Top 40 radio as a soundscape in Club Penguin or Mattel put pop princess format radio as a soundscape to the Barbie website or Bebo would listen up and put radio into the social network then the kids will be getting radio as we know it and an audio channel for ad men to xxx dream about. But don’t hand the kids a plastic box with knobs on, and expect them to care, or find it interesting or entertaining. My band scan says they will find (old) men talking at them like the Rolling Stones song goes

.. And that man comes on to tell me
How white my shirts can be ..
I can’t get no, oh no no no
I can’t get no satisfaction

expect a generation gap - expect rejection of service as old hat - when from their ears it is very old hat. I was shocked to hear on Sunday morning VibeFM Enisskillen on air full time now, just 1 month old, with an 80’s soft rock playlist and a radio production mentality and sound to match the same decade, at least they are consistent. I get scared when the BCI advertise these safe as houses niche formats as licences. Remember even houses aren’t safe in times of revolutionary change.

sneak preview a soft radio @digdeeper & @dojodub are building from the ground up.

icecast shoutcast podcast podseek MP3 finder & player [beta testing now] you can log in - share - vote - swap and soon network while listening to realtime live and autopilot radios all over the world on your PSP via wifi. gocam not required. [separate blog post needed to explain all]

Has the media ever been as rotten as it is now? Of course, the media is part of society and defends the current system. But within limits, there has been room for probing, investigative journalism. Today’s news stories, however, are dominated by repetitious, unchecked stories usually in the cynical service of political spin and naked profit. Peter Taaffe reviews a devastating book which lifts the lid on the workings of the media.

read all the review over at socialism today.

I am interested greatly in this project of the EU called Euranet. A Pan European multilingual radio service of the EU contributed to by 16 broadcasters in 13 countries in 10 languages rising to 23 by year 5. Due to launch April 2008 and online from July 1st it is set to broadcast on FM bands in the host countries as well as internet streams and on demand podcasts. I am surprised its not looking to Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) on high power from a few sites across Europe to reach its full potential (i have a DReaM). Costing €15,000 per day or over €26Million over 5 years, Euranet is not in Ireland or the UK with the English service being provided by Radio Netherlands. What does it sound like? think Euronews for radio add a dash or WRN and have a listen to its Polish output that is on a pre web service page here.

isn’t the Euranet logo a bit like the DRM logo?