Missing radio

I have listened to the radio since I was at my mothers knees in our old house in Bromley, I remember all the jingles and the songs, pick of the pops and Golden Hours.  Then as a teenager, I listened to Capital Radio, secretly in my room, to the late night show of Clare Rayburn, Anna and the Doc, Nicky Campbell, Chris Tarrant in the morning (less secret), then progressing to Radio One, eventually being compelled to Radio Two because I couldnt bear Chris Moyles (I didnt like his style of insulting and belittling).  Since University in Ireland I was a BIG fan of Gerry Ryan on RTE 2FM.  So I fully intended to use radio to help my acclimatise when I moved to foreign lands - after all, its the age of the internet isnt it, and I was always hearing Steve Wright read messages from people across the world. BUT a big happening was going to seriously shake my radio world, suddenly, unexpectedly, big Gerry Ryan died, just over a month before I was due to move.  He was my friend, my daily comfort, and, as a mum at home, often the source of varied information, he was an intelligent informed man, and even now I miss him and his craziness.  But still life goes on and I have the BBC Radio 2, with Chris Evans in the morning, Steve Wright in the afternoon, Simon Mayo, Jeremy Vine and Radcliffe and Maconie.  My poor mum has been through the same thing - her early morning indulgence and pleasure was listening to Sarah Kennedy, not my kind of thing but she loved it.  BUt at the end of last summer Lo! the Hallow Sarah did not return from her hols and mum was devastated.  Instead she has been left with Vanessa Felts, a shabby imitation and an in adequate, and annoying person to greet you first thing.  But the insults go further, over Christmas who popped up on 't radio as a stand in for one of my faves but PATRICK KEILTY - O M G the least funny, most annoying man that could ever appear over the air waves.  And as time goes on, he is given more and more 'specials' to cover.  I fear my time at BBC radio 2 is coming to an end,as it is I have to choose my listening with great care.  And on top of  that , Radcliffe and Maconie have been shifted to radio 6.   


But, disappointly as well, the technology is not as sophisticated as the ideas behind it - I am now on my second* internet radio, and there isn't a great choice, and they are not cheap, but they drive me mad, it takes a few moments to start up (a bit like a crystal radio warming up), and sometimes it stops for no reason (buffering), and when it does start the volume has reset itself so its so low you cant hear it anyway. If you want it to perform one of its other functions you have to crouch down and push the buttons, because you have to have super eye sight to easily see the screen instructions, and there are some buttons that do nothing anyway, so by the time you have found what you were looking for its time to go out anyway.  Whatever happened to just switching the radio on and getting on with life - not with an internet radio.  It looks pretty though.  Some of them offer the Listen again feature if the radio station has it, but unlike listening on a laptop, if there is a break in the connection, the radio programme starts at the very beginning , there is no way to scan through a programme and pick up where you left off. Also, sadly, if you have an ipod or ipad, you cant use the listen again feature, so really the best option is to listen thru your computer, which isn't always very mobile, and generally the sound is atrocious.  And these things are supposed to improve our lives???? It makes me mad because you pay the money and expect a finished product but very often that is not what you get.


* the first was the Pure Avanti Flow - a thing of beauty, sounded fantastic, performed like a dinosaur - lots of crouching to read the display and complicated button pressing routines to change station or function. It got sent back after the only feature that worked adequately - the ipod dock, then ceased to.  The second is the Sanyo R227, also good to look at but without the price tag of the Avanti Flow, so less of an insult, but an insult none the less.