radio station in

I've always been a Radio 1 devotee myself. At least since the age of 14 that is when I finally caught up with The Nation's Favourite after a dalliance with speech radio. I tuned in to the big One to listen to a mix of new singles and golden oldies delivered by a succession of big name DJs with egos the size of the hits they were playing. There was DLT on breakfast then Simon Bates with the Golden Hour then Paul Burnett and Andy Peebles in the afternoon before Kid Jensen at drivetime and Mike Read and John Peel in the evening. They may all have moved on but I'm still there several decades later. I never advanced to Radio 2 because I prefer a bit of challenge not cosy comfort. I never elevated to Radio 3 because my taste is definitely popular rather than classical. I never matured to Radio 4 because I need music and entertainment in the background not intellectual stimulation. I never jumped ship to Radio 5 Live because I can't think of anything more tedious than opinionated callers and racing results. And I never switched to local commercial stations because they're shallow ad-infested drivel. So every radio in my house is still tuned to » The second record to be played on Radio 1 after Flowers In The Rain was by The Bee Gees• The finest Radio 1 nostalgia website is. Where else will you find (from Simon Bates to Jimmy Young) and a and and the etc etc?» The second DJ to appear on Radio 1 immediately following Tony Blackburn's first show was So London has spoken and is to be the for next year's. Well there's a surprise. There was me thinking that would wing it or maybe or would sneak ahead and pip everyone at the post. But no. Boris romped home with more than 75% of the vote at least among the 19000 Tories and 1000 non-Tories who bothered to vote in the primary phase. He'll need a lot more support than that to win in May. Boris's Mayoral campaign benefits from a not inconsiderable web presence. There's Boris the politcal thinker battling against the. There's Boris the MP trolling around the. And there's Boris the multimedia campaigner inviting you to and to. There's not a lot of policy on Boris's Mayoral site at the moment he's still at the "" stage. There's not even mention of his beloved bus policy - and. The former policy is clearly a winner but the latter is more of a smokescreen. There'll be no rear-platformed omnibuses reinstated on the streets of London if Boris is victorious just a call to TfL's designers to build something a bit Routemaster-like (but with wheelchair access) for delivery on some unspecified date in the future. It's better than nothing but it's not instant transport nirvana. The stage is now set for a Ken v Boris election. OK it'll actually be a v v election (or even a Ken v Boris v Brian v v v v v several other nutters election) but all money will be on either red or blue. And hey there's not long to go now until polling day itself. Only... Sigh. It looks like Londoners will have to put up with an extended period of ranting posturing and mud-slinging before they're allowed anywhere near a ballot box. There's a lot to be said for instant snap elections and not drawn out predictable contests. Assuming you've made your mind up already as I have it could be a desperately tedious 8 months. Please spare a fiver for Nearly 20 years ago government transport planners came up with with the idea of a super-duper railway line straight through the middle of London would speed passengers across town in minutes flat. It would link places like Slough and Heathrow in the west to Romford and Canary Wharf in the east. It would be a futuristic railway with extra-long high capacity trains. It would help hundreds of thousands of people to go to work in the City or shopping in the West End. And it would cost a heck of a lot of money. So it was never built. It's not easy to find fifteen billion quid for a railway. Governments aren't generally happy at stumping up that sort of money for a transport link which most of the electorate will never use. The total cost is even higher than the entire Olympic budget and we all know how popular that's been. But you can't dig tunnels under central London without spending money and without pledged cash this project is. Things were a lot easier. The Central. Bakerloo. Northern and Piccadilly lines were all constructed within a single decade using private finance back in an era when there was far less infrastructure buried under the capital. Only two more tube lines have been built across London since and Crossrail is doomed not to be the third. Which is why the government is going back to private finance to the major corporations based in the City and grovelling for cash. Pay up or we won't build the railway you so desperately need in order to stay profitable. So far no response. Problems at demonstrate the mess this project is in. The original plans for Crossrail included a proper big station at Woolwich on the southeast Canary Wharf branch. Trouble was this new subterranean station was going to be terribly expensive so the planners dropped it. Sorry to the local population all tens of thousands of them but the new railway was destined to burrow straight underneath them without stopping. A wholly wasted opportunity and all because the investment wasn't "affordable". But a building company stepped in and offered to pay for the station so long as they were allowed to build lots and lots of new homes on top. Result. They'll get a stonking profit later on and the good citizens of Woolwich are no longer sidelined. But as a whole is still stalled until somebody finds the remainder of the money to pay for it. Ken Livingstone reckons the project just needs "the last few hundred million pounds" but nobody seems to have them. Big business isn't interested because they have their eyes on short term profit rather than long term gain. And the Treasury isn't interested because spending money doesn't win votes. Some people have a very blinkered view of the future. So it looks like we the people are going to have to find the last few hundred million pounds ourselves. If everybody in the UK contributed five pounds to the Crossrail project we'd have the money in no time. A fiver's not much. It's one meal out or half a round in the pub on a Friday night all to be paid back (with interest) next time you want to get to Heathrow in a hurry. Or if everybody in London donated fifty quid that'd reach the total too. It might mean forgoing a few DVDs or a nice pair of shoes but it's all for the common good. And we might just have ourselves a transport lifeline by. Please send your fiver to the following address: How to get lots of commentsAs we established one of the best things about blogging is getting comments. They're the icing on the cake they're added depth they're two-way conversation. But how do you get comments? I thought I'd carry out a scientific study to try to find out. I've looked back through five years of to see which of my posts got the most reaction. I've only counted single posts with a single comments box and I've not counted any of my own comments within each total. And that leaves just ten posts which have gathered more than fifty comments. Here's my There are two different types of job:— jobs where you time your work— jobs where you work your timeSome people time their work. They're given a task to do and told to get on with it and they get paid as and when it's done. Their income relies solely on them getting the work complete so they have an impetus to knuckle down and get on with it. They might work fifteen hours a day on some days or just five hours a day on others whichever is more appropriate to the job in hand. And when the work's done that's it they head home that's their choice. Living job-by-job like this makes long-term planning difficult but some people appreciate the independence of timing their work. Some people work their time. I'm one of them. I'm paid a salary for what I do and my contract says I work a set number of hours a week. Sometimes I end up working longer than that because there are "things to be done" but on the whole my working day is a similar length each day. I have plenty to do to keep me occupied and any manic periods are generally balanced out by lulls and pauses at other times. I can plan my life even six months from now because I have a pretty good idea how my work is arranged. I like a bit of stability and working my time gives me that. Most of us work our time. We have a start time and a finish time at least roughly and it's our job to be available and productive between those times. Or at least available. Sometimes being productive is more difficult. We've probably all had those days where we have to be in the office or on call or whatever but there's absolutely nothing to do. That usually means staring out of the window or trolling the internet or tackling the sudoku or making another cup of tea or planning your next holiday or rearranging your email folders or anything else that makes you look busy when you're not. Thankfully these days are few in number for most of us at least. But for some who work their time there's a lot more time than work. It's their job to be ready to work should the situation require it but most of the time there's nothing to do. Absolutely nothing except to wait. These people come to work at a set time and they go home at a set time and they get paid even if nothing happens inbetween. They're the clock-watchers left to their own devices to keep themselves awake and alert. You know the sort of people I mean...... Firemen It sounds great getting paid to do absolutely nothing most of the time but I bet it isn't. I couldn't do it not week in week out. Even for easy money. I'd be bored out of my skull if my job didn't engage my brain leaving me to twiddle my thumbs for most of the "working" day. I'd hate having to sit around for hours waiting for a real task to come along until hometime finally came around. I suspect you may be the same. Because an unengaging job is an unsatisfying job and sometimes avoiding tedium is more important than gaining salary. As we shift further and further into a service economy increasing numbers of people are going to find themselves forever poised to offer support that nobody requires waiting around all day in case they're ever needed. Because some people do time rather than doing work. I salute you - sooner you than me. It's been since the Olympic Park was sealed off and its occupants ejected. Two months since an was erected all around the perimeter and a bored-stupid security guard posted at every entrance gate. Two months may not sound long but it represents more than 3% of all the available construction time. So what's been going on here since July? Is the site still a ghost town of crumbling warehouses or have the Olympic Delivery Authority and their big yellow