2012: The Year The Mayans Got It Wrong
You know, I have to confess, I absolutely hate the current trendy lack of plurality in memory. Because, even though I am now officially a grown up, I can recall my past in whole collections of days. Periods of time. Like when I worked for Max Power. Or the times in chuffing plural – when I worked at Santa Pod. So what’s all this ‘Back in the day’ cobblers? I would use the expression but less damn randomly. You’d have a qualifier in there and it would admit you did a thing more than once. Like, ‘Back in the days of Fast Car discovering every hot new glamour talent’
But ‘Back in the day’ PAH! And usually it is some maudlin amber-tinted image with 20-20 hindsight and over-shiny in the memory. I prefer my memories with the pain recalled, salty edges and all.
I get the most excited about the future rather than the past. I was never keen on the history of people at school but if I missed Tomorrow’s World on the BBC as a lad, I would feel the loss. I loved that it was live, real and awfully cool. Seeing what they predicted and which bits came good was always a long term thrill.
So, I look forward to 2013 and a car audio competition scene that shall burn brightly, under the care of the UK’s three Dons of Car Audio Competition and a lot of lovely cars and people I am yet to meet and write about as well as hang out with and enjoy the company of, both alike.
That said, we have had one hell of a 2012 and I wanted to bring you the highlights. So, here are my favourite snippets from 2012.
JANUARY 2012
Was notable in that I got a report from the CES in ‘˜Vegas, about the JL Audio new stuff from the most effective Mr Mark Baker of Celsus ICE. He reported and sent pics of what was and possibly remains the best flattened subwoofer design there is. A true 300w RMS motor, it is bonkers and has a huuuge seven inch voice coil.
The JL Audio Skinnimer-Rinnimer
And while there was cool news from Team Pioneer Europe and Parrot, the coolest story of the month was my mate on the Anglers Mail, Benjamin Hyphen going to Colombia to fish for Arapaima and spotting HORSE Audio, on a 12V battery of course
FEBRUARY 2012
This was the month I got back in touch with a guy I heard of way before I was a journalist (wibble-wobble faaaade)
‘Many, many years ago, I was sat in the window of a shop in Acton, North London, called InCar. I was working as distributor of Earthquake car audio in what had been a car showroom, so it had a double shop front and workshops out the back for installs work. I would get the car audio press from the UK and also Car Audio & Electronics magazine from the USA. In the very back of CA&E was an advert for four ‘˜Bass CDs’. I waited until the afternoon and telephoned the number given in the advert.
‘Good Morning!’ I said. The American who answered the phone could literally not believe his ears. ‘You phoned, all the way from England? Gee! I only have four titles, you need to call my distributor’ So, I called the distributor and very soon became the very first (there were to be a good few, in time) UK importer and vendor of the Bass CD genre of music. Made with massive lows by artists such as Techmaster PEB, Maggotron and all sorts of names with the inevitable word ‘˜Bass’ in them. And one of the very best and coolest of all was the Bass Mekanik. It was he who said all car audio enthusiasts who like their lows are in fact bass mechanics as they all have to design their system from box, the woofers, to the right amp. And he was going to supply the tunes. His stuff dropped deeper and was just the best.’
And this was the month we got access to 24 Bit FLAC tunes in boom-tastical full fatness! Here’s the Mekanik’s home page: link
It was also the month we got in bed with Matrix Audio and the USA’s Digital Designs, as revealed in the following shorty news item:
‘Just a quickie to let you know that Matrix Audio are now the sales agents in the UK for DLS as well as the cult Hybrid Audio Technologies, or HAT loudspeakers. Mark Stringer, previous distributor will still be on hand in a technical and consultative basis, so the continuity and knowledge of the HAT brand remains in one place. Likewise, DLS, as used to be distributed by FOUR, is now with Matrix Audio, ensuring that the sound off enthusiasts who swear by this high end brand, will continue to get access to their favourite kit. You’ll be seeing some advertising for the Matrix Audio lines in the coming months and look out for reviews of HAT and DLS stuff and also video coverage, right here on Talk Audio
Likewise, the Digital Designs UK distributor has made efforts to get back involved with the home UK market, as he has been working selling the line to adhesive contacts he has overseas, losing sight of us lot. However, that too is to be rectified and we will be seeing some mad DD products tested as well.’
