almost witty » radio

Spam – on the radio…

Andrew — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:38:12 +0000

We’ve all had spam emails exhorting us to join some kind of home-based business scheme which promises to bring in income of thousands of dollars/pounds/yen per month while working from home.

What I’m not used to is turning on the radio – for instance, at CBS-owned WDOK Radio in Cleveland – and hearing the aural equivalent of such an advert, promising the listener thousands of dollars to work from a home-based business scheme, just by going to the ever-so-classy webaddress www.earnextraincome.com. Which then takes you to a radiocbs.theonlinebusiness.com website. So we essentially have the fourth biggest radio station owner in the United States promoting a superficial home-business scheme. Oh dear.

Oh yes, and sister company CBS Interactive owns last.fm …

When radio rebranding doesn’t quite work…

Andrew — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:53:36 +0000

If you’re the kind of person who follows radio stations or listens to Virgin/Absolute Radio, you can’t have failed to notice the recent rebranding, emphasising the fact that it’s now Absolute Radio.

Unless you’re a relative of mine, who thought that the renaming of the radio station was a temporary sponsorship deal with the vodka manufacturers, and that it’d go back to being Virgin Radio in a week or so…

Where’s the Fairytale of New York?

Andrew — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:50:36 +0000

Update: Heard it on 6 December. Hurrah. Christmas can now officially start!

Despite having spent the last three days trotting around all the shopping centres that Manchester and Cheshire have to offer – in the hunt for a new pair of spectacles actually! – and spending countless hours on shopping websites, I still don’t quite feel that Christmassy.

It’s partly because I’m still a bit ill so instead of rich mince pies I’m mostly craving plain jacket potatoes – and half-dreading the 12-hour drink fest that is the annual works Christmas party this weekend with special mystery guest star.

But it’s mostly because despite all the driving around and listening to the radio at work all day, I still haven’t yet heard The Fairytale of New York by the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl. The definitive bitter-sweet Christmas tune, and one that never fails to give me Christmassy memories, such as snow falling on an American car park. Ahhh, snow, where have you gone?

Has it been taken off mainstream UK radio? Has it now been deemed too unChristmassy? Is there a mass conspiracy behind its’ disappearance off UK Radio? Or is it just me?