bulldozers been busy? It's a bit of both actually. It's still possible to gain public access to the heart of the Olympic Site by following the. This sewer-top footpath has recently been in an attempt to make it more attractive to the local community and newly installed lighting now makes this a slightly more enticing place to walk and cycle after dusk. Somebody's been a bit over-enthusiastic with the signage though. Several pristine white signposts have been erected along this stretch of the Greenway informing travellers that Hackney Wick and Bow are one way and Stratford and West Ham are the other. And then the same thing again 100 metres later. And then again and then again at similar 100 metres intervals just in case you have the memory span of a goldfish. The southernmost signpost even manages to point the wrong way directing cyclists straight ahead into a fence alongside the Great Eastern railway rather than down the gentle slope underneath the nearby bridge and up the other side. Full marks for design zero marks for practicality. The security fence alongside this particular slope has been specially selected as home to 2012's first "branded hoardings". Alice the ODA's Marketing Manager is. Rather than leave passers-by staring at blue-painted plywood her department have covered 100 metres of wall with shiny photographic panels and important brand messages. There are some appropriately uplifting images of athletes and that technicolour 2012 logo we all love so much. There are big yellow warnings signs urging children not to play on site plus some artists' impressions of what the finished development will look like. There's a list of the of the Olympic Park although no sign of the names of the 40 million taxpayers and lottery players whose money is really making things happen. And finally as a sign of things to come there's a gleaming list of official Olympic worldwide partner organisations and their corporate logos just for added visibility. Coca Cola. McDonalds and Samsung have never taken a blind bit of interest in this industrial wasteland before but the TV cameras are coming in five years' time and it pays to get here early. Up on the bridge above Marshgate Lane. I had my camera at the ready. I've decided to try taking a photograph from exactly the same spot on the parapet every two months or so until 2012 in an attempt to document all the changes taking place down below. At this stage with just the plays like an Olympic Spot The Difference puzzle. There are huge changes already but only on the left-hand side of the road. The (built by the University of London Faculty of Engineering and until recently a waste disposal depot) has been completely demolished. All the beautiful willow trees overshadowing the Pudding Mill River have been uprooted and chopped down. Vegetation on the banks of the river has been stripped away. Workmen with a big orange digger were busy dumping rocks and gravel to block off the concrete channel. A further army of diggers could be seen crawling all over the surrounding scrubland levelling the land ready for the Park's perimeter service road to be built on top. Meanwhile on the right-hand side of the road almost all of the factories offices and big metal sheds still stand.. but for how much longer? Be in no doubt the Olympic Stadium will be ready and nigh nothing visible in my latest photograph will remain. Half a mile further north yesterday was also closing-down day for the. With the final harvest now safely gathered in the last few allotment holders were forced to pack away their tools and have been escorted from the Park for the very last time. Their futile attempt to withstand the invasion of the Olympic planning process has come to nought and an enforced five-year-plus relocation to Leyton is now underway as a last hurrah with participants tying bouquets to the in protest. It won't do any good - the 2012 meteorite obliterates everything that lies beneath its destructive path and no human force can stop it. The demolition of the Lower Lea Valley is already underway. Rebirth suddenly seems a very long way off. Autumn is shorter than summerIt's true. There may be four seasons in a year but they're not all of equal length. It's 94 days from the summer solstice to the autumn equinox making summer the longest of all the seasons. But it's only 90 days from the autumn equinox to the winter solstice making autumn four days shorter. Winter's even shorter still just 89 days the shortest season of all. We may be entering the cooler darker half of the year (between now and next March) but it's also the shorter half of the year. Here are the precise figures. So why aren't the four seasons equal? It's because the earth's orbit around the sun isn't circular it's an ellipse and so some bits of the earth's orbit are nearer to the sun than others says that planets travel a bit faster when they're closest to the sun and a bit slower when they're further away. The earth happens to be closest to the sun in early January which is when it travels fastest so autumn and winter are relatively short. And the earth is furthest from the sun in early July which is when it travels slowest so spring and summer are relatively long. It's not by much but it's enough to make a difference. Autumn isn't a quarter of a year long it's really 1½ days shorter than that. Make the most of it. So why aren't day and night equal today? It's because the sun isn't a point of light as seen from the earth it's a disc. At sunrise the top of the sun peeps above the horizon about a minute before the centre. And at sunset the top of the sun dips below the horizon about a minute after the centre. Atmospheric refraction means that we can still see the sun even when it's really below the horizon adding a few more minutes to both of those times. And it's that pair of extra minutes that make all the difference. Daylight today is therefore still 22 minutes longer than darkness. But the illusion won't last long. In just ten days time darkness will already be as much as a whole hour longer than daylight and then it's downhill all the way to Christmas. Let joy be unconfined. I don't know why I'm bothering to write this. Nobody reads blogs on Saturdays. Nobody except you obviously dear reader. But then you don't have a life obviously. If you had a life you'd be off doing something else wouldn't you and not wasting your weekend reading this. Saturday's the one day of the week that most people are really busy with stuff they actually want to do. They're not stuck at work bored out of their skulls like on a weekday desperately surfing the internet for something to read. They're not lounging around the house like on a Sunday catching up on online stuff because there's nothing else to do. No today is the odd day out. There's no time for blogging and no time for reading blogs not on a Saturday. If you had a life you'd still be in bed asleep recovering from the excesses of last night. Or you'd be up and getting dressed and heading out of the house ready to fill your day with social and retail extravagance. It's Saturday and the shops are beckoning so shouldn't you be off out spending your money and sipping cappucinos? Or climbing into the car to go and visit friends maybe for a whole weekend away somewhere. Or going to watch a football match or pumping iron down the gym or taking a picnic to some stately home or buying up all the tiles in B&Q and then stripping the bathroom for a weekend of grouting action. Do you not have a wedding to go to you sad friendless individual? You shouldn't have the time to even sit down let alone turn on your home computer and read this. Not on a Saturday. Loser. Nobody blogs on a Saturday either. Well not many people anyway. Less than half of the blogs in my sidebar bothered to post anything last Saturday they were all far too busy experiencing life instead. Blogs that churn out posts every other day of the week go silent on Saturdays because there are better things to be doing. And because nobody's reading. Visitor numbers to blogs tumble on Saturdays as readers vote with their mouse and stay away. Blogs don't get anywhere near as many readers on a Saturday and they don't get as many comments on a Saturday either. So there's really no point in blogging on a Saturday no point at all. Because nobody's listening. Apart from you obviously. You're here even if nobody else is. Thanks for bothering to find time in your busy Saturday schedule to come and see what I've written. Maybe you're only fitting in a quick five minutes online before you go out and do something interesting and offline for the day. Maybe you're stuck at work or maybe the weather's really crap where you are or maybe the boyfriend dumped you last night and all your plans for a carefully crafted sociable weekend just died. Whatever. So maybe it is still worth blogging on a Saturday but only for an exclusive audience of sad friendless geeks with no life. Hello. And everyone else will be no doubt be back tomorrow evening and they'll never realise what they missed. Last days at the To my mind the finest dining establishments in London aren't in the Michelin Guide. They don't serve up organic medaillions in mango jus neither do you need to book a table three weeks in advance. No the finest dining establishments in London are listed in a book called. They serve up fried stuff with chips and anyone can slouch down in a formica booth without an appointment. These very special eateries are survivors of a pre-Starbucks age back when muffins were toasted rather than shrink-wrapped and when a great cup of coffee came with not cinnamon sprinklings. But later this month one of the capital's most famous Fifties cafes is closing down snuffed out by rising rents and creeping redevelopment. It's a damned shame (even if most Londoners never even realised it existed). So last Friday. BestMate and I sneaked along for one last supper. The cafe/restaurant can be found at number 8 just round the back of Piccadilly Circus. It has especially if the red neon sign is switched on and the word is illuminated in large friendly letters for all to see. In the right-hand window those "eats" are fully catalogued on a for your delectation and delight. Apart from the effects of decimalisation and inflation the list of trademark Anglo-Italian dishes has barely changed since the 50s (bar a few replacement platters such as Nothing even approximating haute cuisine but perfect comfort food all the same. the cafe's owner was. Every now and then he broke off from his conversation to from the then returned to the till to survey his fast fading empire. Two white-jacketed waiters dashed around between the tables increasingly busy as the evening wore on and arrived. It was easy to tell who were genuine regular customers and who were one-off new-media opportunists. The latter all had cameras with them and were busily snapping souvenir photographs of the cafe's finer interior features. I was one of the latter group alas but I tried to keep my image retention to an unobtrusive minimum. "OK. I've taken a photo of the and the pile of plastic lemons and the security notice about gentlemen's hats. Hang on let me just try one more shot of at the rear of the restaurant this one might not."After clearing our plates the dessert selection proved irresistable. But which of the six sponge puddings pictured on the back of the menu to choose? Chocolate maybe or ginger and lemon? In the end BestMate plumped for the And then in October the place will be gutted (as will its clientele) and will head off for a. I hate to think what nasty irrelevant development will replace the New Piccadilly but if they don't serve cow pie and spotted dick I'm not interested.