Other stuff I worry about a bit

November 22, 2011 • 8:46 pm 0

Why should Leveson matter?

The Leveson Enquiry into standards in the UK’s newspapers is likely to elicit strong reactions in many people. Hacks will moan about celebrities believing they have suffered as much as the parents of murdered schoolchildren (they don’t). The newspapers and their wealty owners will cry that the very notion of a free press is at stake. They will bully us into believing that a regulated press means the end of scrutiny for politicians and public bodies. They warn of a police state and the end of freedom itself.

This makes me angry. I, along with a great many others, believe in a free press. To use the public’s fear of its potential loss to further their own commercial gain is not surprising given the moral depths to which many hacks will sink. But it is worrying and sickening nonetheless. To attempt to engender fear in a public already vulnerable to economic and social worries is manipulative and self seeking in the extreme.

I am as disturbed by Hugh Grant’s testimony as I am by that of the Dowler family. What is more, I am of the opinion that the Dowler family are as disturbed by the content of Grant’s testimony as I am. In fact, the only people likely to not be affected by it are those involved in the practices he and the Dowlers describe. For those people, this behaviour is normal. Acceptable. Encouraged. Daily life. Even now there are people watching this evidence unfold who are saying to themselves – “I just don’t see what’s wrong with this”.

It takes a leap of faith to understand that there are people like this. It seems impossible, in a world where we have witnessed the horror that hate can create. However, at the most basic level, we are seeing forms of hate. Hate for an actor who has a lot of money. Hate for the wishes of a bereaved family to be allowed to exercise private grief when a profit could be turned if the grief were public. Hate for someone who stood up and said it was wrong.

It has often been said that celebrities are “fair game” in some way. Being in the public eye carries a requirement that they open up their private lives for scrutiny. The public pay their wages, so they are a legitimate harassment target. I detest this. Radio companies (mostly) pay my wages; are they permitted, by extension, to harass my loved ones in their own interests? Of course not. It’s twisted and illogical and that argument needs to be closed down immediately. This does not and could never prevent legitimate exposition of serious wrongdoing or illegality.

It’s not Hugh Grant’s fault that a free press might be at risk. When hacks and the companies that line their pockets try to create the fear, and warn of dark times to come if they are no longer allowed to harass the mother of an actor’s child, we are in dangerous territory. Leveson should be an opportunity for honest and open debate. I suspect, though, we will see more old hacks and their masters forcing down debate, closing doors and spreading malicious, unwarranted fear. For that, we need to be aware and ready to present the truth.

Filed under: Politics

November 2, 2011 • 8:00 am 0

I shouldn’t be surprised at this Tesco fraud

I fell for a classic con at Tesco and I’m writing to them to let them know how foolish I have been. And also to accuse them of fraud, pure and simple.

So, I was in a store on Sunday. I needed to stock up on sweets for Halloween. Bless Tesco – they had provided on enormous shelves at the entrance to the store, piles and piles of special offer Haribo boxes. “HALF PRICE”, the legend screamed.

I popped a tub in the trolley; I strangely didn’t even check what I was getting for £4.50.

You know what’s coming already, don’t you. They’re actually still at it, despite Halloween being over – here’s the same product with Christmas branding, currently BETTER THAN HALF PRICE! Lordy, thanks Tesco:

What’s in the box? Exactly 45 bags of these:

You don’t need a calculator.

So – the classic con. Jack up the price of the tubs and sell them in a store in the back of beyond on a single shelf at the back of the store, next to the baking goods. Put 3 or 4 tubs on the shelf at £9.00+ – they won’t sell many (any?) as it puts the individual bags at 20p+ – and, as we know, they’re 10p each.

Then, following exactly the right period of statutory compliance, slash the price to £4.50 and call it a BETTER THAN HALF PRICE deal.

When it’s not. When it’s, quite simply, fraud. And I fell for it. Those Nigerian scammers are going to have a field day with me.

Filed under: consumer, random

September 13, 2011 • 12:56 pm 0

Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?

Now, this has probably been mentioned a hundred thousand times but I keep thinking about doing this post and never do it. Here goes (with thanks to @drewsonix for reminding me about the song)

I think the Alanis Morrissette song “Ironic” is a very good song. But I thought it would be useful to go through the song and check the irony she purports to sing about. Being British, and understanding irony.

“An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day”

OK. Just unlucky. Sorry about that, old man. You won the lottery and died. Hard cheese. Irony score: 0.

“It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay”

Again, not ironic – merely inconvenient and a bit urgh. Irony score: 0.

“It’s a death row pardon two minutes too late”

Crikes. You died, got pardoned afterwards. That’s worse than the guy dying after winning the lottery. But, still, just unlucky. Irony score: 0.

