Tranciva IR804 Radio
[info]lff12
Argos have been selling a sub 100 euro internet/DAB and standard radio from Binatone, a nameI would more commonly associate with telephones.  In the UK this is available from 59.99 pounds, whereas Irish customers of Argos are punished with a15 euro surcharge due to chronically unfair price gouging due to the drop in the value of sterling, which has not been passed on to consumers.  So I purchased one in Belfast for the UK price and am very impressed.

My existing DAB set is an Intempo model which runs on both battery and mains and is very nice, however this unit has turned out to be a little of a surprised.  Aside from DAB/FM and internet radio via wifi, it also copes with shared folders, network sharing from a PC, and can accept the input from another device such as an mp3 player.  It doesn't end there, there is also a clock/alarm function and a headphone output that is in stereo - very pleasant surprise as I can now consider replacing my hefty hifi tuner.

The only negatives are the mono (but rounded sounding) mono speaker, the plasticy build and the absence of a remote control.
There are also only 5 stations preset per mode (so 5 each for FM, DAB and internet radio).  However, internet radio afficandoes can add to favourites or manually add in other stations via Wifi radio frontier.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised, as it basically eliminates the need for multiple radios to cope with multiple formats.  Connecting to a network connection was not painful, although if you, like me, travel between two different locations where muxes for DAB are not available, the only way to remove the useless mux is to factory reset which removes everything else as well.  This isn't a problem on a DAB only set, but is a nuisance for me.  It would be useful to have some way of deleting empty muxes - sadly Ireland lingers in the dark ages where digital broadcasting is concerned, with only a limited DAB service in the 3 cities outside of Dublin (and VERY limited range - just a few miles in Cork for example).  However the set is very satisfactory for the money.

The only difficulty some users are having is that the set doesn't appear to support AAC-based broadcasts, so you are limited to mp3, ra and wma.  However its still a snip, even at the Euro price, as there are few sets around for less than 99 euros.


The Ross & Brand scandal
[info]lff12
Cheap and nasty are not words I would use to describe people, but really BBC R2 reached a low ebb when it permitted a prerecorded item to cause such mayhem last weekend.  I have to say I find Jonathan Ross slightly but not very amusing, while Brand I can only describe as a pig, pig ugly, pig ignorant and stupid to boot - his brand of humour after watching him on MTV, borders on the lowest, cheapest and nastiest I have ever heard.  Now don't get me wrong, I think Tommy Tiernan is hilarious, but he at least has a point.  Brand is simply crude, unfunny and the kind of "comedian" who is exactly what Mike Judge tore apart in his famous Beavis and Butthead cartoons - "hu hu hu.....you said hard."

Now the other thing I have noticed over the years is how Radio 2 has deteriorated into a subtype of Radio 1.  It seems to have just inherited the stupid, ignorant, blinkered, tabloid-reading, X-Factor watching bores who spend their entire weekends glued to tripe like Americas Next Top Model and Extreme Makeover, programming so devoid of any form of integrity, nothing more than a florified gameshow that doesn't even have proper planning. Its rather sad that a station with such a proud heritage can allow its programming to rot into the same kind of pulp that now totally dominates Friday and Saturday evening television - the takeaway curry and 6-pack or cheap bottle of wine style TV.

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