Missing Metro link.

Congrats on an excellent site. Your help sheet is very useful. I have no trouble connecting to many of the stations, but regularly have problems with Metro Radio. Is it me, or is there a problem with the site?

Ian, via e-mail

Having had a look at the Metro website, the live streaming link seems to have been removed. This may be to bring it in line with other stations on the same network - Radio City, Key 103, etc., which have no 'official' live streams. Kiss 100 in London, which also uses Tornadonetworks as its streaming provider, is still up and running. It may only be a temporary measure on the part of Metro, so I'll keep an eye out during the next few weeks to see if the link is reinstated.

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10th October 2001

The best radio daze.

Hi, I've just found this site and couldn't believe the information on Severn Sound and the audio jingles! I worked in the Severn Sound newsroom along with Gordon McRae, Adrian Ball, Vicky Breakwell and Jo Littlehales back in 1995. Those were great times. Bring back the Hot fm! Cheers - keep up the good work.

Mike Thomas (Now working at the West Midlands new regional station Saga 105.7 FM which launches October 16th)

Good on you, Mike. I used to listen to this station a lot of the time and now, of course, it just isn't the same. I think Vicky and Jo are have been part of the morning crew on GWR FM here in Bristol for a good while. All the best with the launch of Saga in the Midlands. Ed. Talking of jingles and audio clips...

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23rd April 2001

Bringing back memories

Bloody hell - there was a blast from the past.
With best wishes

Ed Doolan

I still try and catch Ed's phone-in show whenever I'm up in the Midlands - it was a welcome distraction when studying for A-levels all those years ago. Ed's been at 95.6 BBC WM for a fair few years and it's not hard to see why his show is so popular. Also long overdue is a link to Ed's website at the BBC.

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8th October 2001

Website links update. Is there Variety in Yorkshire?

Just to let you know that Hallam FM and Radio Aire have launched new sites. TheClickUK.co.uk sites which simply had a holding page for the last few months have now been taken down.

There is now a holding page for Trax FM promising a new website very soon. This is years after their launch; the unofficial sites with program info have long gone.

Do you have confirmation that Variety FM will launch as Real Radio and will also broadcast in Real Radio's South Yorkshire multiplex slot? Surely this would go onto the Yorkshire-wide multiplex due next summer? Real Radio is carrying the weekday late show phone from Real Radio in South Wales, switching over just before the 10 o'clock news.

Mark, via e-mail

Thanks for your e-mail, Mark. I'll put a link up to Trax FM. It's worth pointing out also that the website for Radio City has also launched in the last couple of weeks, but as yet Metro Radio is the only site with a live audio feed.

I think Real Radio will become the brand name for all of Guardian Media Group's phone-in/music/sport stations. Scot FM in Central Scotland will adopt the name (and the style of programming) in the near future. I would be very surprised if the Yorkshire FM regional launched as Variety FM - two identical formats, one on FM and one on digital in South and West Yorkshire? I think this is unlikely. Real Radio is also due to start on the Humberside digital multiplex at the end of this year. As far as I know, Real is already broadcasting in Sheffield, Doncaster and Leeds on digital.

The Yorkshire multiplex up for grabs next year might be the North Yorkshire mux - I'm not certain, but the ukdigital radio site doesn't mark it as regional. If Real Radio were to negotiate a place on this multiplex, they then wouldn't need to bid for a place on the regional mux, as they're already on all the other Yorkshire local multiplexes. It will be interesting to see who goes for this multiplex. Emap Digital probably won't apply alone because they don't have any stations in North Yorkshire, although they might want to expand Magic into a new area, just as they did in Birmingham, with their joint application with Capital Radio as CE Digital. Minster Sound Radio plc will definitely be part of any application.

If it is the regional multiplex being advertised next year, I would expect MXR Digital to go for the licence, in order to get Galaxy 105 onto digital. We might also see an application from The Digital Radio Group Ltd, as they would have liked the North-West regional award - although this is pure speculation! Operators of digital multiplexes can decide which services they want to offer and it is not unusual to see stations 'disappear' due to the the costs involved with carriage on digital radio. If a better deal is offered with a different carrier, at this early stage, stations might even switch! Ed.