“Isn’t it ironic … don’t you think”

So far, Alanis, not convinced. Subtotal irony score: 0

“It’s like rain on your wedding day”

I had rain on my wedding day. It was a bit inconvenient and the guests had to drink alcohol inside the marquee rather than outside on the lawn but I didn’t feel the irony. Irony score: 0.

“It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid”

Oooh… this could be ironic if you realised after you’d paid that you had the free ride ticket in your pocket all along. But if the free ride was given to you after you paid & rode on the ride, then no – just unlucky. And I think, actually Alanis, you meant the latter here – so, sorry – Irony score: 0.

“It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take”

Just plain stupid. If you knew it was good advice and you didn’t take it, then you’re just stupid. But if you didn’t know it was good advice until after you didn’t do whatever it was, then it has the small potential to be ironic – but that’s academic because you didn’t take the advice so have no way of knowing whether it would have been good or bad. So – on balance, irony score: 0.

“Who would’ve thought … it figures”

I know, Alanis. Shocking.

“Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids good-bye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
‘Well isn’t this nice…’
And isn’t it ironic … don’t you think”

No, again, just plain, hugely unlucky. A real bummer. Afraid to fly but the first plane he takes crashes and he dies. Crikey. What amazing bad luck. But – Irony Score: 0

“It’s a traffic jam when you’re already late”

Unlucky. Irony score: 0.

“It’s a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break”

Move elsewhere. Inconvenience. Irony score: 0.

“It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife”

Inconvenient. And a very full cutlery drawer. Irony score: 0

“It’s meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife”

Unlucky. He married that lovely lady. But I’m sure there’ll be others. Irony score: 0.

“And isn’t it ironic… don’t you think”

OK, Alanis, your scores on the doors are - Total Irony Score: 0.

Interestingly, in the acoustic version of this song on the 10-year anniversary album, the lyrics of the “man of my dreams” bit are changed to:

“It’s meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful husband”

Which is about as close to irony as the song gets ever.

Americans – know your place. You don’t know irony, and probably never will. But you do have good teeth. And the worst diet on the planet. Which is ironic.

Filed under: random

July 23, 2011 • 7:28 pm 0

Google Plus – for live broadcast?

It’s possible someone’s already come up with this idea, so apologies to them if that’s the case!

It strikes me, as someone working in the commercial radio sector, that the ability to create public Google Plus hangouts (or huddles) allows for the possibility of the provision of interactive online radio services.

Granted, at the moment, it requires your audience to stay quiet as potentially thousands of people all with their webcams and microphones on kind of drowns out the ‘service’ being provided – but if Google were to add a feature whereby the original “huddle starter” were in moderator control of the audio within the huddle, it could work. There will surely also be encoder quality issues, technical limits on the number of people in a huddle and where you even start with copyright & licencing of performed works in this environment, I don’t know.

But it’s a thought – and doesn’t actually require much development work from Google to make it a reality.

Filed under: Uncategorized, radio, technology

April 14, 2011 • 7:55 am 3

Present metadata as carefully as you present your audio

This began to bug me a while back. And with the launch of RadioPlayer this month, we have one more “device” to consider when publishing associated metadata.

When you hear a new song on the radio, what’s the first question you ask yourself?

I think, for the majority of people, it’s the song’s artist they want to know. The title of the song is a secondary thought and might even be plainly obvious.

So, if you’re in charge of deciding how the song title & artist information is displayed on the various devices that your radio station is available upon, it would seem that the most sensible thing to do is to put the artist first when displaying “now playing” information. So, “Now playing – Glenn Campbell with Rhinestone Cowboy”.

This is particularly relevant when you consider the number of devices that scroll the text, rather than display it as a whole:

But, and I’m not sure whether this is some default setting in a piece of software somewhere that hasn’t been changed, it would seem that the opposite is true; certainly on the BBC national networks and on Absolute Radio, Classic FM, Heart & Capital brand stations and a host of others.

By putting the title first – particularly if it’s a title like “If you tolerate this (then your children will be next)” – on devices that scroll the text really slowly, you have missed an opportunity to present your data in the most accessible way possible.

This is a small example; it illustrates the need to think carefully about the way in which your information is displayed – upon which platforms it is displayed and the likely user experience that data will provide.

In addition, broadcasters should be wary of simply putting out the same data on different platforms. Stations that simply republish DLS text for DAB onto FM RDS text displays run a particular risk in the frequency of updates. DAB receivers will “queue” changes to DLS text – you don’t see DAB receivers that scroll text changing the message halfway through. FM receivers, however, for the most part are simply displaying a current representation of the RDS subcarrier. Where stations are updating DAB text more frequently than every 30 seconds, it may be on RDS scrolling devices that the previous message hasn’t yet run its full course. Again, by doing this, stations are reducing the quality of the user experience. I saw one station this week that updates its FM RDS text every ten seconds – that’s far too frequent and probably because they’re simply republishing – at the same frequency – the text they’re sending to DAB, where receivers handle it differently.