MARCH 2012
For me, March was all about these guys:
link
link
link
And how it was all kicking off here: link
It was all about my pulling off the coming-together of the Tribes of UK Bass. Here’s the news excerpt:
‘The Big BadaBoom, the contest with my name on it, is going ahead at the Modified Nationals Show in June in Peterborough and is to be sponsored by JBL the brand of the speakers used on stages since the dawn of sound. If you enter any bass competition format, be it dB Drag Racing, EMMA ESPL or Propper Droppers ‘˜Bass at Ultra Low Frequencies’, then with your entry ticket, (which will not be significantly more pricey) you will have entered all three competitions. You simply enter as normal via your normal favoured format, be it as a dB Drag dude via Darren Millard, or as a Propper Dropper direct to Marcos ‘˜Mega heavy Bass’ Barnes or else through Andrew Ackerley of EMMA and when you get there you can be tested on all three formats.
Here, for novices is how they work.
1) dB Drag straightforward meter-wrecking big bass, you pick one tone, one tuning and cane it.
2) EMMA ESPL uses a normal music track and you test doors open and doors shut, full range, install quality counts, too
3) Propper Droppers takes an average of five different tone-runs, the deeper the better. Streetbass psychos’ fave.
And you know, thanks to the sheer effort of the three Dons of Bass, the whole thing worked a treat and the awesome jacket is now the proudest trophy of one Edd Elson who was Bass King 2012.
Here’s Edd getting his Bass King jacket at USC at Santa Pod:
APRIL 2012
The final meeting of the Dons worked and was so cool, that I just had to get a shot of all three together. Never been done before and unlikely to happen again, here is the prose
BadaBING!!!!! BADABOOM IS GO!
FORGEDDABOUTIT! Okay Wiseguys, it’s like dis. So we get this sit-down, see? The Fat Guy made some calls the Godfather says he agrees and so we get the Bosses togedder. Don Ackerley from the Northside, Don Millard from out East, Don Barnes from the South and we get them togedder in the middle of the territory to talk about all their things coming togedder as one big thing.
One Big Badaboom…
And THAT shot:
That and the joyous news of a new high end outlet for car audio opening up in the shape of Oxford Car Audio. Here’s the snippet:
Oxford Car Audio Reborn!
Bloody hell, it takes big hairy cojones in these times of a shrinking industry to take over a car audio shop business and launch it afresh but that’s exactly what the guys who have taken over at Oxford Car Audio have done. It’s less startling than you might think when you take into account that the dude behind it is Steve ‘˜Lem’ Le Masurier. He’s the least-known superb installer in the UK! (But I think I aughta change that.)
His work is literally beautiful. With curves, fit, finish and use of cabling all simply craftsman-like. He is the favoured installer of the Alpine folks and you cannot hear him spoken highly enough of by the top knobs at Alpine. Their Passat is one of his installs.
Now seen as one of the very best the South has got
MAY 2012
This was the month that we got a bit ramped up with Digital Radio UK:
‘You may know that there is a not-for-profit organisation working for radio, just like the one for telly, that has the cute robot dude that helps little old ladies with their set top boxes. They are Digital Radio UK (DRUK) and they work at Ministerial and heads of BBC and broadcast mogul level. They are heavy dudes and little old Talk Audio has literally barged into their world! (What ME? BARGE?)
Hmmmm, poor souls never did stand a chance of ignoring us as I was sat in the front row, like a chubby over-eager student when they ran their first Drive To Digital conference at Broadcasting House in London. It was about the DRUK campaign to tell the world more about digital radio being available in cars.
“BH”, the very HQ of the BBC; we had Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries to tell us about how the government is committed to the future of radio – and that means Digital Radio. I was there for CAR magazine, for whom I have done pitifully small amounts of work considering how keen I am to talk to their opinion-forming readers. I was first arm up for a question and asked the minister if any budget had been ring-fenced to protect the new Digital “tick” mark that will go on approved digital radios, from counterfeit use by Toerags selling Kak from under railway arches. Ed was clearly unused to the words ‘toerag’ and ‘kak’ being used as ministerial adjectives and liked them so much he used them both at the lunchtime sum-up and they were again mentioned in the final day’s sum-up too! (to my utter delight)
One thing I can relate dear TA readers, is that the old ‘DAB’ term (digital Audio Broadcasting) is as silly as calling your television “DVB-T” for Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial. It’s just TV and you know of course that it is digital, not fuzzy analogue. So Dead & Buried – it’s DIGITAL RADIO!
