Week Fifteen Doing Talking On The Wireless!

Regular readers will know, that as a kid raised in a house where mama kept on disappearing to do some telly or radio work, she would explain to us tiny tots that ‘Mummy was doing talking on the wireless.’ And nowadays I am on the BBC contributor lists as one who will get excitable and pointy but not curse and I get introduced as ‘Adam Rayner, motoring journalist.’ So I do some ‘talking on the wireless’ as well.
And despite it being a fee-attracting thing, (only if it is national, you don’t get paid for contributing to local radio) it is by far my smallest earner, yet garners me exponentially more kudos from them’s as hears me by accident for it being on the BBC, than any other publisher or employer, ever. Lately, I have taken to doing the odd Radio 5 thing by offering to drive into town to get the higher quality in-the-studio audio by going to New Broadcasting House.
And while I mourned and shed a true tear for Television Centre Wood Lane, the New Broadcasting House innards are literally wondrous. Lots of glass and LOTS of people and computers and screens in the biggest news room in Europe and I betcha the best in all global broadcast! For the sound quality on the all the internal kit is breath-taking. Dave Legg, Mark Turner, Andy Blanch alike would all smile like Cheshire cats. The place is always quiet late at night and I get ushered through into a double-glass room-booth as part of a semi circle of recording rooms in there, each bristling with digital kit from Studer, get a pair of very sexy cans clamped around my misshapen noggin and I am IN Manchester! Bonkers and utterly ‘there’.
Last Friday, I went to Audi UK to hear their Bang & Olufsen premium audio system, after a late invite on the Thursday, of which more in its own story. But I said I could easily make Luton for 1:30pm for being on air with Jeremy Vine to talk about a lad who had offered a novel defence for his erratic driving. This was to say that he had been under the influence of his car audio system and in particular, the evil Drum & Bass made him do it! I thought this was hilarious, pointed out I had had a posh headline once, ‘Don’t drive to Mahler!’ and that even Top Gear had put out a CD of driving music. And that the kid should learn how to handle the feelings and his driving alike. But that was after leaving Audi too late, scuttling to Luton from MK and dumping my car like I was royalty in the tiny car park before leaping into the oubliette room at BBC Three Counties. Jeremy was seamless and knowing I was there TEN MINUTES LATE, just slid me in, fifteen seconds later, like a fishy. Genius but I was a bit embarrassed.
Then I did it again later for Radio 5 Live and got stuffed by every traffic light after a rapid transit to Regent’s Park from home. I get chills going in that new door now. So TVC can be a happy memory and who knows? One day they may ask me to go to Salford for BBC Breakfast! They have once already, and I could not but would love it. I do so hope they didn’t think it was because I would not&;.
I gather that the whole Kenwood FLAC thing has been a real scoop as the unit is just not on sale in the UK yet and I have a production sample unit. I have Mister Kenwood hunting us down the tech today, so I can reveal all.
I await happily the output from our nut job reporter, Simon King, as he has a whole take of his own from Gadget Show Live although he hasn’t got the years of rubbing-off experience of working with professional telly makers and photographers, he did invest in a gun microphone. (Worrying, went with an EBay one, so god knows the specs&;) So that aughta be cool. We’ll have to bear with, as he has a day job, too.
Nearly lastly but by no means leastly is that our ‘Mister Pioneer’ (it’s Girish Janday whom one sees in the Pioneer videos) has been casting an eye over the forum boards and has been on the phone today to dictate a trio of useful forum post replies with details about mostly iPhone 5 stuff, due to the complex connectivity that the Apple ecosystem has imposed upon our world. There’s even a flow chart of connection items to be had. A big thanks to Girish for doing so, even as he recovers from Gadget Show Live.
New monthly DDownlow news blurb from Digital Designs USA is to go up today, as well&;
Must get on&;.
Adam Rayner On Line Editor