Getting Connected To Your, Not So Local, Radio Station!

Writen by David Robinson

There are now a myriad of radio stations that can be heard via the internet. Speech, music and sport are all available in abundancy.

Music stations often specialize in a particular musical genre. The end result is, despite the greater availability of stations, a unavoidable fracturing of the listening audience. However, this can be to the benefit both of the listener and broadcaster, who can really keep in tune with each other.

In past times, before the internet age, and with just a few national stations here in the UK, it was very difficult to get a mention or have a musical request played. Now it is quite different. The stations are also much more listener friendly.

Anyone wishing to really get involved with a particular station, now has every opportunity to do so. Telephone lines may be available to a live station, and emails are invariably invited. I usually get an email mentioned within half an hour! The fastest response from my laptop, via my own internal wireless connection, then the internet, has been five minutes! On another occasion, i enquired whether a station had a lesser known record, issued on vinyl thirty-five years ago. They were not sure but would play it they had it. A short time later another listener visited the station and gave them a copy of the disc!

Now that’s what i call an interactive, friendly station and long may it last.

http://www.writingup.com/blog/rambler

Is that Your Radio Sending You a Text Message?

Writen by Douglas Hanna

HD Radio technology is the new, hot thing in sound. That’s because it will do for radio what HDTV has done for TV – make it light years better. In fact, when you listen to HD AM radio, you’ll think you’re listening to FM. And HD FM radio sounds as clear and pure as if you were listening to a CD. Plus all this sound comes via the airways and i completely free!

Is that your radio displaying a text message?

Thanks to HD Radio technology, radio stations will able to also transmit additional information in the form of text messages.

Typically, this will appear as scrolling text on your radio’s display. This information might consist of the song’s artist and title, the station’s call letters and maybe advertising information.

Yes, the additional information sent to your digital radio will most likely include ads. After all, advertising pays for those free radio AM and FM broadcasts.

These ads might consist of messages such as “this traffic report brought to you by Arnie’s Automotive.” Besides, all TV stations and even satellite radio have ads.

On the plus side, the text broadcast with a news show might be financial updates, stock ticker information or business news. And stations might also use text to provide helpful information such as weather updates and traffic alerts.

Just imagine. There you are in your car listening to an oldies favorite and suddenly, your radio tells you to expect bad weather in the next few hours. Is that amazing or what?

Go to http://www.hd-radio-home.com for more information on HD Radio technology, a partial list of stations already broadcasting in HD Radio technology, and information on HD car radios, receivers and portable radios. Article by Douglas Hanna, webmaster of http://www.hd-radio-home.com and a long time writer and producer of radio spots.

RFID : Is Radio Frequency ID the Wave of the Future?

Writen by Jamie Hall

Here’s something you don’t often hear – how are you dealing with ‘rifid’? OR RFID. If you DO often hear it, then this article isn’t for you, it’s far too simplistic. However, if you have never heard of RFID before, read on. It might just change your life, or at least the way you organize it. Radio Frequency Identification or RFID is the use of radio waves to identify objects; in English, the ability to track items without coming into contact with them. This is accomplished by a microchip attached to an antenna called transponders or ‘tags’. The chip transmits ID information to the receiver which converts it to a digital format which is then read by a computer.

RFID isn’t new, its been with us in its current guise since the early 80s, and around since the 1920s – you know the tag that they stick on jackets in the clothes store to stop you stealing them However, its just grown up; businesses can track products throughout the manufacturing process from start to finish. These items can be tracked while in trucks, on shelves, wherever.

The Benefits of RFID include:
1. The ability to eliminate time consuming bar-coding or other tracking processes. Instead, all data can be collected along the production line. This also helps to lower production costs.
2. Prevention of the distribution of counterfeit products.
3. Elimination or reduction of theft and loss.
4. Reduction of supply chain cost.
5. Elimination of data entry and other tedious manual business process transactions.
6. Increase in order fulfillment time
7. Less time spent in check out lines, as consumers will only have to push their shopping carts in front of the readers.

