Listening to the radio in the shed

[Station X]

Or as an acronym:-

https://www.abbreviations.com/WOKE

[Ian - G4JQT]

Listening to the radio - in the shed or anywhere:

AM is very noisy for most of us. The choice of stations is dwindling and will continue to do so. I bought an Ocean Digital Internet radio to feed my 'Pantry Transmitter' so I could hear any number of internet stations clearly on my old vintage AM/MW radios anywhere in the house and garden. It was unnecessarily clunky to program up but I could live with that. It soon stopped working - maybe not designed for continuous use for a whole week!

I did some research and bought an Echo Dot for half the price of the Ocean Digital. With possible privacy issues aside (discussed on another thread), I have found it a much easier device to use to feed my little transmitter. You need to know the name of the station you want, and the basic TuneIn app it comes with has the more obscure stations missing, but it does also have access to many podcasts. As a test I'm now listening to Radio New Zealand National.

The Dot has a speaker so of course you don't need to transmit the audio, but the output jack to the transmitter mutes the speaker so you can have a good clear signal of almost whatever programme or music you like on any radio in the room - a sort of AM WiFi!

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by Station X

Or as an acronym:-

https://www.abbreviations.com/WOKE

Those are all backronyms. The word originated in black US culture during the Black Lives Matter protests, and was then adopted by US leftists and 'progressives' more generally. The Guardian picked up on it in a big way - half of their comment pieces were using it at one time. Right wing and conservative writers then started to use it sarcastically as a term signifying excessive political correctness and identity politics.

Back on topic, R4 does indeed have a heavy 'woke' tone to much of its output nowadays, which many people find irritating. I imagine this is partly down to the kind of people who commission and produce the programmes, and partly a deliberate attempt to attract younger listeners and appear 'inclusive'.

[Junk Box Nick]

Thanks for that explanation Paul - I too had wondered where this expression had come from. I'm a bit out of the loop these days (and in many respects happy to be so).

Radio 4 has long been accused of taking every opportunity to indulge in virtue signalling. I have to confess to often indulging in my own personal sweepstake: "I wonder how long it will be before I hear mention of x issue" each time I tune to R4, no matter the programme.

I dive for the off button as soon as Woman's Hour comes on. I'm all too aware of my shortcomings without being reminded of them for an hour a day.

Trying Radio Dismuke for the first time as I write this. I like the occassional period ads. They've played a few records that I don't think would get air time today...

[Skywave]

Originally Posted by Junk Box Nick

I dive for the off button as soon as Woman's Hour comes on. I'm all too aware of my shortcomings without being reminded of them for an hour a day.

Agreed. Ditto 'Victoria Derbyshire' on BBC TV. However, soon, apparently, that will disappear: good.
I can accept the BBC's policy of 'total inclusiveness' in all of its output, but to me, sometimes it does seem to have become disproportionately representative.

Al.

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by Skywave

"disproportionately representative"

There's an expression I really like!

[cheerfulcharlie]

Further to the marvelous, cheap little Nokia 8110 phone with World Radio, I mentioned earlier.

...it actually has an Email address where you can request stations not on the phone list to be added. I asked them to add TalkRadio and viola! they added it.

PS. The internal speaker is quite amazing for what it is.



.

[Skywave]

Originally Posted by 'LIVEWIRE?'

I have become quite a fan of Angel Radio.

I've just spent 30 mins. listening to Angel Radio. I must say that I was disappointed about the ratio 'presenter yakity-yak' to 'music output'. For me, a bit too reminiscent of BBC Radio 2.

Al.

[Panrock]

Originally Posted by Skywave

I can accept the BBC's policy of 'total inclusiveness' in all of its output, but to me, sometimes it does seem to have become disproportionately representative.

The BBC News web site is similar in this regard. Also, the illustrations of people there don't seem to reflect the actual balance of the UK population. This may be partly down to the the 'woke' image agency they use. The journalism, whilst often being of the 'campaigning' type, may try to be balanced. However what is not, is the selection of subjects deemed to be especially newsworthy and 'of concern'.

Steve

['LIVEWIRE?']

Al, maybe you'd prefer Serenade radio. Less chat on there, but, to me, Angel Radio usually gets the balance just about right. The presenters on Angel obviously know some of their listeners personally, and communicate that feeling to those they don't know. By the way have you tried listening to Radio Dismuke?

[Bazz4CQJ]

I tend to designate my garage/workshop as "Cassette world"; I play ancient cassette compilations and albums that don't normally make it on to my CD in the house, sometimes re-discovering forgotten gems, Paul Simon at the moment.

B

[Boulevardier]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Those are all backronyms. The word originated in black US culture during the Black Lives Matter protests, and was then adopted by US leftists and 'progressives' more generally. The Guardian picked up on it in a big way - half of their comment pieces were using it at one time. Right wing and conservative writers then started to use it sarcastically as a term signifying excessive political correctness and identity politics.