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'Tay'king the mickey with no audio feed?

Hi Steve, any word as to when the Scottish radio stations may get back online again. It seems a long time since we last heard Tay, Clyde, Forth etc. on the internet!

Ian, from Ontario, Canada, via e-mail

I might throw this one open to the floor, Ian - has anyone heard any dates that live streaming will be up and running at these stations? It has been ages. Ed.

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24th September 2001

RealPlayer or No Real Hope of listening online?

Many of the radio stations listed can only be listened with Real Player. The problem is that I have a proxy server protected with a firewall, so I can't get through it. Is there any other way that I could listen those radio stations with Windows Media Player?

Artur, via e-mail

Only a relatively small number of stations broadcast in both RealPlayer and WMP. If there's no link to a WMP version, you're out of luck. Have you checked our listening help guide to configure RP (the info is near the bottom of the page)? I much prefer WMP too, though it doesn't have the option of 'Surestream' as RP does, enabling it to switch 'on the fly' to a lower streaming rate if the internet clogs up. Which, RP would have you believe, is more often than not. RealPlayer dislikes firewall software and hangs on my machine when it can't find a spare port to the internet. There was a lovely piece from David Hewson in his 'Sounding off' column in the Sunday Times newspaper (23rd Sept) about RP. Sadly, it's not on their website, but you could dig it up from your local library. The last sentence sums it up:

I wish someone at the BBC would tell me why we have to suffer all this intrusive nonsense [referring to the alarming installation routine of Realplayer] just to receive its television and radio programmes, which we are funding with licence fees anyway.

Hewson just about sums up the feelings of many, I think. Ed.

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20th September 2001

Tuning into British stations from the Republic - and some answers

Having been living in Aberdeen for the past few months, I have recently returned to Ireland. While in the UK, I had been listening to talkSPORT and some of the other MW stations. I would be very grateful if you could let me know how I might best tune in to those stations over here in southern Ireland. Could I get them on digital radio, or is a good analogue radio the best option? Thank you for your time.

Mike, via feedback form

If you're lucky enough to have a spare phone line and an ISP which charges a subscription for unlimited usage, and gives you a reasonable connection speed (i.e. 49,000 Kbps or above), then the internet is one option. TalkSPORT broadcasts over the web too (and indeed is this editor's preferred way of listening during the evening when the MW signal deteriorates). Alas, many of Scotland's local stations have yet to resume broadcast over the web, since the demise of broadcastEurope, a streaming provider. TalkSPORT also broadcasts on SKY Digital, but I'm not sure whether that package is available in Ireland. I don't have SKY Digital, so perhaps someone reading this can help? I understand TalkSPORT will be carried on the Northern Ireland digital radio multiplex and, as part of an agreement, stations on the Northern Ireland mux will also be broadcast on the Republic's mux and vice versa. The Northern Ireland multiplex will go on-air by October of this year, and the digital signal will reach into parts of southern Ireland. However, I'm afraid I don't know about the Republic's plans for digital radio. Can anyone shed any light and help Mike out?

You might like to try listening on an ordinary MW radio; although you may struggle to receive local stations, it might be possible to pick up a decent signal through an inexpensive tranny. I have a pocket radio which picked up Eire's 2FM from Worcester quite well, for example. You'll find the signal quality poor overnight, though. Do any DXers have any hints? Ed.

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Robert, a regular contributor, comes up trumps again with some useful advice:

In answer to the query about digital radio in Ireland, information can be found by visiting The World DAB site and then selecting the dabworld link, then 'Ireland' from the combo box. In summary, there was a service launched in Dublin in 1999 with six stations, although RTE have stopped their services whilst they await low-priced receivers.

It's great to see the Pulse back on the live links.

Keep up the good work. I have been logging into your site for nearly a year now and find it is the most comprehensive site around and one that is continually developing as new services take to the net.