• • • and take • (and for )• The Royal London Hospital. WhitechapelExactly 250 years ago today on 20th September 1757 the in Whitechapel opened its doors to the public. This doesn't make it the oldest hospital in the country but a quarter of a millennium is still a very long time to have been serving the medical needs of some of the poorest communities in the country and well worth celebrating. If you live in East London this'll be a hospital you'll know well. It's huge for a start and the hospital's benefactors also had the sense to build right next to a busy main road. None of this modern greenfield miles-from-anywhere rubbish where every hospital visit means hopping in your car or catching two buses. The Royal London is where the capital's service is based so you've probably seen their big red helicopters either in real life or on a. And later this year the BBC will be bringing you a historical drama series based on genuine Royal London medical records of the era. Alas infamous hospital resident (the "Elephant Man") won't be appearing in any of the stories because he died two decades earlier. As part of my continued commitment to report back to readers on important London events. I paid a special 250th anniversary visit to the Royal London back in May. It's ever so easy to gain free admittance - just dial 999 from any home in the neighbourhood and a will arrive at your front door within minutes to whisk you off to the main entrance. I arrived at half past six in the morning when admission queues were at their quietest and was given exclusive access to the A&E department's resuscitation room. This is a long off-white gallery with three separate trauma bays each with various screens scanners and gadgets hanging from the walls and ceiling. Most visitors only ever get to see the ceiling. As I waited on my trolley for the day shift to arrive it was sobering to reflect that more people have probably died here four feet off the ground in this windowless room than in any other location in the whole of Tower Hamlets. Mine thankfully was always going to be a two-way visit. My grand tour next took me to one of the nearby wards in a desirable location overlooking the snooker club and McDonalds in Whitechapel High Street. I was one of eight special guests taking advantage of the 24 hour full board experience although not everyone was enjoying the experience (or even conscious of it). Here the courteous staff attended to my every need with a smile perhaps because I wasn't the moaning one-legged bitch in the corner repeatedly demanding that the nurses remove his catheter lift him out of the bed and wheel him to the toilet. There was a genuine tropical atmosphere in the ward due in no small part to the air conditioning having irrevocably broken down some weeks earlier and those of us tethered to our beds were forced to endure permanent sweaty steam-room conditions. Brief respite came when I was offered a wheeled excursion of the hospital's lower levels. Naturally I leapt at the opportunity to explore more of this fascinating building. My tour guide pushed me straight through the main entrance hall past the little shop that sells flowers chocolates and souvenir model helicopters. On along the main ground floor corridor its dour architecture somewhat reminiscent of a crumbling Victorian asylum. Then down a level in the spacious silver lift avoiding the spiralling institutional staircase with its shiny stone steps and curly iron banister. And finally along a grim basement corridor deftly avoiding oncoming electric vehicles transporting their cargoes of pristine bedlinen stained gowns and discarded swabs. As I rose from my chair to wait for my two o'clock appointment. I stared out of the back entrance towards the vast building site at the rear of the hospital. 250 years on the Royal London is being almost completely reborn. A twin-towered 17-storey glass block is being erected immediately behind the existing main building and within a few years it'll completely dominate this part of East London. My local hospital will be the biggest most cutting edge gleaming-est hospital in the whole wide NHS so they promise. Let's hope they fix the air conditioning as well. I enjoyed my anniversary visit so much that I've booked to go back again at regular three monthly intervals. It's lucky I'm not sick or anything.• • (open weekdays 10-4:30) The door to Morlock's bakery is wedged open and welcoming wafting the smell of fresh-baked bread out into the high street. A flat-capped East End husband waits patiently outside while his wife buys buns and scones for afternoon tea. The flower seller beneath the gaslit lamppost is pinning a buttonhole to the lapel of a gentleman's jacket. Yes she has change for a sixpence thank you kind sir. Across the street it's opening time at the Rose and Crown. Above the doorway hangs a shiny glass lantern bearing the name and logo of the local brewery. Jack and his mates from the docks will be propping up the bar and downing the landlady's finest ales until she throws them out at the end of the evening. Jack hopes he'll make enough money down by the wharf tomorrow to be able to get the wife's engagement ring back from the pawnbroker. Business is quiet at the undertakers and Selby's fine-trimmed horses pass the time by depositing steaming manure onto the cobblestones. Two petticoated servant girls arrive at Mrs Edwards' steam laundry to collect the household's fresh-pressed bedlinen. One of them catches sight of her sweetheart leaning against the drinking fountain on the village green and giggles and blushes. Business is brisk at a dozen market stalls along the roadside. Candles are four a penny firewood is plentiful and cheap and the greengrocer even has oranges in stock. Grubby children in Board School uniform run rings around the horse trough shrieking and laughing before their parents summon them home for bed. Miss Mary Anne Read rushes from the schoolroom to the butchers to buy herself a brown paper bagful of braised liver as a special suppertime treat. At number 12 Mr Samuels the fishmonger scrubs his green and white tiles clean of scales and slime before raising the awning and closing up shop for another day. A queue of orphans invalids and chancers has built up outside the Good Shepherd Mission Hall hoping for overnight shelter and charity. Perhaps they'll be fortunate tonight. Poverty has aways been visible here on the streets of Bromley. . The shutters at the newsagent have come down early. A pot-bellied East End bloke pops into the chemists nextdoor for three months supply of tubular bandages. He banters semi-incoherently with the headscarfed lady behind the counter as she drops his boxes into a plastic bag. With a grin he exits turns left and pauses for breath outside the boarded-up pub. Three centuries of drinking came to an end last year the last remaining slice of history in this Blitz-ravaged high street. All the windows at the have been nailed shut and the paint across the lintel has started to peel. Above the doorway hangs a grimy glass lantern bearing the name and logo of a former local brewery. Several of the pub's regulars have shifted allegiance to the neighbouring betting shop and are stood or slumped outside the open doorway clutching cans of value lager. Their faces are glum and grizzled and only a winning raceslip can brighten their narrow-focused world. The local barber shop has moved away to a brighter location on the main road. Three hooded youths are intently inspecting the graffiti on its whitewashed wall. "Kombat E3" woz ere. "We set the levels". They appear to approve of what they see. A single midweek market stall has been erected on the concrete piazza just outside the Bangladeshi greengrocers. A white-bearded man sits patiently while two fully-cloaked women haggle over the price of south Asian vegetables then shuffle off home with this evening's meal in a blue and white striped plastic bag. In the chippie the smiling Polish fish fryer waits while a family of five select unbranded fizzy drinks from the chiller cabinet. A plump old lady in a pink fleece sits alone at the front formica table dining on Pukka pie and chips - best meal of the day. She watches through the window as two young kids cycle round and round in vicious circles before zooming off towards the dry cleaners at great speed. Regeneration has passed this corner of East London by. . : The carriage is a complete mess. A carpet of at least 20 free newspapers lies scattered all across the floor - two left over from the from the morning and the rest a fairly even split between and. There are a couple more on the ledge beneath the window wedged inbetween empty lager cans and rotting apple cores. And I'm forced to pick up yet another off the seat as I sit down. Damn it's a London Lite but I guess it'll pass the time between here and Mile End. Two girls enter the carriage at the next station. "Oh hell what a mess!" says one to the other before reaching down to the floor and picking up a copy to read herself. Most of the other seated passengers are doing the same. It's late - well after the last freesheet distributor has left their post and gone home - so everybody's reading a recycled paper. Don't even think about where your copy's been since it was thrust into an eager hand several hours ago. Later as passengers get off they dump their paper back where they found it ready for somebody else to flick through. And yes. I'm leaving mine back on the seat too because there's nowhere nearby to dispose of it properly. Somebody'll thank me for it but probably not the litter collector with their big plastic bag at the far end of the line. Assuming they haven't gone home too. Multiply this scene by a few hundred and you start to get some idea of the environmental drama playing out every weekday night in every train carriage in London. Things were bad enough when we just had a free morning paper but the evening freesheet battle raises the stakes to ridiculous new heights. And whose fault is ? Is