And here’s a picture of me with Dame Kelly Holmes at the London digital radio power boost at the BT Tower in London.
JUNE 2012
This was when TATV took a massive quality hike and here’s why:
‘ of this very day, Sony are back on board Talk Audio as Site Associates and are to become the new sponsor of Talk Audio TV! That means a list of video equipment as long as an arm (well, I DO need microphones for remote use and a lamp, and a phatter battery than normal and a baggie) as well as a SONY Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum video editing software suite to go with it!’ It was a lovely deal to get and I had an exciting time, meeting with a slew of Sony staff at HQ to pull it off.
I am yet to get that more powerful computing machine, (I work to the frequent whooshing of cooling fans and see the processor overload light a-twinkling, mostly) and so have not got at fancy editing and watermarking but will in 2013. Also, there were issues with the big opener sting from one Japanese company on the video, when the content is exclusively about another Japanese company. This creates issues of kao, or ‘˜face’, so I now say, ‘Shot on Sony Handycam’ at the opening, as that is a specific Sony brand and also, only with the major Nipponese companies, am omitting the Sony stings on a select few clips, for avoiding the obtuse conflict of interests. I reckon part of my darker psyche was having a little power flextesting testing. But as ever, there is a path through.
This was a doubly cool month in that as well as that sexy hardware, Talk Audio got to review MUSIC as well here is the whole item, video and all from the time:
NEW Album of Old Skool Bass Material From Bass Mekanik
The new Bass Mekanik album KONTROL is out! Pump up the volume and push yer windows out!
Yes, our dear chums over the water, who art the epicentre of global boom music have made new music.
The Mekanik himself says, ‘ its a bit retro, in the sense of Quad Maximus or Version 5.0 – also bits of Dubstep and some faster tempos that I think would probably appeal more to UK fans than the other new albums in our catalogue. I’ll upload a full bandwidth version over the next couple days.’ Before adding, ‘in the meantime here’s a 200×200 album cover and the link to iTunes UK. God Save The Queen!’ Ahh bless him!
Here’s where iPod people can get hold of this woofer-shredding mayhem but do be aware that FLAC files are also on offer via Bandcamp soon. More money mad file size, NO DRM, relies on the righteous belief that musicians need to eat. Like CD sales
link
POST SCRIPT:
We will be taking the new Bassotronics album dahn the Ace café soon, to catch a boomer and finally give José ‘˜Quakeshaker’ Correia his Bass Mekanik tee. That was air freighted at mad cost as a present to me, but not in 5XL(!) It’s just right for José and he is a pukka Bass Mekanik fan. In fact, on the night at the café when we made this video;
I was only able to play the tunes from the album in question as José had them on a USB stick from buying the album himself, in a format his head unit liked. (It wouldn’t read what I had made, which I am sure was my fault)
Anyway, go check out the new album and see what you reckon, Bass Bwoys. (And Jenny ‘˜Dolly’ Monaghan, AKA BassBitch, Ed!)
JULY 2012
July was the month I was so depressed about the possible loss of my licence, that I made a cock up on the dates and failed to get down to Brighton to attend the HighDown car Audio Old Skool Disco event, driven by their shockingly loud Hertz SPL Monster-driven demo car, a Polo. I gather it was a brilliant night and rocked the town.
I am so sorry I missed it, guys.