Take as much care over your metadata as you do with your audio.

Filed under: radio

January 18, 2011 • 11:57 pm 1

Why is local commercial radio important?

This is a short blog post, really. Doing some figures tonight, I ran a report on all of my company’s clients’ streaming data since we launched the service last year.

There seemed to be some aberration in the figures in early December, so I ran off individual reports for the server’s clients. One stood out.

If you have ever had any doubt, though I’m sure you have not, of the power of commercial local radio in times of collective crisis, this graph will dispel it immediately. The graph is anonymised and the Y scale removed but the relativity has been maintained – that is to say, on day 65 when the snow first fell, the server delivered 21 times as many listening sessions as the average of the previous 64 days. A second peak 9 days later delivered 30 times that average.

I’m pretty sure I don’t need to spell out the lessons that this example provides. Take note, take stock and be – very – prepared. And advertisers – this is the power that only this media can deliver for you.

Filed under: digital, media, radio, technology

December 2, 2010 • 11:24 pm 0

Misdirection can never be for the “good of Britain”

I keep hearing the Liberal Democrats argue that to enter the coalition with the Conservative Party was the only sensible choice for the good of Britain.

The argument goes that with a “strong and stable” government, legislation to tackle the deficit and the debt can be passed effectively and it’s the “only way out of this mess”.

What would have been better for Britain, actually, would have been a strong and stable opposition to a minority Conservative government. David Cameron would have had to bring every piece of legislation to the House with clear and reasoned arguments. The sensible and measured legislation would have been passed without any issues; those merely spouting Conservative ideology would have been scrutinised, questioned, amended and moulded into good, broad-based policies.

Somehow, in the thirst for power, that was forgotten. The principles upon which they were elected were ditched and now – when we are talking about a LibDem abstention on the tuition fees vote – they are effectively withdrawing from stable governance anyway and creating a minority Conservative government. It’s a mess.

For the good of Britain, Nick Clegg should withdraw his party from the coalition government without further delay; allow the Conservatives to attempt to govern as a minority and, when the time is right, ensure the country gets to have its say. This is the only “good” thing for Britain. Anything else is power for power’s sake.

Filed under: Politics

November 12, 2010 • 12:22 pm 0

Subverting the brand through social media

We all know that using social media as a tool to get our audience to engage with our brand is a “good thing to do”. It’s very simple, in some respects and you really don’t need “social media experts” to make it happen.

Take it a stage further, though. Maybe your radio station runs a “no repeat guarantee” during the workday. It’s a popular method to demonstrate to your audience that you don’t play the same songs over and over again even if, actually, you do – just day after day. Take that truth – and subvert it. Start a Twitter hashtag – not corporately, but using grassroots listeners to take on the cause for you. When you play, for example, Elbow’s ‘One Day Like This’ for the fifth time this week during the no-repeat workday – have listeners spot this & create a buzz around the fact that it keeps cropping up. Use the corporate Twitter account to retweet stuff ironically once there’s a little momentum behind it at grassroots level. Is it #elbowtime yet?

For this to work, you’ll already need a fairly hefty awareness of Twitter amongst your audience and strong buy-in of that as a method of communication with the station. But with a little work, this kind of approach – where you are effectively engineering a campaign against yourself, in a tongue-in-cheek way – will further strengthen the brand and association with the benefit that you’re providing – whether that the “no repeat workday” or another equivalent hook upon which you market the station in a positive way.

Filed under: digital, media, radio, technology

September 20, 2010 • 7:45 am 0

Religious extremism and closing down the debate

There are many reasons that I believe religious extremism, of every faith, is dangerous. I was starkly reminded of this last night when I used Twitter to remark on the BBC’s coverage of the Pope’s visit to Britain. I thought that the coverage was one-sided and a little over the top – in 140 characters or less, this came out as:

Pope’s on his way home. Maybe now the BBC will get out of his arse.

Now, I apologise for the use of the word ‘arse’, but it seemed to sum up my thoughts in a succinct manner. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: religion

August 13, 2010 • 9:10 pm 0

Making a right Pickles of things…

It’s a very odd thing – I’ve always been somewhat deferential to government ministers. Despite my better instincts, and with full knowledge of the world around me, I find myself in some way looking at what a government minister says as some kind of expert opinion. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Politics

Other stuff I worry about a bit

Why should Leveson matter?

I shouldn’t be surprised at this Tesco fraud

Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?

Google Plus – for live broadcast?

Present metadata as carefully as you present your audio

Why is local commercial radio important?

Misdirection can never be for the “good of Britain”

Subverting the brand through social media

Religious extremism and closing down the debate

Making a right Pickles of things…

Tweet

Meta

Links

Follow “Other stuff I worry about a bit”