Back on topic, R4 does indeed have a heavy 'woke' tone to much of its output nowadays, which many people find irritating. I imagine this is partly down to the kind of people who commission and produce the programmes, and partly a deliberate attempt to attract younger listeners and appear 'inclusive'.

Very perceptive post, Paul. I see it in much the same way - BBC demonstrates its correctness by reflecting disproportionately what are really the views and interests of minority sections of society. I also agree with Nick and Al that Woman's Hour is an egregious example of this, but I tend to listen to it just so I can marvel at the blatancy of it. But better be careful, or we'll have WH on to us here as an example of all that's wrong with the world!

[Ian - G4JQT]

Oh... This thread has taken a peculiar turn. The internet is already full of examples describing how we're supposedly being subtly manipulated by purveyors of various agendas for sinister reasons.

The David Icke forum will fill any gaps for the truly inquisitive...

[paulsherwin]

We are drifting into politics here. No more please.

[G6Tanuki]

If - like me - you're living off your investment-decisions, I can suggest periodically listening to https://www.bloomberg.com/audio

I really wish the mainstream radio-stations devoted more time to business/economic/financial news. BBCR4 has each day hours of 'arts/literature/creative/culture' slots [all of which should be on BBCR3] but they totally fail to address us business/investment/capital-markets types.

Give me an online stream which merges realtime minute-by-minute FTSE100/Dow-Jones news with Smooth Jazz, and I'll happily pay £10 a month to subscribe!

[Bazz4CQJ]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

Give me an online stream which merges realtime minute-by-minute FTSE100/Dow-Jones news with Smooth Jazz, and I'll happily pay £10 a month to subscribe!

The last figure I heard was that there are 35,000 stations on the internet, so that ideal station may well exist, but finding it could be tricky. I've currently got 15 of the 250 presets on my IR loaded with stations, and I must find time to load more. Good programmes are like buses; all come at the same time and then there are long gaps in between. I reckon that at every hour of everyday, one internet station or another is broadcasting the late Nicholas Parsons. Maybe there's a station doing "Just a Minute" 24/7? Ditto "The News Quiz" from the Alan Coren era?

Can anyone recommend a good (reliable) directory of Internet Radio Stations?

B

[Boulevardier]

Nicholas Parsons - oh dear!

The thought of 24/7 "Just a Minute" is truly terrifying! There also may well be a station out there broadcasting endless "Desert Island Disks" - they must have recordings of tens of thousands of the things in storage. For me, these two programmes have the very essence of boredom - one of them people given licence to talk about themselves for half an hour, and the other people allowed to talk mindless drivel (provided there's no repetition, etc) for a similar endless half hour!

[AC/HL]

Each to their own, it would be a boring world if we all listened to the same station.

['LIVEWIRE?']

Having listened to Radio Dismuke* for a couple of hours earlier today, I'll include them in my favourite stations list, though whether I'd want to listen to 20s & 30s dance band music for hours on end is a moot point. * Where did they get that name and what does 'dismuke' mean? My listening choices are fairly wide, b.t.w., including Angel Radio, Serenade Radio, Scala, Classic FM, Radio 2, etc. It's good to have such a wide choice of listening - a far cry from the days of the Home, Light, and Third Programmes.

[dave walsh]

I tend to listen to Radio 4 on a series of old radios and particularly a battered boom box while "pottering" in the Workshop/Garage, or just Radio 3 to for a calm background. Alternatively there is is the Internet for the same thing while using the computer. Having only just realised that it is available on the far end of that frequency spectrum, I also listen to the London Broadcasting Company using cheap DAB sets as a source around the house, either for the Hi-Fi or just background. I'm not always any more impressed there than I am with some of the predictable BBC output, although I have a lot of respect for the people who produce it all. LBC is more uninhibited than the primary broadcaster but clearly has it's own agenda. Most of the very many " general" entertainment stations seem terribly anodyne to me

Tuesday's Guardian had a very wordy article, flagged up as "The Long Read" on the top of the front page and a full portable Bush Set illustration on the inside "How MOR conquered radio". It looked very interesting at first but turned out to be a free ad for the "Magic Radio" Empire and as dull as [some] of the music mentioned which was [largely] as uninspired as you might expect. Oh dear!

Yes "Woke" is probably just yet another form of fashionable virtue signalling, ie I'm politically correct and fully in touch with the values that you should also fall in line with! As with teenage culture it's an attempt to speak exclusively and make yourself feel different [if not superior] to others because what is really important is that they comply and agree with it. This form of language is described as a "restricted code" by Sociologists and could just indicate a lack of education or [alternatively] a conscious manipulation of it!

As Paul suggests, there may be a cultural origin, for example Australian speech which tends to abbreviate terms ie "Yute" or "Oldies!" Think Anthony Burgess and "A Clockwork Orange". My overall observation is that, the more restrictive the society, the more bland the popular music overall !

Dave W