AUGUST 2012
This was the month that we heard that SPL Dynamics had gone Sound Quality and made some wickedly cool amplifiers. It was hot news, prices TBA back then but here are the details again, with prices
Dream 2 ( best amplifier for subwoofer/midbass ) £699.99 CAD
Class AB 2ch High End power amplifier
2x100W 4 ohm
2x185W 2 ohm
2x290W 1 ohm
1x360W 4 ohm (bridge mode)
1x580W 2 ohm (bridge mode)
Distortion : < 0.15% (1KHz)
S/N ratio, A-weighted : > 95dB
Input impedance : 47 KOhm
Input sensitivity : 0.1-8V
Filters : Bandpass 40Hz-4KHz
Japan made Nichicon lower impedance filter capacitors
Low loss USA made REL-MKP coupled capacitors for audio frequency
Burr-Brown OPA2604 operation amplifier
Unique highly sophisticated big circuit with non-big loop negative feedback
Fuses : 2x40A
Dimensions : 360 x 227 x 59mm
Dream 3 £499.99 CAD
Class AB 3ch (ch3 only for subwoofer 20Hz-300Hz )
2x80W + 1x450W 4 ohm
2x140W + 1x770W 2 ohm
Distortion : < 0.1% (1KHz)
S/N ratio, A-weighted : > 95dB
Input impedance : 47 KOhm
Input sensitivity : 0.1-8V
Filters : ch1&2 HPF 40Hz-4KHz ch3 LPF 30Hz-300Hz + subsonic 15-50Hz
Japan made Nichicon lower impedance filter capacitors
NE5532Poperation amplifier
Bass level remote control
Subwoofer phase control
Fuses : 3x40A
Dimensions : 410 x 227 x 59mm
Dream 4 ( best amplifier for mid/hi ) £999.99 CAD
Class AB 4ch High End power amplifier
4x110W 4 ohm
4x195W 2 ohm
4x260W 1 ohm
2x370W 4 ohm (bridge mode)
2x550W 2 ohm (bridge mode)
Distortion : < 0.1% (1KHz)
S/N ratio, A-weighted : > 95dB
Input impedance : 47 KOhm
Input sensitivity : 0.1-8V
Filters : Bandpass 40Hz-4KHz every channel
Japan made Nichicon lower impedance filter capacitors
Low loss USA made REL-MKP coupled capacitors for audio frequency
Burr-Brown OPA2604 operation amplifier
Fuses : 4x40A
Dimensions : 455 x 227 x 59mm
Here’s your SPL Dynamics Importer/Vendor’s linky to Car Audio Direct: link
It was also the month of the ill-fated, insane, glorious, obscene, bizarre, wonderful group cluster-shag that was the MyMod Summer MadnessI would publish it here but that would turn this whole behemoth into something you wouldn’t want to leave on in the background for your next tea break at work!
So, NSW! link
SEPTEMBER 2012
In September I offered Bowers & Wilkins a slot on Talk Audio to advertise their Society of Sound. It takes being ‘˜approved’ by them. As makers of the speakers that the whole world has in their test chambers as comparators of ‘˜known good’ status, they have the most amazing products. You wanna go to an Apple shop, zero in on the B&W Zeppelin AIR and plug in. Turn it up and you will get thrown out SO fast, it is impressive. Mind you, so are the massive 800 series Kevlar coned beauties on my reference system I use in my living room for Home Cinema Choice as yardstick for speaker reviews. And that meant that TA had both boom and tweak in FLAC! Here was that news item, I was made up
Talk Audio Becomes The Only Site Worldwide to Offer FLAC To All Tribes
Little Old Talk Audio may not be a mighty Japanese hardware house, nor a slim but potent software operation from California worth millions but we have the damn finest moderator and tech team on the ‘net and we are so hooked up it’s awesome. We have site associates from Alpine and Blaupunkt to Xtreme Dynamat and ZR JL Audio speakers. We are sponsored on Talk Audio TV by Sony and review stuff from the affordable to the aspirational, including headphones from time to time.
And now, we are proud as Punch to announce that you are a click away from some of the most amazingly clear and crisp full range and breathtakingly dynamic high sound quality recordings you will ever hear. For Talk Audio’s latest site associate is Bowers & Wilkins with their fabulous Society Of Sound label. link Or you can refresh this page until you see the skyscraper banner in the margin change to the Society of Sound advert and click it.
After all, Bowers & Wilkins leave a significant pile of their delicious 800 series loudspeakers in my home to act as resident reference for use in speaker reviewing for Home Cinema Choice magazine. So I feel the least we can do is serve our deep audiophile community on Talk Audio, as well as the bass head one and offer a route to music they will all truly appreciate. We already had access to boom from the Bass Mekanik in FLAC or Lossless and now we have more….
Both classical and more outer field stuff from some of the most important players in popular music as well from the B&W Society of Sound. I am particularly keen to get on board to hear the new Peter Gabriel album New Blood. Here’s what the Society Of Sound website has to say about it:
“New Blood is a continuum of Peter’s previous album, Scratch My Back, a song-swap project where he covered the songs of others, all to an orchestral backing. This time it’s Peter’s own extensive catalogue he’s chosen to explore alongside John Metcalfe’s meticulous arrangements.”
here’s more detail about the album…
link
Peter Gabriel has always been at the leading edge of recording technology and musical exploration. It seems to be a big slice of his makeup and one of the reasons he is so important, I reckon. I have his stuff on just about every surround sound format demo disc ever issued, as he loves multichannel and gigs in-the-round. He said, “We were trying to explore things to see if we could do it differently. We may not have always succeeded, but there are places on this record where you hear something that you won’t have heard before. And that’s what’s always exciting for me.”