it the evil press barons merrily flogging advertising space in content-lite gossip rags? Well partly. Is it the in-yer-face distributors standing outside stations yelling "Lite! Lite!" like demented automatons whilst thrusting newsprint into the face of every passer-by? Well sort of. But I lay most of the blame at the feet of those whose job it is to run our stations and our streets. Because there are never any bloody litter bins around when you want to use one!You're getting off your train in the evening free paper in hand. Where do you chuck it? Not on the platform because there are no bins on the platform. They'd only get in the way and slow down passenger movement apparently. Not in the ticket hall because there are no bins in the ticket hall. Typical stations can find always room for a rack of fresh Metros in the morning but there's never any space for a bin in which to discard your London Paper later in the day. Not on the street outside the station either. You might find one of those special newspaper recycling bins on the pavement in Zone 1 when you're going to work in the morning if you're lucky but in the evening there aren't anywhere near as many of them in the suburbs as there ought to be (and if there are they've usually already been filled to overflowing with other non-paper-based litter anyway). So what do you do? You leave your paper on the train instead that's what. If there's only a very small chance of having somewhere to chuck your freesheet after you've got off the obvious alternative is to dump it in the carriage. If clearing up after discarded freesheets costs so much why doesn't somebody invest in a series of recycling bins outside every London rail and underground station? No matter what our homeward journey we'd know there'd always be a receptacle at our destination station in which to dispose of our tabloid leftovers. OK so not everyone would use them but surely if you gave the public a guaranteed opportunity to dispose of their rubbish properly outside every station a significant proportion of the litter problem could be cleared up. Hell why not go the whole hog and introduce litter bins inside stations too. Sorry. I don't buy the "but they might be used by terrorists to hide bombs inside" excuse. It doesn't happen does it? Just ensure that these new bins have a newspaper-sized slot in the front to make them rucksack- and gelignite-proof and there'd be no problem anyway. And then we could all use these bins to recycle our disposable reading material and not just end up dumping them all over our trains stations and streets. Come on TfL come on Ken come on London boroughs. If you'd like us to act responsibly at least give us the opportunity. Stratford InternationalIn the middle of a north of Stratford town centre there's a long glass box and a deep hole. The deep hole houses several parallel railway tracks and is linked by tunnel to at one end and Europe at the other. And the glass box is Stratford International station from which it'll one day be possible to take a train to Paris or Brussels. One day. But not yet. For the time being this continental gateway stands structurally complete but entirely empty awaiting fitting out and its first passengers. It's going to be a long wait. As part of a few select interested parties and transport geeks were afforded access to Stratford International station for a rare look around the site. We were probably the only scheduled visitors this site will have for the next couple of years and we didn't even get anywhere near the platforms. When Eurostar services commence on the on 14 November they'll speed straight through Stratford at umpteen miles per hour without stopping. Nobody wants to slow down for a miserable East End commuter halt just seven minutes out of St Pancras not when they could be halfway to the Thames crossing instead. The station's other main drawback is that there's currently no sensible way of accessing it by road. We got there in a rickety minibus via a lengthy detour round Clays Lane and along several dusty meandering tracks. The passing the front of the station ends slap bang in the middle of the so there's no admittance for taxis cars or buses via this route. You can't walk to the station from anywhere either not until they build a new footbridge over the platforms at the other Stratford station. There's absolutely nothing on the surrounding site for half a mile in any direction and it'll stay that way until the starts to cover the area with shops offices and unaffordable housing. Even the DLR doesn't get this far until 2010. Come back then and Eurostar might have bothered to add Stratford International to their timetables. But don't hold your breath. Our tour group was ushered inside the to view the grand spaces in which international travel will eventually commence. It's very long with one complete wall of glass and you'll be glad to know that the and toilets are already fully functional. We swept easily through the non-existent ticket barriers and passport control before emerging into this time for. One day this space will be full of Starbucks and Tie Racks but for now it's just as vacant as the rest of the building. Messages flash up on the departure board ("Welcome to Stratford International") ("No further services planned") for nobody to read. In one corner is the entrance to the "" (there'll be no VIPs here just Commercially Important Persons). And at either end of the concourse several long blocked-off lead down to the platforms below. There are an of different railway tracks passing through Stratford - . The outermost tracks are for stopping Eurostar trains (and there won't be many of them). Next come the fast lines for non-stop international travel followed by a pair of domestic platforms. Suburban services from London to Kent will (eventually) pass through this way splitting at the new Ebbsfleet station to head for either Ashford or Canterbury. And finally running down the centre of Stratford Box there's a single track for trains bound for the new at Temple Mills. Trains will be stopping in the local area oh yes but only so that the drivers and staff can get on and off. You won't be coming any time soon that's for sure. • : There used to be three hideous hulking office blocks in Marsham Street inhabited by the Department of the Environment and wrecking views of Westminster Abbey and Parliament. No longer. These have been demolished and replaced by three less intrusive buildings just six storeys high now home to the newly reorganised Home Office. For Open House they threw open their security doors (to a mere handful of punters who happened to spot the late-entrant tour hidden away on the website) and let us see inside. Hello to both of my readers who work there (or thereabouts) nice offices you've got. But the main focus of the tour was to view the public art around the outside of the three buildings - a series initiated when the new occupiers realised they ought to engage more with the surrounding environment. The rooftop is edged with coloured glass panels which cast mid-afternoon down light into the street. A mysterious 4-part stencilled motif hangs above the main entrance (three segments are identical but rotated while one is different). The motif is repeated in miniature on various other walls allegedly hiding a secret message known only to a handful of civil servants. Two lockable walkways cut through the Home Office site each with another special artwork. A chain of fluorescent tubes lights the way beneath one connecting bridge while tiled "carpets" pave the northern passage. Alas the tiles here have proved rather slippery in wet weather and so the walkway currently has to be sealed off when it rains for health and safety reasons. It would presumably be rather awkward for the department to have to sue itself. : The largest Hindu temple outside India can of course be found in Neasden. It's a mile long walk from the tube station along the smelly North Circular and past IKEA. And then suddenly at the end of a very normal suburban street (just behind a mini roundabout) the mandir's marble pinnacles rise abruptly skyward. This is no urban Disney castle this is an important place of daily worship and devoted pilgrimage. Entrance through the ceremonial front gate and up the grand staircase is for special occasions only. Daily visitors enter via a slightly less impressive route - via the bag/camera deposit kiosk in the car park then on through a metal detector and security check into the main building. Shoes off (men to the left ladies to the right) and spiritual inspiration awaits. Directly ahead is a huge pillar-less prayer hall not especially ornate but capable of accommodating thousands of contemplative worshippers. The main temple is to be found along a trophy-lined corridor which could very easily be in a golf club or sports centre and up a slippery marble flight of stairs (choose your socks with care). Several signs politely request absolute silence. The level of intricate detail in the carved walls roof and pillars is astonishing. Every surface has been to create miniature deities and floral relief. It's hard to believe that the were shipped across from India to be assembled here like a vast divine jigsaw but it's easy to see why the temple inspires both awe and peace. And yet somehow it's not as big on the inside as it appeared on the outside - a sort of reverse Tardis. I thought. As locals circuited the perimeter muttering prayers and offering up donations to the gods we Open House visitors felt honoured to be invited into the heart of a thriving spiritual community. : Unseen above Kensington High Street on top of what used to be the Derry & Toms department store is a sixth floor green oasis. Its existence explains the appearance this morning in a sidestreet next to Gap and M&S of an ever-lengthening queue full of grey-flecked horticulturalist thrill-seekers. If you weren't in line by twenty to nine you faced a very long wait for the lifts. There are each as unexpected as the next as you wander round the rooftop plateau. First a herbaceous Spanish Garden very Moor-ish with blooming flowerbeds watery trench and grape-twined balcony. The illusion is nigh perfect bar the church spire nextdoor and it's easy to forget that this is central Kensington. Built in 1938 trees and shrubs have had plenty of time to establish themselves and the soil is deeper than it looks. The Roof Gardens are now part of the Richard Branson empire and a Virgin flag flutters above the mini-bar and hospitality tent. Don't worry he's not ruined it. Next to visit down a long walkway is the Tudor Courtyard. With white tables and chairs littered everywhere it looks more like a cobbled pub backyard to be honest but with much nicer ivy-clad walls. And finally a long thin Woodland Garden complete with artificial stream ducks and flamingos. Yes honest they've got those up here too - this is proper geographically incorrect decadence. From one corner there's a fine view out across West London (I've seen better but still glorious on a bright blue morning such as this). The vista is rather better from the restaurant terrace above now with in the foreground and the London Eye and Gherkin lined up behind the dome of the Royal Albert Hall. Don't tell the even-longer-now queue down below but the Roof Gardens are always open to the public (so long as no private event has nabbed them first) so there's hope for everyone who still wants to view this elevated horticultural secret. (day 1): What a glorious sunny day for a trek around central London. I managed to tick off 11 of this year's Open House venues along the way and without either my or mobile phone's batteries quite running out. Around every corner so it seemed there was another green banner another willing grinning volunteer and another lost-looking middle aged couple with an A-Z. There's no other weekend quite like it. Same again tomorrow?Also visited:• : Vast labyrinthine civic warren abandoned to local government reorganisation in 1965 but currently being restored. Elton John held his 60th birthday party in the main.