Alternative Radio

12/07/2008 by AJ.

Forget the BBC, CNN, Fox News, ITN, Sky News, Channel 4 and five news, and every other flavour of regular broadcast media. The revolution has begun…

For someone who, just a few month ago, was a solid advocate of the BBC licence fee, my mid-life awakening continues, as I realise the fair and objective Auntie Beeb has not only come under attack, but has now lost all its impartiality to dark forces.

It’s a remarkable thing to say, but Auntie’s objectivity has been quashed, following its now shown-to-be-true attack on the ‘establishment’, when it dared to suggest that a document claiming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction had been ’sexed up’.

Time after time, one incident after another, those of us who have known some of the truth behind the stories we are being presented, have seen that the BBC’s objectivity has been compromised, seemingly forever.

The final straw came with last Sunday’s THE CONSPIRACY FILES on BBC2. This was the tale of World Trade Center 7, the THIRD TOWER to fall on September 11, 2001 in New York. It has hardly been talked about in the mainstream media, but this could well have been the opportunity for the truth to be told.

Save to say, like the programme’s previous installment concerning 9/11, the producers preferred to believe the most outlandish coincidences rather than what, without the spin put on top by the BBC and others, was actually an inside job, carried out by the very people who used that day as the cue to begin an endless ‘war on terror’.

The background to all this is covered in depth by a succession of websites across the internet. In brief, the BBC has, again, been caught out and its objectivity and previous reputation for hard-hitting investigative journalism left in tatters.

So, shortly after that programme aired, I made the decision that I had to find more reliable sources for my news and information - and nowhere in the mainstream media - be it newspapers, TV or radio, was I going to be able to find the truth being told.

One thing that the internet has done successfully is open up the airwaves - new ‘niche’ radio stations are everywhere. You can access them if you have the right sort of broadband computer, but there’s something to be said for being able to have a radio set that actually LOOKS the part, rather than having to pull up everything through a laptop.

The more technically advanced amongst you will already know what I found to be the answer - a WIFI Internet Radio. There’s a whole plethora of them available, strangely very few from big manufacturers though, and after a quick bit of research, and a surf through pages on eBay, I managed to find a set to buy, so as to be able to ‘dip my toes’ into this new (for me) pool of technology. All you need is a wireless broadband hub in your house, and away you go!

Of course, it was only AFTER winning the bid that I spotted that what I’d got hold of was a USED deck. No instructions included. And, sod’s law, when I did more research on my acquisition, the LOGIK IR100 WIFI INTERNET RADIO, I saw that the general advice suggested that I should steer clear of buying a used deck, as they are apparently plagued with problems. Ooops.

Anyhow, I did manage to find a copy of the instructions to download, but given my usual relationship with Hi-Tech stuff, I feared the worst…

The deck arrived around lunchtime today, but I followed the warnings that said I should not plug it in for 2-3 hours, so as to avoid any problem with condensation on the circuits.

First attempt to connect to my broadband box led to a PORT 80 error, whatever one of those might be. I feared the worst. A desperate trawl through the pages of handy hints I’d downloaded and printed off from a very helpful website mentioned nothing about such an error. So, out of devilment, I tried again.

Success!

I inputted my network hub’s “key” number, and within seconds I was listening to some upbeat Bollywood-esque music (gives you an idea as to what part of London the box had previously resided in!).

Before I knew it, I’d worked out how to access thousands of stations from around the world - and you can select what to listen to either by LOCATION or by GENRE. I first found an American Comedy channel, and it was definitely a sign from the ether that this radio set is one of my best purchases of recent times, as who’s in concert when I tune in but the legendary BILL HICKS (note to Paul Gooding - I finally took your advice and found out about this guy - about four years after you tipped me off about him - sorry for taking so long to catch up!).

And the ‘Listen Again’ service doesn’t quite make up for the BBC’s depressing behaviour on the news front, but having virtually all of BBC Radio’s output from the loast seven days means I have had an amazing afternoon catching up with episodes of THE BURKISS WAY, MITCH BENN’S CRIMES AGAINST MUSIC, some early 1980s LES DAWSON show (all three from Radio 7), and even the ASK ELVIS bit from Wednesday’s Steve Wright In The Afternoon Radio 2 show! I could have even listened to a commentary for the last episode of Doctor Who with Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson, but there’s only so many hours in the day!

I’ve been able to find a feed of THE ALEX JONES SHOW (look it up on Google if you want to know about this guy - which you should) and also PLAY RADIO 2, which is the new home for THE JAMES WHALE SHOW, after the guy was sacked from Talksport Radio for suggesting that folk in London should vote for Boris Johnson to be Mayor!

I’m listening to PLAY RADIO 2 at the moment - it’s their 80s Weekend, and amongst the unusual, and darn good, choices have been WATCHING THE WHEELS by John Lennon, and ALWAYS THE SUN by The Stranglers. Other stations would have no doubt played WOMAN and GOLDEN BROWN respectively, so straight away I’m sold that this is likely to be the new soundtrack station at Cult TV Towers!

I think that if anything is going to put another nail in the coffin of DAB radio, it’s gonna be this type of WIFI radio. I’ve even found a lead that has allowed me to connect this magic box into my PA system that feeds into both the lounge and the dining room, so at the moment you can hear SYSTEM ADDICT by Five Star in both rooms, in glorious crisp stereo! Not ‘alf!

So, what’s needed is some research into alternative further non-mainstream news channels (are there any UK-orientated ones?), and my day will be complete! Any tip-offs from you folk out there would be much appreciated!

Gotta go, have to glue the volume knob back on - again, a common problem with this deck I’m told, and what tune is playing now? Well, in many ways, it feels appropriate:

ONCE IN A LIFETIME by Talking Heads. Nice …

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