Monday, 30 July 2007



BT pulls the plug on mobile TV service
By Nic Fildes
Published: 27 July 2007
BT has pulled the plug on Virgin Mobile's fledgling mobile TV service less than a year after it was launched, raising further questions about the appetite consumers have for watching television content on the small screen.

BT, which provides the bandwidth to support the Virgin Mobile service, had expected to sign up other mobile phone companies to launch similar products. Yet consumer demand for Virgin's service has been low and BT has thus cancelled its deal with the radio company GCap to provide spectrum for broadcasting TV content to mobile phones and shut down its Movio division that was established to offer wholesale mobile TV content.

At the turn of the century, delivering TV content to mobile phones was seen as a key growth driver for operators. But a lack of appropriate handsets and a divergence over what system is best for delivering TV on to mobile phones has hampered progress in deploying the service.

Operators such as 3, Vodafone and Orange have launched limited mobile TV services that deliver content to an individual handset via a 3G network but a fully fledged broadcast network for mobile TV is the holy grail for the industry.

Virgin launched its mobile TV service to much fanfare last October, spending £2.5m on advertising that featured former Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson. The service was based on a standard that utilised digital radio spectrum, meaning only a limited number of channels could be offered to consumers.

It was also only available to consumers willing to use a special handset, dubbed the "Lobster", that is much larger than most other mobile phones on the market. The service will be shut off early next year.

O2 and Nokia backed a rival delivery method called DVB-H that can carry up to 16 channels and last week the European Commission backed that standard. A third standard, developed by Qualcomm, has proved more popular with US mobile phone companies and is being tested by BSkyB.

Bruce Renny, a spokesman for the free mobile TV provider ROK Entertainment, said that consumers do not want to pay a subscription to receive TV content they can get for free at home. "Simply broadcasting linear TV to mobiles is not the answer," he said.

Nico from Gouda said:
Hallo Oscar. Can Kristel AM be received in the western parts of the
Netherlands? What is the location and the power of the transmitter?

Good evening Nico, Sorry but I don't think Kristel AM can be received in the Netherlands as they are in South East England near London. I am not sure how many watts exactly but the power is quite low.

Just for info,

Best reception in London SW11 so far. Sort of 'quality anorak
quality' on a cheapo stereo.

Great stuff, pass it on to the operators chaps.

Best

Ian

Hallo everyone. If I am right a decision about the license of the not yet in use long wave frequency 279 kHz is yesterday, 29 July, taken and: ór Paul Rusling keeps this license for to start his LW-radiostation from a schip near the Island of Man, ór Radio Luxembourg has now just got (taken over) the 279 kHz LW license from Paul Rusling, so that Radio Luxembourg from now can start (instead of Paul Rusling) with broadcasting on this frequency. Greetings of Nico from Gouda, the Netherlands.



Galaxy 266 <...> said:

And just to rub it in – how many will ALSO be going to enjoy anorak heaven in Harwich the following week??

All being well i am hoping to be able to get my Son to run me up to Harwich on August 14th, Just to soak up the atmosphere and visit the exhibition at Ha'penny Pier,

By the way, Whereabouts in Harwich is the pier?

Richard (Just a old Anorak and not frightened to say so)

Oscar <...> said:

Good evening Nico, Sorry but I don't think Kristel AM can be received in
the Netherlands as they are in South East England near London. I am not
sure how many watts exactly but the power is quite low.

It must be low as i tried yesterday and couldn't hear anything in North Kent.

Richard



Galaxy 266 <...> said:
Re: Offshore radio convention / 'celebration'The Ha'penny Pier ticket office and information centre is situated at 'The Old Quay' – Harwich – you'll not miss it as the Dj's will be using this area for getting to and from the LV18, and I think I'm right in saying that Johhnie Walker will be signing copies of his autobiography there too, but I don't have a date for that.

Chris Dannatt

Thanks Chris!!

Regards Richard

What has pirate radio done for you? Has it helped your career? Has it made you a useful citizen in society, or has it transformed you into a delinquent?

For my part, it hasn't made me millions, itbut it did give me an easy interview when I secured a student apprenticeship at GEC at the age of 19. There were 600 applications from which 20 were to be selected. I knew so much more about radio and electronics than any other applicant that the job offer was a foregone conclusion. I think that not a day goes by even now where I don't  call upon my  expertise to do something useful. And I've managed to stay out of jail.

On the negative side, like a drug-addict, I've had to spend many years deprived of transmitters and I continue to suffer withdrawal symptoms.