• : Another old music hall this time a thriving local performance space complete with wooden upper balcony and saucy crimson drapes.• : Bright new office development in Hatton Garden built around a central six-storey atrium (which is apparently lovely in the sunshine but the roof doesn't half make a racket when it rains). • : Modern Smithfield HQ of City livery company (who made their fortune out of hats) set around a peaceful cloistered courtyard.• : Rather more compact home of a smaller City livery company (who made their fortune out of beeswax and candles) where I squeezed into the back of a tour when several pre-booked people failed to turn up. A most entertaining half hour tour & talk.• : High church in Cheapside within the range of whose bells all true Londoners are (allegedly) born. The interior looked rather more modern than I was expecting especially the stained glass but the crypt apparently dates back to 1080. To the City for free entry to two very different corporate entrance lobbies. is the former home of Express Newspapers and the foyer is an Art Deco masterpiece. The floor is an elegant ripple of black and blue marble. A central clock (very 30s) hides a tight elliptical spiral staircase. To either side are two large metal murals etched in silver and gold. And the ceiling looks like an upturned silver lemon squeezer with several ridges radiating from a central drum. The foyer is abuzz with photographers snapping with creative fury at every surface and every angle. You can't go wrong with a shot of this building in your portfolio. It's a different story at the newly renovated HQ of Unilever plc. The curved facade may be the Edwardian original but builders have scooped out the centre of the old building and replaced it with seven floors of modern offices arranged round a gleaming airy atrium. There's too long to wait for one of the guided tours but the company are doling out free tea and ice cream in the lower mezzanine cafe. Free Magnum and cuppa a perfect mid afternoon treat (also available tomorrow). : A rather less middle aged queue here than at many other Open House venues. That's because this is Shoreditch and the attraction is four tube carriages hoisted up onto the old Broad Street viaduct to be used as artists' studios. Entrance is up a narrow iron spiral staircase with the first two Jubilee stock vehicles resting at the top. Up again on top of two glass containers to the higher pair of studios. Inside we find not straphanging commuters but graphic artists' workspaces. A laptop here a banana tree there and laminate worktops everywhere. There are fine views down over the rooftops and building sites of Shoreditch and best of all no unexpected delays due to broken down trains or engineering works. : The world's oldest surviving Music Hall lurks. It's somehow survived wartime bombing slum clearance and woodworm and owes a debt of thanks to Sir John Betjeman for keeping the bulldozers at bay. As you step into the dimly lit auditorium you can easily imagine East End Victorian singing stars stepping out onto the stage to rouse the audience with a chorus of Daisy Daisy or Down At The Old Bull And Bush. Arched alcoves around the crumbling walls have been lit with delicate fairy lights and there are three recently uncovered golden murals on the rear wall of the upper balcony. Ornate floral relief arches span the ceiling and the spotlight shining on the central rose quivers every time someone steps on a supporting floorboard below. It's an astonishingly atmospheric relic of a bygone age and cor blimey guvnor it's still open for the occasional performance ('s next). Restoration continues and another is needed if the building is to be saved for future generations. I've just spotted the office geek wandering outside - I hope he didn't spot me and think the same thing... : A brand new mixed-use development just north of King's Cross beside a backwater basin on the Regent's Canal. It's a building site at the moment (due to open 2008) so I've just had to get togged up in hardhat and fluorescent jacket for the tour. Also joining us were the world's smelliest man and half a party of German tourists. The first floor and above will be the while down below a new public cultural zone is taking shape. We got to stand on a temporary platform 18m above the new chamber music concert hall and in the canalside rotunda that's planned to become a cafe/bistro. The outer facade is already complete - . Elsewhere there were blokes working carrying pipes and drinking tea even on a Saturday. They'll have to get cracking to get the rest of the building ready and perfect on time. It's a busy weekend to be out and about in London. The Mayor's got his up and running on the South Bank (noon-10pm. Sat & Sun). It's with (yes even Barking and Dagenham). Down in the southeast it's the launch of the with more than 70 free events to partake in (15-23 September). It's also the start of the a post-modern celebration of 200 creative projects across the centre of town (15-25 September). And then there's the big event - . More than 600 buildings old and new will be opening their doors to the public for free in a two-day celebration of design history and fine architecture. Who scheduled all these events for the same weekend? I bet they all appeal to a similar demographic and that there's some evil scheming responsible for this outdoor fixture pile-up. But wins my vote and I'll be out there with my lime green programme on both Saturday and Sunday seeing how many fascinating buildings I can get inside. Here are a few of my recommendations. Where are you lot going?10 Open House venues where you might spot me this weekend There was a bit of a spectacle down at the on Sunday afternoon. Bet you missed it. Once a year they raise all the gates just to check that they still work and attempt to hold back the tide for ten hours. There are too but Sunday's was the full annual showpiece. It's rather impressive too. The closure started at low tide around six in the morning and by the time I arrived at noon there was already a considerable differential between the height of the water on both sides of the barrier. A crowd of locals had gathered on the terraces by the looking out. This was London's flood defence in full effect with millions of gallons of water being held back by an impenetrable wall of steel. Upstream the river looked very different. Here it was still low tide and remained fully exposed. Nine silver piers glinted in the sunlight and a swarm of seagulls bobbed and swooped above the choppy white water inbetween. At one o'clock precisely a siren blared out from Barrier Control and a single gate rolled imperceptibly upwards. It raised into just far enough to allow water to gush underneath and to begin filling the channel beyond. A surge tide rushed out across Woolwich Reach forming a swirling tempest in the middle of the river. This was no scary wall of water nothing dangerous but it was a rare sight all the same. Every few minutes another gate was semi-lifted rolling a few degrees upwards to allow. The assembled crowds stared and smiled and snapped photographs on whatever electronic gizmo they happened to have brought with them. It would be another three hours before the water levels had equalised sufficiently to allow the gates to descend back into the riverbed and for maritime traffic to resume plying its trade up and down the Thames. And it'll be another year before the Environment Agency plans anything similar should you fancy coming down next September (unless it obviously in which case those gates might be rolling back up rather sooner). I've got another article in this week. It's a guide to getting to the centre of and it's written in the style of one of those adventure game books where you have to make a decision at the end of each paragraph. It's been nice to write something a bit different for a change. But my original piece turned out to be far too long so Time Out's sub-editors have been forced to hack it down to ensure that it fits on page 16 above the strip cartoon. London's readers are only getting the half of it (but at least they'll get to the centre more quickly as a result). Here's the beginning of my original article just as a taster with all of the magazine's deleted chunks greyed out... Random borough (14): (part 3)Somewhere random: I don't get very long to research these random boroughs. The random Haringey location I was really seeking was the house of the late - the notorious garbage hoarder. But I couldn't locate his Crouch End address on the internet in time so instead I headed north to the home of another man who had trouble disposing of his rubbish. To the last home of serial killer. Today this is just a very ordinary semi-detached house in a well-to-do residential neighbourhood. Cranley Gardens is a wide tree-lined avenue blessed with panoramic views down the hill to the east. Residents keep their front lawns trimmed and their crazy paving hosed clean. Many of the houses have been divided up into flats and number 23 is no exception. The garden is full of well tended shrubs the path has been laid with red terracotta tiles and the front door is a too-bright shade of lilac. Most importantly the drains no longer smell. That was the telltale giveaway back in 1983 the first hint that the new resident in the attic flat might not be quite as normal as he seemed. Dennis Nilsen had already murdered 12 men before he moved into Cranley Gardens. In his new upstairs abode he was to strangle three more came round for a night of rampant sex in 1981 but ended up face down in the bath until he never came round