Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More
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HBO Max and Paramount+: What It Might Mean For Sports
Today the deal was done, and Paramount took over Warner Bros. Discovery in a massive deal that has much of Hollywood quaking. There were some last minute wrinkles with a deal being struck a couple of weeks ago with a group of US Attorneys General, with the general view being that they folded and didn’t…
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Things I Can Live Without in 2014
Life’s too short. So in 2014 I will mostly* be living without the following: Awards Ceremonies I exclude any awards that I might be nominated for- unlikely though that is. What I means is Oscars, Brits, Grammys, Comedy Awards, Television Awards etc. The only one I’ll miss is perhaps the BAFTAs although the fact that…
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Twitter Notifications
[Note: I’m on the Twitter beta programme, so this may be a beta-only problem.] A recent update to the Twitter app (I’m using the Android version) has resulted in the most pointlessly annoying thing Twitter has done in a long time. Twitter is trying to be smart, and is pro-actively sending notifications to tell me…
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Links Worth Reading
The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating and frankly depressing story about how US radio stations are playing the hits more to battle against the likes of Spotify and iTunes Radio. Because if there’s one thing I can find easily without listening to the radio, it’s the biggest hit songs. The piece ends with this…
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Possible Sale of Channel 5
In recent days it has been fairly widely reported that Richard Desmond, owner of Channel 5, Express Newspapers and other more “specialist” TV services, is looking to sell Channel 5. Desmond bought Channel 5 for a knockdown price of £103.5m in 2008, and he’s run it pretty shrewdly, keeping costs down and turning a profit.…
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Logo Lolly
“Logo Lolly” is, or was, the practice of paying radio news reporters a bonus if they managed to get their radio microphone muffs (ie. covers) or collars into shot on the TV news. I’ve heard of at least two places where this certainly used to be the case. You’d get more money if you made…
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American Hustle
The new David O Russell film, American Hustle is immensely enjoyable. We’re dropped in at the deep end, with some kind of con or undercover operation going on. And not going well. But we get quickly get into flashback as our narrator and main character Irving Rosenfield (Christian Bale), sets out in a life –…
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Aldwych on Exposure
I’m continuing to play around with the best way of displaying photos online, and a new kid on the block is Exposure. They use high resolution photos that fully utilise screen real estate to make pleasingly simple photo layouts. Interestingly, although they’re free for your first three sets of photos, you need to pay after…
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Is There Room for Horror on UK TV?
I mentioned that I’d enjoyed Mark Gatiss’ version of The Tractate Middoth over Christmas. And although that is certainly more of a ghost story than a horror story, it made me wonder why we don’t get more horror series on British television. Series like American Horror Story, and arguably The Walking Dead, prove that there’s…
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Radio and TV Favourites
I think my favourite TV programmes over the Christmas and New Year period were a series of films that I didn’t spot at all when I was going through the Radio Times. Endeavour: Everest was a series of three films made by Leo Dickinson shot in and around Mount Everest between 1976 and 1991. They…
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A Norfolk Sunset
Posted mainly because the last two posts were a bit moany!
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Down The Line
Since the BBC moved large parts of their new output – notably Five Live and BBC Breakfast – up to Salford, one inevitability is an increased number of “down the lines” from London. It’s almost inevitable in the case of politicians, but other experts or guests, who cannot make it up to Salford the night…
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Radio Design – A Moan
I spent Christmas with my family – as many other folk do. But the room I was staying in didn’t have a radio! Now this is a calamitous state of affairs in my book. There wasn’t a spare kicking around. And while I carry a portable, it doesn’t have a speaker. No problem – I…
Hadrian’s Wall
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