And if it excites Peter Gabriel, it’ll be cool!
The Society of Sound is a subscription service. For £33.95 a year you get a big slice of FLAC (or Apple lossless if you prefer) goodness. You will get a lot of classical music and thus it is really a society for grown ups, but you know what? I think we do have a few about the place, just not as rowdy as the boomers and to them, I salute your ears and taste and please do chip in below if you discover this and go for it and tell us what you think!
Meanwhile on the other end of the scale, you can get FLAC and full fat Appley files from the Bass Mekanik label by doing the same clickthrough thing on their margin square advert to BANDCAMP, or just hit this: link
OCTOBER 2012
The big story this month was a major change for Talk Audio by way of a cunning bit of PR by a top bloke and Mod of TA, Jexdirectedtech. Here is the story once again:
Talk Audio Privilege Club Has Top Partners
Known as Jimbob, Jimbo or simply James to his mama, Jexdirectedtech is the name of the force behind the Talk Audio Privilege Club. An idea first put forward as a way to help Talk Audio cover its own costs, Jim has been working away behind the scenes to secure real, valuable benefits to those Talk Audio members who wish to get on board.
By no means compulsory, nor ‘˜exclusive’ you need simply be a Talk Audio member on the forum boards system, as against a simple visitor (Known as ‘˜Lurker’ in Forum Parlance as they lurk but do not post, nor sign in) to join up.
It’ll set you back less than a pound for each of the deals that have been secured and is £12 for the year, coming up very soon, a bit like a fishing licence, tied to the calendar. If, meanwhile, you have had a slew of over 500 posts and been allowed into the Members Only section, well that fabulous MO status will save TWO Great British Pounds. Yes, it’s not a lot different, just enough to make you feel loved!
Anyway, here is the list of the impressive achievements of our brilliant negotiator and general Most Industrious Dude, Jexdirectedtech:
– FREE unlimited use of TA classifieds for private sales & wanted ads.
– Access to private privilege members’ FORUM
– Special DISCOUNTS online with Car Audio Direct, UK2 & Other Partner Websites
– Direct email NEWSLETTER for members with exclusive deals and promotions
– First dibs on all Adam Rayner SWAG!
– Regular COMPETITIONS and giveaways
– INCREASED Private Message (inbox) Storage
– INCREASED Gallery & Attachment Storage
– BETA exclusive release of new TA features ahead of normal users
– Exclusive offers from Telco and Broadband provider – ICUK Hosting
– Exclusive offers from UK2.net
– Great discounts from the AA
– Discount codes for www.green-bear.co.uk
– Awesome promo deals from Tastecard
Jim said, ‘Loads more to follow – including something from Club GT we hope! That’s what we have so far
Impressive stuff. To apply, simply click the link in the forum description for the Privilege Club here:
link
And it has worked great reports in from the people who have got on board, both the TA-ers and the companies. Hell, one shop with Car Audio Direct and it pays for itself AND adds all the other schtick! The dude deserves a medal.
How about a Talk Audio New Year’s Honours scheme? Most Posts, Funniest Member, Member Most Likely To Get Arrested, Most ‘˜Bo’-Like Mod, Most Helpful Member (this should be a real swag!) that sort of thing?
NOVEMBER 2012
November was all about D-Love
Meet D Love. My Soul Brother From Another Mother. From Stockport
I met this dude at the BBC – hosted Drive To Digital Conference recently. It was run by Digital Radio UK, a not-for-profit organisation set up to promote and engineer the eventual switch-off of the analogue FM radio transmitters in favour of the new digital era. Digital radio means wider choice and better sound and a whole slew of cool. Not the least of which is that you will be seeing about twelve million quid’s worth of THIS bloke promoting it. You will hear him on the radio, too. A better than cool dude versus the little robot that didn’t speak that we had for the whole TV switch off thing, D Love is a little fat bloke from Stockport but he feels the love of digital radio. His first appearance on telly was last Saturday night, between Strictly Come Dancing and Merlin
It took a day or two to sort out the musical rights issues and so forth to get him onto Auntie’s YouTube channel, after all, this is the BBC…but here is D Love in his first TV appearance, promoting digital radio.