again. Dennis attempted to cover his tracks by hacking John into manageable chunks and flushing bits of him down the toilet. He then boiled John's head on the hob and hid his larger bones either in the garden or at the back of the flat in a tea chest. There's hospitality for you. Homeless suffered a similar fate as did heroin addict Steven Sinclair several months later. But Steven was for the sewage system to cope with and the other residents of number 23 soon summoned a plumber from Dyno-rod to try to clear the blockage. When the police came round and confirmed the discovery of human remains in the pipes. Nilsen promptly. He's currently serving life at a prison in East Yorkshire and he's up for parole next year. The local Neighbourhood Watch are no doubt already planning to ensure that he won't be returning to Cranley Gardens when or if he ever comes out. The of the Parkland Walk begins just a skull's throw from Dennis's old house. The are now a meandering footpath through the trees emerging from a wooden fence on the site of the old. It's much quieter here than on the southern part of the Walk. The only people I passed along the way were a group of local kids swinging from a rope and a small girl on her way to piano practice pedalling determinedly behind her "mama". This is only a short walk but it holds the most marvellous surprise. The path suddenly juts out across the slopes of on an unexpectedly tall viaduct with magnificent views across northeast London and beyond. Walk a few steps further and Docklands and then the City come into view with the Gherkin. Tower 42 and new Broadgate Tower poking up above the rooftops. This must have been a quite spectacular train journey 100 years ago even without the skyscrapers. Today's path soon however (because the council have since built a school across the tracks) so the can only be reached via a gentle parkland climb. But it's one hell of a destination... Somewhere famous: If there's a major attraction in London less fortunate than the Millennium Dome it must be. This hilltop entertainment hub opened to the public in 1873 attracting more than a hundred thousand visitors in its first fortnight. On its sixteenth day the palace burnt to the ground killing three members of staff. Oops. So the Victorians tried again and rebuilt the place and it's only burnt to the ground once since. History was made here in 1936 when Alexandra Palace was home to (which ) and a few years later during the war thousands of German civilians were interned here "for their own safety". And now council trustees plan to sell the whole building off to a commercial developer intent on converting broadcasting heritage into a fitness centre and restaurant. Oh it's had quite a history has not all of it good. I was pleasantly surprised on Saturday to discover that the of the old palace was open and the interior deserted. The is one of the few parts of the building to have survived the 1980 fire and its is still. I wandered unchallenged beneath admiring the fountains and carved pillars and leafy green fronds. Nextdoor the was serving up beer and fresh-grilled burgers to a none-too-huge lunchtime crowd while an ice cream van stood unbothered by the roadside. The is in a sorry state in places but the central rises up majestically above the promenade. Oh the view from up here the view is fantastic! The whole of London was spread out in front of me almost completely unobscured by intermediate contours. I watched as a small wedding party gathered at the top of the parkland slopes and pledged their troths with the photographer making the most of the spectacular vista beyond. The old BBC studios are in the eastern corner beneath the that still pulses TV signals out across North London. And at the far end by the car park is the entrance to the. You won't get very far inside without paying and you probably won't want to go inside unless you're a screaming pink-jacketed teenage harridan. I don't think I've ever visited another London attraction quite so overrun with gangs of raucous boisterous girls in fat jeans and I kept my distance as they tottered down through the car park to catch the bus home. Far better I thought to walk peacefully back along the promenade past the now-snogging bride and groom to watch the sun breaking through the clouds over Haringey and beyond. Alexandra Palace is a great survivor and. This is a photograph of. It's no good searching for Crouch End on an underground map because it isn't there. You might find it on a but this particular station never opened and now all that's left are these two with a dual carriageway of nettles inbetween. The good people of Crouch End therefore have to rely on the number 91 bus to get them up to town and the rest of us can enjoy standing in a leafy cutting imagining what might have been. There was once a railway here opened in 1867 but it was owned by the Great Northern. The line ran from Kings Cross out to Barnet with an additional spur linking Highgate to Alexandra Palace. London Transport intended to take over in the 1930s but the war intervened passenger traffic declined and services ceased in 1954. For a full history of the Northern Heights project try clicking on links. And then hallelujah in 1984 Haringey Council reopened the railway line as a linear nature reserve called the. The path snakes its way along embankments and through cuttings from Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace and it's really rather delightful. The track can after wet weather so it's advisable to wear stout shoes and it can be a bit deserted in places so you might want to take some pepper spray just in case. But I took neither and I thoroughly enjoyed the walk. To find the starting point I wandered halfway up the western flank of Finsbury Park to where a footbridge crosses the main London to Edinburgh railway. And there bearing off diagonally on a raised bank between two rows of houses that's the Parkland Walk. Before long I came to the site of the first disused station - - although no trace of the platforms remains. There was a fine view down over residential streets and the Gospel Oak to Barking line below made slightly more disconcerting when I realised I was standing on a bridge built on top of a another bridge across another railway. The walk was really popular on Saturday morning and I kept passing other walkers several dogs mums with chunky prams families of berry pickers and the odd cyclist. There can be a bit of tension between these various groups because the footpath gets quite soggy and/or rocky in places and there's not always room for everyone to squeeze by. The Parkland Walk's definitely not 100% wheelchair friendly but that's part of its charm. Continuing westward the embankment gradually descends into a dark cutting with holding back the banked-up earth. The tracks pass beneath the busy roads of N8 past a mini and adventure playground built into the steep slopes. And then wholly unexpectedly the platforms of loom into sight. The view must be leaf-free especially when seen from the that crosses the cutting. I clambered up a flight of seven concrete steps to walk along the eastbound platform and was mighty relieved when a passing dogwalker led her muzzled hellhound along the opposite side. Meanwhile a lone runner emerged from the distance and panted her way along the vanished tracks inbetween. At two miles long this stretch of the Parkland Walk makes for a perfect Parkland Jog. After Crouch End the walk became a little less busy (which meant I got to see a few more squirrels and ooh look even the odd fox). The residents whose Victorian villas back onto this strip of green are very fortunate but then they've probably paid hundreds of thousands of pounds for the privilege of living here. I paused to look down on suburbia from the narrow bridge across Northwood Road which crumbled in the 1970s and has had to be replaced. And then onward to the heights of Highgate. It's impossible to walk all the way to Highgate station because there are two tunnels in the way and these have been blocked off because they're considered unsafe. Shame. But you can walk right up to the for and you'll probably have the entire cutting to yourself (so watch out for the empty condom wrappers lurking in the undergrowth). A curtain of ivy tumbles down from above and hangs low over the northern portal. See how the tunnels are rather taller than you might expect - that's so that belching steam from the original locomotives could circulate properly. And stare through the iron railings and you might just spot the faint glow of Highgate station beyond. Sorry so you're going to have to walk round the long way. Today's is 100% subterranean but there used to be "high level" platforms here too above ground and that's where the trains to Crouch End used to depart. Those platforms are locked away and inaccessible but still pretty much preserved (and fully visible on ). That's the southern half of the Parkland Walk complete ending in the bountiful heart of bourgeois Highgate. Knitting shops pet parlours and princess party coordinators - you don't get shops like these at the other end of the line! I didn't hang around to explore because I didn't feel the need for a wholemeal baguette or an organic smoothie and I was quite keen to move on. The Walk continued three quarters of a mile to the north up way. And more of that tomorrow... Random borough (14): (part 1)And so in true style. I've completed a north-south trail of random London boroughs. Thank you. You'll find this slim parallelogram of a borough at the very heart of North London. It's scythed in two by the mainline railway running straight up the middle - richer to the west more culturally diverse to the east. This is no tourist paradise either as the reveals. But I managed to find several places to visit and I was almost pleasantly surprised. Eastern half first... Somewhere retail: Let's start by clearing up the name. The residential neighbourhood just north of Finsbury Park is called (one r and an ey). Nobody seems to be quite sure why. But no wonder a quarter of the borough's 11 year olds. For my Haringey retail experience I headed to and its central spine road - . The most famous stretch of this old cattle-driving road runs 1½ m