From: "Sterling Times" <2@slewis.biz>

What has pirate radio done for you? Has it helped your career? Has it
made you a useful citizen in society, or has it transformed you into a
delinquent?

It has given me plenty of enjoyment, and I have also met some very interesting characters. I haven't made anything financially out of it but it has got me into a couple of gigs for free!

Quoting a previous Alan Milewczyk contribution:-

Tis only sour grapes because we're not celebrating your many
achievements, Christopher!;-)

Aha, but maybe they will be celebrated 40 years after I've achieved them, though, innit!

Quoting a previous Q_1_2_3_4_5_6 contribution:-

Hallo everyone. If I am right a decision about the license of the not
yet in use long wave frequency 279 kHz is yesterday, 29 July, taken

On a Sunday?

I notice that the anorak who has control of the IOMIB website and a number of other websites stealing the Caroline name and adding 279 to it, keeps on with his campaign of teasing and winding up other anoraks, including the normally sensible Media Network. He changes the sites every couple of days, moving graphics or colours about and altering the content of supposed RSS feeds, all deliberately designed to fool anoraks into thinking something is happening.

Can't imagine where he copied the art of winding up anoraks from.

The latest wind-up from him is to call the project "Radio ___________ 279", which of course gets all the anoraks excitedly twitching and puffing on their inhalers over the word missing from the phrase.

—
* Christopher England just said that *

Quoting a previous gloworm558 . contribution:-

From the research I have read and the evidence I have seen, I believe
there could be some link between carbon emissions and climate change.

There might be. However, the minuscule percentage of those emissions that are due to humans or their actions, compared to the natural emissions from this here living breathing planet, surely mean that it ain't really our fault (although it might be our problem).

As for 'climate change', I'm not actually convinced that the climate is doing much more than its standard 'long wave' cyclic thang. There's evidence that we are seeing a sudden unpredicted spike (but then, when have 'we' ever been any good at actually predicting anything?) which may be attributed to the 'odd' (although our knowledge is limited so how can we be so sure it's 'odd'?) increase in sunspot activity we have been experiencing for a while.

Yet, our biggest problem that we have to address, surely, is why we desperately and obsessively 'want' to believe we are on the edge of Armageddon. Let's face it, between us we have spent all our intellectual life as a species desperate for doom and gloom and the end of life itself. This needs to be addressed.

As for our furry friends and the trees, past climate shifts unless
catastrophic (like meteor strikes) have been gradual enough to allow
species to adapt, evolve or migrate to new habitats, With 6bn people on
the planet now, 9 bn by 2050, there's fewer options- (habitat
fragmentation etc) and many alpine species such as certain amphibians in
Australia for example have nowehere else to go- they're at the top of
their mountain ranges already. One frog (the curiously named gastric
breeding frog) has gone already. Another, 'discovered' only in 1996
became extinct even before there was time to give the poor bastard a
scientific name. These could be the first caualties of climate change
(their habitats suddenly became too dry). As each creature is in some
way linked via the food chain, such tiny events could have catastrophic
effects on global ecosystems which could collapse.

In context though, surely there's nothing there historically apart from natural evolution, the way it's always been. The whole concept works by species coming and going and others adapting to whatever local, regional or global environmental changes are affecting them. The whole thing is, erm, organic. Species develop, spend some time existing, then get wiped out, and that's the way it is, and the way it's meant to be.

Who's to say that when we obsessively try to protect species or slow change that actually we aren't acting very irresponsibly and dangerously, the complete reverse to what we believe? If, in the bigger picture, species are designed to come and go, and we are stopping them from 'going', then surely we are meddling in something we don't actually understand?

—
* Christopher England just said that *

Quoting a previous Steve Martin contribution:-

Fot the half hour
that I was listening it seemed all over the place, or is that supposed
to be the attraction?

I think so.
--
* Christopher England just said that *

Quoting a previous Sterling Times contribution:-

What has pirate radio done for you? Has it helped your career? Has it
made you a useful citizen in society, or has it transformed you into a
delinquent?

I think it was just a bit of fun. I had a laugh, and like any sort of 'activity' you join (I guess, like whelk spotting) you meet others with your identical mental illness.

I think pirate radio does a heck of a lot more now than it ever did. Land based pirates certainly now have proper audiences, not just anoraks, and there is a considerable progression from pirate radio into legal radio or the music business for those 'employed' on them.
--
* Christopher England just said that *

From: "Christopher England" <...>

I think pirate radio does a heck of a lot more now than it ever did.
Land based pirates certainly now have proper audiences, not just
anoraks, and there is a considerable progression from pirate radio into
legal radio or the music business for those 'employed' on them.