“Meet D Love, the diminutive soul puppet spreading the love for digital radio across the land. Its crystal clear sound quality, choice of stations and easy tuning will make you go weak at the knees. If you love radio, go digital.”
Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOVEnFcKZWk
That, of course, and discovering that we, as ever are a little behind the places that seem to be fuelled by more money washing around, for some reason.. and that PA cars have been done and how:
gallery
DECEMBER 2012
Well, the month in which I write has finally caught up. What an epic year it has been and as said at the very top, I look forwards to 2013 being an absolute corker.
It certainly looks as if it should be a worthy one for CAD. Our sexiest news story in December was about them and spake little of the huge effort made by CAD’s tech dept (Hi Mike!) to achieve it over and above their already excellent ratings:
Car Audio Direct Earn Coveted Pan-European Trusted Shops® Status
Talk Audio is fully independent editorially but happily maintains close relations with noted online car audio retailers, Car Audio Direct. If they stock an item, we’ll often publish their price. (That said, you will pay a slice more if you are at a bricks-and-mortar shop and paying them to install it for you, as this helps subsidise the fitting as well as paying for their artisanal skills.) There are other righteous internet vendors of ice out there and even some with expertise, yet CAD are a cut above, with personal attention, from real people who are genuine enthusiasts and WILL take the time to discuss the pink wire with end purchasers. They have an unimpeachable record as to after-sales and garner innumerable reviews from happy purchasers.
Now, while there are a slew of little logos attached to e-retailer sites that can mean ‘˜security’ and ‘˜accredited’, with accepted ‘˜known good’ status, these vary in reach and importance. I would love to think that their garnering a record number of OnLine Retailer Of The Year awards from Mobile Electronics News, the only UK trade magazine, would have clout across all of Europe but it doesn’t!
What DOES have real clout, though is the Trusted Shops® scheme, run by the Germans, which serves to offer a pan-European level of internationally recognised excellence in security, customer care and after sales service. It is not easy to get and takes some serious corporate leaping through flaming hoops to get it awarded. Here is an extract from their site: ‘www.caraudiodirect.co.uk has fulfilled over 40 quality criteria in order to obtain the Trusted Shops Trustmark. These criteria are undergoing continuous development by independent consumer protection and data protection specialists. The observance of these criteria is regularly verified by commercial law specialists and IT experts.’
One added bonus of the Trusted Shops® accreditation is free-to-purchaser Buyer Protection, which, if registered at the check out screen of the accredited store, will provide up to £2,500 worth of payment cover against any possible loss of your money in the rare event of non-delivery. (Usually couriers if this reviewer of twenty years standing knows anything!)
Mike Organ of Car Audio Direct said, ‘It has taken some work and effort to get all the requirements of the scheme lined up. It’s been a case more of how we record how we do what we have always done, which is to treat each and every customer as well as we would like to be treated ourselves. We were worried that we were being old fashioned – to actually give a damn about people but this recognition serves to both help reassure new customers and reassure ourselves that the high quality of service and advice we give, has always been worth it.’
So there you go, check them out
link
Well done of you have got this far, I am sure it has taken more than one session or cuppa to get here! Keen readers, like yourself can keep up to date by liking our Facebook page here link as I shall post all new Talk Audio stuff to that page in future, rather than my own, personal one, as I have been tending to (durrr) and if you feel the urge to hear about all my doings, then follow me on Twitter @TheAdamRayner. I crap on about car audio, HiFi, food, fishing, fat birds and ideally, all at once but that would be greedy and unfeasible.
I am still slightly startled that I am getting away with writing about electronics for a living and wish to thank all the Talk Audio forum board users and lurkers, our fabulous, witty, intelligent (well, it IS all comparative) and above all sage and gently just Moderators’ Team and in particular a massive thank you to the slightly unhinged polymath genius (the only even remotely dislikeable thing about him is that multi-faceted excellence, as he makes normal folks feel dense and unimaginative) that is he we simply call Guru.
I love you, man!
I’ll go away now before I get even more emotional
A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR of 2013 TO ALL ON TALK AUDIO FROM THE TALK AUDIO MAGAZINE AND FORUM TEAM!!!