From podcasting to broadcasting

It brings me great joy to announce that I have joined Original 106fm one of the best radio stations in the UK.

It is not just because they decided to employ me that I hail them as champions of the airwaves but the fact that Original considered music and 24 news a priority.

Original 106fm is owned by Canadian media giant CanWest and this is the first time in UK radio history that a company from outside the country has done so. They have just won a second licence in Bristol and are aiming for more. I believe their positive apporoach to the medium and it's core reason for exisitng will change radio in this country for the better.

Under the guidance of Programme Controller John Evington we have been adding a vast selection of music into the system. I have been very impressed with the variety of tracks we have heard and can guarantee that there is no other local radio station with such a wide selection.

The photo above comes from our first photo shoot and shows the presenters in all their glory. I’m on the left and then next is Tim Butcher, Martyn Lee, Iain Meadows, Simon James, Hill and finally Nick Jackson.

They are delightful people to work with and all of us feel the same: we have joined something brilliant.

The Free Energy debate

An Irish company called Steorn has announced, via a full page advert in the Economist, that they have discovered a way of producing energy for free:

Steorn is making three claims for its technology

• The technology has a coefficient of performance greater than 100%.
  
• The operation of the technology (i.e. the creation of energy) is not derived from the degradation of its component parts.
  
• There is no identifiable environmental source of the energy (as might be witnessed by a cooling of ambient air temperature).

The sum of these claims is that our technology creates free energy.

Soon their system/device/box of tricks will undergo rigorous scientific testing, and if successful I am sure the planet will be delighted. But what will we do first?

Will we make more mobile phones or are we going to sort out the problems of the developing world? Because in the beginning the world cost nothing and now we have landlords and taxes. Will free energy gives us the one thing some crave: people free from poverty.

See also:

Steorn's free energy seems curiously expensive by Rupert Goodwins of ZDNet UK

Music from Malawi

There are few musicians from Malawi who have been able to make an impression in the West; the band I would like you to meet have the energy to accomplish such a task.

The Sangalala AfroBlues Band represents a unique collaboration of Malawian musicians put together by an emerging artist named Kenny Gilmore (above on stone pillar).

Together they have created a new style of music which has captured the heart of the nation. They call it ‘AfroBlues AfroBlues’.

When Kenny Gilmore visited the UK in 2006 Xan Phillips interviewed him about the band, music in Malawi and the influences behind their latest album ‘Ngati Mafunde Mafunde’. The conversation is interspersed with three tracks: Musade Nkawa, Ngati Mafunde and Phwando.

The band can be contacted at www.myspace.com/sangalala

You can listen now by clicking the device below:


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