Robert

Thanks very much for the info, Robert. The World DAB site is a useful resource and I've updated our Northern Ireland station listings to include those Eire services which should be available in parts of Northern Ireland. I've also taken the opportunity to add a note about digital commercial radio in Northern Ireland, since Digital One's national multiplex will not cover Northern Ireland. Ed.

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26th August 2001

Off the mark or off the air?

Some corrections to the stations off-air article:

Supa AM was never used as an on-air name in Birmingham, although this was the name used in the application for the licence. The Asian station on 1296 has been known as Radio XL since its launch day.

FTP Radio, an ex-pirate, did indeed broadcast in Bristol under its own name for about a year, launching in 1990. It was bought up by the Chiltern Radio Group who relaunched it as Galaxy Radio 97.2. Later Chiltern won the regional franchise and relaunched Galaxy as Galaxy 101. The 97.2 transmitter is retained.

Gwent Broadcasting is no longer on air. The station, launched on 13 June 1983, ceased trading in April 1985. After a period of silence, the transmitters began to relay CBC from Cardiff, later Red Dragon Radio.

Radio Victory lost its licence to Ocean Sound in 1986, so should be categorised with DevonAir and LBC. Ocean Sound covered a wider area, incorporating Southampton.

Andrew Rogers, via e-mail

Andrew wrote a while back (in early July, in fact), but I've finally found inspiration (!) to update the pages with the info he has kindly supplied. Ed.

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23rd August 2001

What no Metro FM?

We regularly receive notification through our "broken link" form about stations which seem to be having problems with their live streaming. Metro FM seems to feature more than most - I've tried the link this evening (9pm) and it's working fine, but yesterday evening Windows Media Player wouldn't connect at all, even at the Metro Radio website. If you are having problems, don't forget to fill in the form, but also check out the link on the station's website too - click on the right-arrow on our listen live pages to do this. The most likely explanation is that the station is running out of feeds, so not everyone can listen when they want to. Ed.

Where have you been all my life?

Where has this website been all my life?! It has to be the most comprehensive and up-to-date list of stations on the web. Good work guys!

Sharon, via feedback form

It almost sounds as if I made this one up! Ed.

Schtop! schtop! schtop!

How do I stop the radio from playing whilst I am online as after closing 95.8 Capital FM's 'listen now' window: the advertisements for the website are all over my screen. The information flags are always on top of my work and it's annoying!

Ahh, the wonders of popups! I'll put links to Capital's live feed - minus the miniplayer - on our listen live : pop page. That way you can listen without the distractions, and close Media Player when you've finished. Ed.

On a more serious note...

Sir. We are a diving vessel working in the Gulf of Mexico. We have internet access via a communication satellite and are therefore restricted in bandwidth somewhat as the internet has to share with our communication needs (five phonelines, fax and email). I can not for the life of me understand why certain internet radio stations feel the need to broadcast their stations using large slices of bandwidth. Today I have tried to log on to Newcastle Radio in order to get football match commentary, but my Real Player console keeps on rebuffering due to Newcastle Radio's minimum broadcast at 16Kbps. Internet radio is useful for people who live and work in areas many miles away from the areas of broadcast and as such are primarily interested in the content of the broadcast rather than the quality of the sound. Would you know of any way I could urge these stations to narrow their bandwidth so that many more of us can receive their broadcasts satisfactorily.

Regards,
Nigel Bailey
Radio Officer

I agree - speech radio doesn't necessarily require huge amounts of bandwidth in order for the listener to understand what is being said. Having said that, the bitrate that you suggest was being used, at 16Kbps, isn't that high when compared with many broadcasters who stream at 20-32Kbps (I reckon 8Kbps is perfectly adequate for speech). I think the problem may lie in the sharing of bandwidth between all of the other devices on board? I find that, even with a 56K modem connecting at 49K, if I start trying to do too much on the web at the same time as streaming audio, RealPlayer and WMP continually re-buffer. RealPlayer's surestream is a good way to listen over the web - I think the way it works is that the broadcaster can encode at different bitrates, with the optimum rate selected by the player, depending on how fast the connection is to the server which is supplying the audio feed. I don't know what speed/integrity you can get with your satellite equipment, but I think the problem here may be too many devices trying to do too many things, which disrupts the connection to the internet.