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Author: If you are looking for a compact SUV that is a luxury vehicle you likely discovered the BMW X3. BMW actually doesn't refer to them as an SUV but rather as SAV or sport activity vehicle. The latest versions of the X3 come equipped with heated seats adaptive headlamps panoramic sunroof and an 3.0si engine with 260 horsepower. For improved safety the BMW X3 also comes equipped with xDrive which allows the vehicle to balance before the driver might be aware of an unstable situation thus improving your safety in potentially dangerous driving conditions. When you are looking at your options for air radio for BMW X3. BMW XM is a great choice. BMW X3 air radio offers you all of your favorite radio stations with ameliorate reception no matter where you might be traveling in your BMW. If you enjoy rock then you will like the fact that XM's two powerful satellites are nicknamed "move back and forth" and "Roll." They are orbiting Earth in a similar manner as other communications satellites. XM Satellite Radio gives you so many options. With 100 channels of music talk radio news and entertainment you are sure to find something great to listen to on your change surface if you are no where close to a radio station transmitter. Your locale no matter where that might be is no obstacle to XM's two Hughes HS 702 satellites. Those two powerhouses send any XM channel you wish right to your car's radio. The XM lineup of outstanding radio begins at a ground station located come Washington. D. C. which sends their signal to the satellites which then smile the signals down to Earth and those signals are picked up by radio receivers designed to play the digital data they receive from the satellites. If you are traveling in an urban area where there are a lot of tall buildings you might have experienced intermittent gaps in your traditional radio reception. All of that is a thing of the past with XM air Radio because there are also transmitters placed strategically on the ground so you will always have great reception in your BMW X3 SAV. XM Satellite Radio is a subscription service. For a small monthly fee you receive 100 channels of all your favorite programming that plays crystal clear no matter where you might be driving in your BMW X3. No traditional terrestrial radio can offer you the same listening excellence as can satellite radio. Another aspect that many drivers favor when it comes to listening to satellite radio is the lack of commercials that play on the channels. On terrestrial.

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One of the Christian radio stations I do work for may have had a transmitter site disaster. Earlier today it was discovered that a battery in their solar cater plant failed (shorted internally) and gave off a considerable quantity of noxious material. This material has already done serious corrosion damage to some of the station's electronic equipment and may demand factory cleaning and repair. It is possible the transmitter itself has beeen damaged the same way. Furthermore the corrosive powder we are finding in various displace probably contains a bring together amount of lead rendering it quite poisionous. We are not sure how extensive this situation is yet as it was discovered by someone ( a non-engineer) making a routine site visit to check the wet in the 72-odd batteries that alter up their battery plant. Just cleaning up the mess might be an expensive time consuming proposition. (The site is so remote that any significant find requires a helicopter.) And this comes at a measure when the station was just about ready to 'move the corner' financially. Heavenly Father. You know that some of us conclude odd praying about situations involving sophisticated technology; but I experience that we shouldn't feel so since You are just as sovereign over cutting-edge electronics as You are over the planting of wheat crops. Therefore I ask You to intervene in the situation Tim describes: to prevent or change by reversal harm to persons to preserve this Christian enterprise from baffle to strengthen the faith of Your children rather than let it be weakened and to extract from this problem something that will make Your glory known to people who be to experience it. I ask this upon the merits of Jesus Christ and for His recognise. Timba my friend. I will be praying for that radio station. We need more Christian stations that displace out the Good News for all to hear.

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In America they've changed the way that they measure the number of people tuning into a radio station. desire the UK they've been using a diary system this is where listeners go a box for each accommodate hour of a station that they're listening to. It's not exactly scientific but at least everyone has the same system. Except it doesn't really work like that. As the diary is measured on recall after the fact it's maybe not exactly accurate. 'Heritage' stations tend to better as people can bequeath them; smaller stations especially ones that people flick onto when they're not happy with their main station don't be to get recalled so their listening isn't measured so well. Hence the reason that a lot of stations constantly repeat their names - they're just reminding the diary holders what to go. There's also lot of other pros and cons about diaries but maybe that's for another post. come up in some US markets they've changed to something called PPM basically it's a little pager device that you displace that listens to what you comprehend to it's therefore thought by some to be much more accurate. Nothing's ever going to be 100% but one thing it does do is give you more information desire ratings by the minute and it delivers it quicker back to the stations. There's some interesting new learning that's coming from PPM one is that a smaller be of listeners than previously thought provides a disproportionate be of a station's hours. Therefore keeping these super-P1s interested is going to become change surface more important for every station. What reminded to write about this was watching Radio 1's 40-year anniversary show today. I say check because they're streaming today live in vision with the audio from the radio station. Throughout the day lots of old DJs are popping in and co-presenting shows so they've decided it's worth going video for the day. It's also more than a streaming webcam they've got three fixed cameras but there's also a vision mixer cutting between the three and occasionally popping up titles for guests etc. It's surprisingly compelling and not just because i'm a radio geek. Whether the presenters are dancing along to a song giving a little gesticulate when they say something or giving evils to their producer it really makes you interested in watching. I'm typing this whilst a record is on and then stopping to look at them when they're chatting in a link. communicate is of cover excellent as cover letting you do something else while it's on but sometimes people don't want to just to hear they be to be a bit more engaged and to properly listen. Anything like this TV streaming that can satisfy their consumption desires is a good thing. Especially for the station which will acquire from their listening hours. It's also the type of thing that ordain really help stations in this new PPM world by catering for the desires of the core out audience the extension of their listening will drive total hours. This and other web-based things are also good because they don't exclude the P2s or other listeners who occasionally stop by for other reasons as it doesn't fill the station with unnecessary speech and promos. I completely agree it was absurdly compelling. I was involved in testing the setup during Mills’ show on Thursday afternoon. I had mates outside the BBC looking at it as well to analyse it was getting outside the firewall. Of course. I had to go into the studio to er y experience just check everything was ok and perhaps gesticulate at the camera once or twice. A question about PPM - does it use special silent codes or something to sight what you’re listening to? Or does it just recognise appear patterns or something? Because if it’s the latter that means listening online via tv or via video streams desire this would ascertain as well. And what about listening again online or to podcasts? Could it recognise you’re listening to something that was previously be and add that to your stats? @Sam: Wikipedia says (yes I experience) that these PPM things can last for several months. Given this my theory is that it must just sample short bursts of audio every 15 minutes (ie the standard Rajar interval.) It does nothing with these other than hold on them and then they’re all downloaded into a computer for analysis. If there’s no audio at the time it doesn’t record anything. I believe (based on cause conversations on bemock podcasts) that American stations often adhere to a standard clock format for their commercials to discourage listeners from changing channels so it may be pre-programmed with the minutes past the hour most likely to get an ident. Of course every single bit of accent noise is going to be picked up this way - plus I still don’t thinks its granular enough - I will often listen to two or more stations within a 15 minute period. On the subject of webcasts - the cram the BBC is doing is interesting (not just R1 - whose multicast summon seems to convey this might be something they’re considering permanently - but also Five be). I’m also a bit concerned at what’s had to be cut to free up cater to vision mix the cost of the equipment to generate the astons and so on - imho I’d rather all the resources went into the content of the show - the 5-minute call back evaluate of the many existing BBC webcams could be reduced at zero cost (we must be getting on for a decade of that policy now?) And I’ve seen these video trials several times before (live stream of the Today programme anyone?) and they always be to be abandoned after a short time - though admittedly we all undergo a lot more bandwidth than we used to. The point is though as a radio anorak I’d personally jump at the chance to watch a be video be adrift of the studio want the ability to comprehend to all the outside sources on bespeak and observe the running request and ENPS. I don’t think the “core out audience” really care much for this sort of thing. They may watch once or twice but ordain quickly get bored of it. My pet hate at the moment is branding - I’ve just about got used to every BBC station having to run trails twice an hour whilst gritting my teeth through those *dreadful* BBC One promos which Marketing & Trails insist on bookending with a BBC1 ident and a “BBC One - the one to watch tonight” voiceover but they’ve now stepped up branding on podcasts as come up so literally every cerebrate in a typical Radio 2 broadcast has to have a make noise - it seems they’re limited to 10 seconds but 5 is enough to me. If populate have gone to the trouble of downloading something they’ve already been exposed to multiple layers of branding they don’t be more. desire Ipods were change state source so you could press a key combination to skip through them. Oh - and as an aside - has anyone else noticed the posh woman who has read out the menu system for Orange mobile phones since measure immemorial has been junked for someone with a slightly er different voice?