I sort of agree and disagree at the same time.
The pirates now do seem to have big audiences and do cater for a market not yet tapped into by the legals. But I remember a couple of stations back in the late 70's/early 80's here on Merseyside had big audiences and not just anoraks, mainly because they tapped into something not catered for. Radio Jackie North was rock station featuring the likes of AC/DC, Iron Maiden, all day long and it's rock nights were legendary up here. Merseyland Alternative Radio also exploited the fact that, as you know Chris, in these parts sport has a very heavy influence on our local radio at weekends, so they played the top 40 during the daytime at weekends and alternative/rock/indie after 6pm. Both stations also had no trouble selling commercials. The reason I know they weren't just for anoraks was that you could hear them all over the place in shops etc. But I would say most of the other stations had fewer listeners and were sort of "listener fan clubs" where the same "characters" would write in every week, even so it could be quite entertaining. There are probably a couple of other stations later who had slightly more than anorak audiences likes of SCR, Merseywaves, Atlantis & Kiss FM, but probably not as big as RJN or MAR.
Obviously there is a big difference between the early 80's and now. Back in the early 80's there was bugger all apart from R1, R2, BBC Local, Big City ILR or Luxy, which is probably why the local & Irish pirates did pretty well up here. Nowadays there is so much competition, today's pirates have to do something really different to get noticed which is why you probably see so much innovative even controversial programming from the pirates today. There was certainly plenty of progression from the Mersey pirates into legal radio in the 80's, Robin Ross, John Dwyer, Dave Collins, Kevin Palmer, Brian Keating, Andy Scott are a few I can think of off the top of my head I'm sure if I rack my brain I could think of more.

Christopher would it be fair to say there are a few "big fish" in the London scene and quite a few smaller pirates, or do you think they all have big audiences?

(From a Press Release:)

THE DEFINITIVE PIRATE RADIO EXHIBITION COMES TO HARWICH

The most comprehensive exhibition of 60's offshore pirate radio is coming to the Ha'penny Pier in Harwich this August.

The exhibition, some of which has only ever been seen by the public once before, will be on display for five days from 9th August as part of Pirate BBC Essex.

It includes rare photographs of many of the pirate radio dj's of sixties stations Radio Caroline and Radio London as well as some of the other stations which broadcast from ships around Britain.

There are also letters, annuals and books, newspaper cuttings and some of the records charting the pirate radio years.

The exhibition is owned by Lincolnshire businessman and pirate radio enthusiast Chris Dannatt. Chris said "I've been collecting pieces about pirate radio for the best part of forty years and am still constantly scouting around for pieces I haven't got."

Earlier this year Chris managed to a prize exhibit to his collection – a Radio Caroline bag in mint condition.

Some of the exhibition was shown thirty years ago at Flashback '77, one of the first pirate radio conventions, held at a hotel at Heathrow Airport.

The exhibition will be free to the public while Pirate BBC Essex is on air on 729,765 and 1530 AM and at bbc.co.uk/essex. The station will be broadcasting from the LV18 former lightship in the North Sea just off Harwich.

"Listeners will be able to hear their favourite presenters from the 60's as they view the exhibition. We're also planning some presenter appearances at the exhibition," said Tim Gillett of Pirate BBC Essex. He added "We're absolutely thrilled by Chris's offer to show what is the greatest collection of sixties pirate memorabilia. We're expecting thousands of people to flock to Harwich for a rare opportunity to see some British broadcasting history."

A number of 60's offshore pirate radio broadcasters have signed up for Pirate BBC Essex including Johnnie Walker, Emperor Rosko, Keith Hampshire and Norman St John.

** ENDS *

Exhibition Opening Times : 9th – 14th August -0900 – 1700

 For more information on the exhibition, please contact Chris Dannatt at ... or on 01724 338450 or 07778 284427

For more information about Pirate BBC Essex contact Tim Gillett at ... or on 01245 616042

Sterling Times <2@slewis.biz> said:
What has pirate radio done for you? Has it helped your career? Has it
made you a useful citizen in society, or has it transformed you into a
delinquent?

Because of Ronan's grandfather, Michael, who, as any anorak knows, fought alongside Connolly and Pearce in the Irish uprising of 1916, made me sympathetic and supportive of the struggle in the North. "Allies" of Ronan, eg. John Lennon,whose "Sometime in New York City album" was played on caroline in 1973, reinforced that view. (listen to "Luck of the Irish") it made me cynical of governments generally, and generally anarchic in my outlook. And that's just for starters.