The predominant downside is the high cost of the RFID hardware. Where tags alone can cost twenty five cents each or more, many retailers won’t get much of a return, if any, on their investment.

It’s hoped that Wal-Mart, the Defense Department and others will start using RFID, which could cause the prices of the tags to drop to five cents each, making it a more affordable solution for many.

Jamie Hall is a middleware developer of RFID systems and Programmer for Big Blog Media. And writes for RFID Factfile

Sirius Remembers September 11 in 2005 with Commemorative Events

Writen by Scott Fish

Disclosure: Author is not part of Sirius.

SIRIUS satellite radio has made an effort to reach out to those affected by September 11. Uninterrupted coverage and observance held at the World Trade Center site.

Reading of victims’ names by their siblings and several other commemorative events will be broadcast on satellite radio and will begin at approximately 8:30 am ET and conclcude at 1:00 pm ET on channel 126. The observance will pause at four momentstwice to mark the times that each plane hit the towers, and twice to mark the time when each tower fell.

Said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

“As New York City’s renewal continues, we pause on the anniversary of that terrible day in September of 2001 to remember those we lost, and to reaffirm our commitment to honor their livesboth by rebuilding Lower Manhattan and by creating a beautiful memorial that will touch millions of hearts. Sadly, the unconscionable acts of terrorism perpetrated against New Yorkers and Americans on September 11th continue to be carried out in other parts of the world, and our prayers go out to the families and victims. On the fourth anniversary of the September 11th attack here in New York City, we plan to mark this solemn occasion by asking siblings to take the lead in this year’s ceremony. In this small way, we acknowledge the special bonds they share with their beloved brothers and sisters who died that day.”

Said New York Governor George Pataki:

“Time will never dull the grief of those who lost their loved ones on that tragic day, nor will it diminish our dedication to remembering our heroes and ensuring that a fitting memorial rises in their name. As we approach the fourth anniversary of September 11, 2001, we will particularly remember the siblings of those who were lost, as they have the privilege of honoring their loved ones at this year’s ceremony. On September 11, 2005, there will be, as there has been each year, a statewide moment of silence and ringing of bells at 8:46 am, so that people from all over New York State, indeed, across America and the world, can take a moment to remember the heroes we lost and the spirit of freedom that prevailed on that day. It is a spirit of freedom that will endure always, on the site of the World Trade Center, and in our hearts.”

Scott Fish is the owner of Satellite Radio Sirius and XM satellite Radio Reviews | Search Engine Optimization Firm

Whether You Prefer Satellite or Terrestrial, Digital Radio Stations are the Future of Broadcasting

Writen by Keith Londrie

Digital radio stations have thousands more options to offer the listener than regular old AM and FM analog radio stations. To begin with, there is the quality issue. Gone are the days in which the radio quality would fluctuate based on whether or not you were driving under an overpass or passing by power lines. Through digital, there is relatively no disturbance from any outside sources which could disrupt your listening experience. Furthermore, there is no need for the guessing game when you hear a track you like and the disk jockey simply neglects to mention the name of it. With digital radio stations and an invention called “radiotext,” listeners will be able to read the name of the artist and title of the track right on their radio receiver as the song is playing. Radio stations will also be able to transmit information about the news, weather and traffic directly into text form on your radio receiver. This is but one great feature of digital radio.

While all of this seems like an amazing invention, the fact of the matter is that terrestrial digital radio stations do not yet exist. Any station that currently says it is totally digital is lying. They are simply a hybrid of analog and digital where the radio receiver first picks up the analog signal and then homes in on the digital signal for a better quality broadcast. The possibilities do not end there though, as it may even be possible for digital stations to broadcast pictures and videos directly to your car or home stereo through the magic of digital broadcasting. Wouldn’t it be neet to have MTV on your on digital radio so that you could watch the video while the song is playing?

