Whatever turns you off

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted to RadioFar-Far. There doesn't seem to have been that much interesting to say about radio, that somebody else hasn't said elsewhere, perhaps better than me. There are of course a wealth of radio websites, blogs, forums, etc etc out there. I know, because I see any number of them quoted on the BRITISH DX CLUB news list. For more information on BDXC, go to their website at www.bdxc.org.uk.

However, I might have been silent on this particular wavelength of cyberspace, and not posted with any frequency for a couple of months, but I've still been listening, oh yes. Times of international crisis are perhaps when the hobbies of DXing and Short Wave listening come into their own. The internet may give us unfettered, 24/7 access to the world's media- but it still does it at a price, that of a connection and an ISP. Radio's great strength is, and always has been, that you can listen to it any time, any place, anywhere, as a well-known brand of vermouth once said.

However, although there are some great programmes and personalities out there, occasionally radio produces moments of sheer lunacy when Marconi must be turning in his grave. I've just read of one such example which I was grateful I did not hear, on London's LBC (incidentally, this is a tautology, since the "L" stands for London!) last Sunday. Apparently, the idea was to have a three-hour, presenterless phone-in. People could just call in and have their say unfiltered, on any subject whatever, with free rein (although there was the safety net of the 7-second delay, or "profanity button" as I believe the US call it).

According to The Guardian's radio reviewer today the results were, apparently, mind-numbingly awful, and the show was abandoned after an hour. Well, hardly surprising, perhaps: how long could you listen to a caller just saying "Q Q Q" for ages on end without snoring into oblivion. Or listen to sexual inuendo which would never make it into a presenter-driven programme.

I thought shock jocks were the ultimate in inanity, but this seems to take the biscuit. Thank heavens there's no listen again- unless of course, you recorded it and want to share it with the cyber world...

Transmissions on this frequency will be resumed as soon as possible.