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I'd like to comprehend to Bright 106.4 broadcasting in the UK. It streams via :I can access this stream through Slimserver but not through Squeezenetwork. A message informs me that this be adrift can't be broadcast outside of the UK; even though I'm actually in the UK. Presumably this is because the Squeezenetwork IP address is outside of the UK. Is there a work-around for this or is this just the way it is?BTW. I think Squeezenetwork is a great service. I hardly use Slimserver at all now especially as all my music is now on MP3Tunes. ThanksSteve Squeezenetwork is based in the US and does a pre-scan of and URL before trying to play it. For UK stations this prescan identifies the location of the user as US so it won't play. You can tell Squeezenetwork not to prescan by adding the following at then end of the URL "#slim:noscan=1,aid=2"I cannot test your URL as I am not UK based so the above may have some error - communicate andyg if you can't get the above to work. On Sep 30. 2007 at 11:37 AM bpa wrote: >> Squeezenetwork is based in the US and does a pre-scan of and URL > before> trying to play it. For UK stations this prescan identifies the> location of the user as US so it won't play.>> You can express Squeezenetwork not to prescan by adding the following at> then end of the URL "#slim:noscan=1,aid=2">> I cannot evaluate your URL as I am not UK based so the above may have some> error - contact andyg if you can't get the above to work. Just attach "#slim:noscan=1" to the URL don't use aid=2 that would try to play audio stream 2. Most stations undergo only 1 stream the BBC has multiple streams and that's why it's necessary there. Thanks for your assistance. Unfortunately incresasing the URL from:toas I evaluate you're suggesting results in the squeezebox saying it 'can't open the remote URL'. Any further suggestions you have will be much appreciated. Kind regardsSteve compete the station on your PC and investigate the URL that is actually playing it will probably start something likemms://venus radica com/Use this URL as the URL in Squeezenetwork with "noscan" added on. Sorry for being high maintenance on this point but how can determine the mms stream?While it's playing in WMP or RealPlayer if I be at properties it shows the www URL how can I see the mms address?ThanksSteve

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HD communicate hits another landmark as Clear bring Rocker WROV Roanoke. VA has change state the 1,500th U. S radio station to get an HD signal on the air. "We are very pleased to be a part of the future of HD communicate technology and at the forefront in Roanoke," said CC/Roanoke-Lynchburg VP/Market Manager David Carwild. "HD Radio sound clarity and the ability to furnish our listeners new music choices ordain certainly help displace the radio industry into the future." "In just under a year an additional 500 stations have upgraded to digital HD Radio broadcasting," said iBiquity President/CEO Robert Struble. "That's more than one a day." Struble credited the commitment by broadcasters hardware manufacturers and retailers for the rapid growth.

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I'd like to listen to Bright 106.4 broadcasting in the UK. It streams via :I can find this stream through Slimserver but not through Squeezenetwork. A communicate informs me that this stream can't be air outside of the UK; even though I'm actually in the UK. Presumably this is because the Squeezenetwork IP address is outside of the UK. Is there a work-around for this or is this just the way it is?BTW. I think Squeezenetwork is a great function. I hardly use Slimserver at all now especially as all my music is now on MP3Tunes. ThanksSteve Squeezenetwork is based in the US and does a pre-scan of and URL before trying to play it. For UK stations this prescan identifies the location of the user as US so it won't play. You can tell Squeezenetwork not to prescan by adding the following at then end of the URL "#change state:noscan=1,aid=2"I cannot test your URL as I am not UK based so the above may undergo some error - contact andyg if you can't get the above to work. On Sep 30. 2007 at 11:37 AM bpa wrote: >> Squeezenetwork is based in the US and does a pre-scan of and URL > before> trying to compete it. For UK stations this prescan identifies the> location of the user as US so it won't play.>> You can tell Squeezenetwork not to prescan by adding the following at> then end of the URL "#slim:noscan=1,aid=2">> I cannot evaluate your URL as I am not UK based so the above may have some> error - contact andyg if you can't get the above to bring home the bacon. Just append "#slim:noscan=1" to the URL don't use aid=2 that would try to play audio stream 2. Most stations have only 1 stream the BBC has multiple streams and that's why it's necessary there. Thanks for your assistance. Unfortunately incresasing the URL from:toas I evaluate you're suggesting results in the squeezebox saying it 'can't open the remote URL'. Any further suggestions you have will be much appreciated. Kind regardsSteve Play the station on your PC and examine the URL that is actually playing it ordain probably start something likemms://venus radica com/Use this URL as the URL in Squeezenetwork with "noscan" added on. Sorry for being high maintenance on this point but how can identify the mms be adrift?While it's playing in WMP or RealPlayer if I look at properties it shows the www URL how can I see the mms address?ThanksSteve

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back up me identify a great French-language radio station I heard broadcasting near Seattle. WA or Victoria or Vancouver. BC. I was on San Juan Island a few weeks ago for pass. While there. I picked up a great radio station that played eclectic music--mostly play. The music was almost all American jazz r&b soul etc. but all of the DJs and other announcers spoke French. I never caught a station ID. I'm guessing the station was coming in from Canada probably near Victoria or Vancouver which are not too far (Victoria is very change state). The frequency was low on the control - something desire 88 x or 89 x. It was not KPLU. I'd love to sight out the station label and if I hit the jackpot find an online be adrift. Bonus question: do you know of any non-US online music streams that are similar? (I evaluate I know about all the US ones.) Thanks.

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There are only the three songs — a classic rock adjust a country anthem and a swing standard — playing on the radio station in a repeated cycle hour after hour. For the past few days classic move back and forth station WKPE-FM (103.9) has played just three songs. “American Pie” by Don McLean aired exclusively for a time before the station added to the mix Alan Jackson’s “Gone Country” and “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone,” a big bind tune from the 1930s sung by an unidentified artist. Gregory D. Bone general partner in Cape Cod Broadcasting the Hyannis-based company that owns WKPE and three other local stations ordain not say why they undergo chosen this limited playlist. “We’re in a very apprise transition period,” was all the cryptic hit the books offered during a phone converse yesterday. “We’re very excited about what we’re doing.” The station’s Web site yesterday displayed only an visualise of a jukebox and the words “Cape Cod’s WKPE 103.9.” No links and no further information were available. “American Pie” includes musings about “the day the music died,” while Jackson’s song asserts “Yeah we’ve gone country. The whole world’s gone country.” Despite the clues seemingly encoded in these lyrics the specific songs may convey very little about what is actually happening at the radio station said Mark Ramsey a radio marketing consultant and president of San Diego-based Mercury Radio Research. “With a stunt desire this you’re probably planning to change to a format significantly different than the one you’re in but probably not the one you’re pretending to be,” said Ramsey. “I would guess that they’re giving you no hint at all.” If the station’s unusual recent song choices are indeed intended to foreshadow a change dress it would not be the first business to use mystery in an attempt to act marketing buzz. Over the summer for example moviegoers who attended “Transformers” saw an enigmatic trailer for an unnamed movie. The preview which does not have any voice-over narration features a celebrate scene that is interrupted by a massive explosion. Fearful people fill the streets and fireballs stream through the air. The ad ends with only the movie’s release date — Jan. 18. 2008 — and the producer’s name — J. J. Abrams. The cryptic catch has succeeded in building awareness; the cut has made its way to online video sharing site YouTube where it has been viewed more than half a million times. The strategy called “word-of-mouth” or “go” marketing is currently very popular.

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