When I was a child,many many years ago the only Radio stations one could easily listen to in the United Kingdom were the then four national BBC stations. To listen to anything else you needed a Short Wave colossus such as the one my father had.Amidst the pops,crackles and hisses you might just grab a slice of an exotic foreign station even if it sounded as though it was broadcasting underwater. The first Uk commercial station added a little colour(Capital Radio) in 1973. It seems shocking now but back in the 1970’s FM stations were at a premium.Radio 1 only broadcasted on Medium Wave.The only time of the week when it broadcasted on FM was Sunday evening at 6pm when Tom Brown would take over Radio 2’s FM feed for one hour in order to broadcast the nation’s Top 20 countdown. DAB Radio promised much but delivered little when it appeared several years ago.It may have been crackle free and there may have been a greater range of stations but the sound quality was far inferior to FM.
The UK sadly adopted outmoded technology and many stations chose to broadcast at a super compressed rate which severely compromised sound quality. The Uk is one of the only countries in the world that uses such outdated technology. However I have seen the future of Radio and itis the Internet. There are,currently, tens of thousands of stations operating and broadcasting,via the Internet. I use my iPhone and an application called tunein to listen to stations from across the world. Thus I have access to New Orleans Jazz,Latin Music,Bollywood Hits,Opera and wherever else my imagination and urge to try something new takes me . I also have access to stations broadcasting with a less compressed higher quality signal.. The cost of this is minimal.I have unlimited broadband at home and already have a contract iPhone. The app is free.I play it through my home hi-Fi using a £10 dock I bought for £10 from Richer sounds and a £25 connecting cable.
Of course if you do not have a smartphone you can always buy an Internet radio . listen to the feed directly from your computer speakers ,use a tailor made HI-FI media player or one of the new breed of Hi-Fi Receivers supporting Internet streaming. So a world of music awaits.What are you waiting for?
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