Point of order: I imagine you were listening to the match via Metro Radio, unless BBC Radio Newcastle do stream match day commentary (do they?). I'll check this out. Ed.

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16th August 2001

Why can't I tune in?

I'm a an internet listener to UK radio stations from "Down Under" and have been unable to stream GWR local radio stations e.g. Essex FM and SGR Colchester for a couple of days. Does anyone know what's going on? Are the feeds down for others as well? By the way, I use a media player called Media Jukebox (not MSN or Media Player), which can play and store both realplayer and mediaplayer format stations on the same player.

Phil Merrin, via feedback form

I've tried a few myself today and some local station links were working, whilst others were connecting but not actually streaming anything to the player. My guess is it has something to do with the "upgrade" of koko.com (see our news story for more information, which incidentally was linked to incorrectly from our front page!), GWR's local radio portal which is being tweaked to get rid of most of the news and information content, to concentrate instead on the radio side of things. Slimmed-down microsites for SGR FM and SGR Colchester are now up and running again, and it is likely that the audio streaming will settle down a bit when a few more of the sites are up. GWR FM and Mercury seemed fine when I tried - don't forget a lot of these stations network during evening hours anyway. Media Jukebox is also pretty good for converting .wav into .mp3 files when you also need small file sizes/low bitrates - I used a trial version to convert the jingles on our jingles page. Ed.

2nd August 2001

Youthcomm looking for volunteers...

Hi there, great site you have there. I am the radio co-ordinator for an internet radio station based in Worcester. We are Youthcomm Radio, available hours a day, 7 days a week on the web, playing "Todays Best Music" with news and views. We are a free volunteering opportunity for local young people, who get accredited training to become DJs on-air. We run 2 RSLs per year and stream audio on the web. In our first year (between June 2000 and 2001), we had over 350,000 listeners to the station! We're looking for people in the Worcestershire and West Midlands areas to become involved. They'll need to be aged 13-25 and available for training, with a willingness to show commitment to Youthcomm once trained. Its free and fun!

Chris, via feedback form

Could be a good way to get into radio - why not give it a go if you're in or around Worcester. Contact the station by e-mail, if you're interested. Ed.

Just a quick thanks...

Just a quick email to say "keep up the good work" with your website, it's a great resource.

Matt, via feedback form from a large radio group

Ta very much - glad you find the site of use. Ed.

Real Radio on Sky...

Hi. Just heard that Cardiff based Real Radio have started test transmissions on the Sky Digital platform on 12.324 Ghz V SR: 27500 Fec: 2/3, and are expected to join the EPG on 1st August.

I know you have web addresses of radio stations that you can hear on web, but I was wondering if you have considered putting a web page together with all the radio stations that you can get from the different satellites that are up there in the sky. It's a lot cheaper to hear them by satellite than it is over the web.

Mark, via e-mail from Liverpool

We now have a page of Sky Digital satellite stations. I am aiming to put a page up of more stations you can tune in to via satellite (i.e. the ones other than those on Sky). However, I'm not sure how quickly I will get 'round to doing this. Keep checking back, though, because your suggestion has been added to the list. Ed.

What are you clicking doing?...

Clicking 'listen now' on any item in the directory goes to the live page which seems to be a dead end!

The original 'listen live' page (containing all of the live audio links) was getting larger and larger and a little out of hand, so I decided to split up the stations into genres - news stations, pop stations and so on. As there are so many stations in our listings linking to the original 'listen live' page, you might imagine changing these links to point to the relevant new pages is a little time-consuming and boring - and you'd be right. However, I will get around to changing them over at the listings are updated. For now, you just have to click on the type of station you're looking for on our 'listen live' page, to jump to the audio links. However, I do fail to see how five labelled links could be considered a 'dead end'. Ed.