Ever since Classic FM’s owners made half-hearted attempts to stop overseas listeners from listening online a few years ago, people around the world have been listening quite happily to internet streams of the station. If the streams are accessed directly by URL, for example using a media player, there is no check of the listener’s [...]
The furore over phone hacking has once again put Rupert Murdoch’s proposed takeover of BSkyB into the spotlight. In the past, many people, including both me and Vince Cable’s fake constituent, might have assumed that Murdoch already owned Sky. So how did it come about that he only owns part of it? The answer is [...]
The number of complaints made about the BBC radio show in which Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand made a prank call to actor Andrew Sachs currently stands at 27,000. However, the number of people who complained following the actual broadcast stood at just two. The remainder have seemingly only complained following the media coverage in [...]
Earlier this month, it was announced that the TV game show, Going for Gold, is to be brought back to TV screens by Channel Five. The first programme is tomorrow. Instead of Henry Kelly, it will be presented by another former Classic FM presenter, John Suchet. There will be some notable changes to the show, [...]
Following the news that GCap Media are to scrap their theJazz and Planet Rock digital radio stations, it seemed that Classic FM, as an analogue station, would emerge unscathed. Unfortunately, the closures have had a knock-on effect that has changed Classic FM for the worst. In the week, I’m only really able to listen to [...]
Who would spend ages doing hard sums when you can use a calculator? Who would wash their clothes by hand when you can just put them in the washing machine? And who would listen to an old, hard-to-tune analogue radio when you could have a new DAB digital radio? That was the gist of a [...]
Last month I described how a new licensing regime has meant that listeners from outside the UK may no longer listen to British independent radio stations. But certain stations, including Classic FM, only required the listener to enter a valid UK postcode to listen. Then, at the start of this month, something changed again, and [...]
From 1 April 2006, internet streams of British independent radio stations ceased to be available for listeners outside the UK. Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), who collect royalties on behalf of record companies, informed broadcasters that they are only in a position to sell broadcasting rights for the UK. Therefore, when the old licences expired on [...]
In the early hours of this morning, the UK Theme was played for the last time on BBC Radio 4. Like many people, I’m not awake at 5:30am. But despite the fact that it’s broadcast at such an unearthly hour, the announcement in January that the theme would scrapped caused an outcry that reached as [...]
35mm film accident address adverts aerial photo airport air travel alcohol America American English anniversary apostrophe bank bank charges BBC Beijing benefits Big Ben Birmingham BNP bottle bridge broadcasting BT budget bus business calendar camera cannabis cash cash machine castle cathedral Catholicism celebrity censorship CERN Channel Tunnel chart China Chinese Christianity Christmas church Classic FM climate change clock code coin collaboration Colombia comedy complaint composer computing concert Conservatives contempt copyright courier court crash crime culture DAB date David Cameron debt Didcot diet digital photography digital radio digital rights management digital television diplomacy direct debit disrespect domain drink driving driving drugs earthquake eBay eclipse education election electricity electromagnetic fields email employment energy engineering ethnicity Europe Eurostar exams expenses Facebook feed fees file-sharing fire fitness flag Flickr flying football Formula One fraud free speech fuel duty gambling game show gay George Gilbert Scott Google government Greenpeace guitar health Heathrow heraldry heroes Hong Kong honours hotel ID cards image use immigration inflation internet interview Iraq Islam Israel Japan jazz jigsaw jingle job joke Jubilee jury justice Kidderminster Kodak Labour law Leicester lens letter licence life expectancy litter loan local government logo London Lords lorry lottery mail Mandarin mathematics mayor measurement megapixel military millionaire mistake mobile phone monarchy money monopoly moon Murdoch Music names nationalism Nationwide newspaper New Year New Zealand Nokia Northern Ireland nuclear obesity obituary Ofcom Olympics opening hours Open Rights Group open source Oxfordshire parliament petition photograph photographer physics Plaid Cymru Poland police poll Pope post postcode post office power lines prayer prime minister prison privacy privatisation Proms pronunciation protest publication Queen quiz racism radio railway recording regeneration republicanism ringtone rip off river road royal royal mail RSS rubbish satellite savings school Scotland sky skyline smoking SNP social networking song Spain spam station statistics STFC street view sun swearing Switzerland symphony synchrotron tax telecoms Telegraph television Tesco Thatcherism theatre time timezone title toll Tony Blair tourism trademark tradition transit travel tsunami Twitter unionism unit university vandalism Venus violence Virgin visa vote Wales war waste water web design website weddings weekend welfare state Wikipedia winter wireless Wordpress work writing Yahoo yob