Although terrestrial digital radio stations are at least ten years off, there is a way to experience some of the benefits of digital radio stations today. Satellite radio, brought to you in America by XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio offer the closest thing to full digital radio. They provide the listener with high quality sound and radiotext to let people see what they are listening too. Unfortunately, they are costly services and require the listener to not only purchase a receiver but pay a monthly subscription fee. These monthly subscription fees can add up to alot of money spent. Some say it is worth it and others do not believe so.

Keith Londrie II is a well known author. He has written many great articles on many topics, including satellite radio information. For more information, please visit http://www.digital-radio-info.info/ You may also be interested in Keith’s other offerings at his site http://keithlondrie.com

Sirius Is A Star And A Satellite Radio

Writen by Keith George

Sirius satellite radio is a satellite radio service operating in the US, Canada and Mexico and is based in New York. It provides more than 125 radio channels out of which 55 are sports, news and entertainment channels. The most attractive feature of this radio is that all the channels are commercials free.

Sirius satellite radio is broadcast over North America using 3 satellites. Some of the Sirius music channels are included in DISH Network satellite television service.

Sirius satellite radio service was started in 1990. It has more than 4 million subscribers. The company was named after the Sirius star.

There are over 125 channels available some of them are:

Pop/Hits. Sirius Hits1, Star Lite, Sirius Love, some channels for hits from 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and today, Elvis channel and French songs channel.

Rock Channels. Classic rock channels for 60s, 70s, 80s, Hard rock, Alternative rock, Metal, Heavy metal, Punk, Hip-Hop, Reggae etc.

Electronic/Dance Channels. These channels cover electronica, trance, disco and dance.

Hip-Hop/ R&B channels. These channels have, modern, progressive, old school Hip-Hop, classic and soul music.

Country channels. They cover country music, 80s, 90s, Classic country and outlaw music.

Christian channels. They contain Christian rock, contemporary christian, Gospel music.

Jazz/Blues channels. They contain Modern, smooth, classic Jazz, New age and Blues music.

Miscellaneous channels. There are channels which contain starndard music, classical music, latin and world music.

Entertainment channels. These have talk shows like howard stern show, blue collar comedy, stand up comedy, gay/lesbian entertainment, celebrity gossip, women talk radio, live trial proceedings, environment programs, Discovery, childrens channels, conservative channels, liberal talk, truckers talk, christian talk, family nets, Adult channels like playboy etc.

News channels. These channels have sports news, world news, news of various states of the US, financial news like CNBC, ABC News, CNN, NPR, CBS etc.

Sports channels. They include ESPN, Sirius sports, sports byline etc.

Purchase. The sirius satellite radio receiver is available in leading electronic stores or can be bought from sirius.com. The radio which are sirius ready can only access the sirius satellite channels after being fitted with a sirius tuner and activation. The activation can be done online at 10$. The monthly subscription charge starts from 13$ a month to 500$ for lifetime subscription. The radio channels are available 24 hours a day. These radios are being fitted in most cars available in the US like Ford, BMW, Chrysler, Jaguar, Jeep, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota, Porsche, Volkswagen, Rolls-Royce etc.

Keith George always writes about valuable news & reviews. A related resource is Sirius Satellite Radio Further information can be found at Tips & News

Canada – Here Comes Satellite Radio!

Writen by Scott Fish

Cabinet has upheld a CRTC decision to issue two satellite radio licences after the applicants agreed to increase Canadian content and French-language service.

The applicants are Sirius Canada and Canadian Satellite Radio, each of which has a U.S. partner. Details of the new Canadian content commitments were not immediately available but the number of French-language channels will be increased to four from three. As part of the agreement, CSR and Sirius have been forces to increase the French-language influence and broadcasting. Both promise to include 8 Canadian channels, which are half English and half French.

Several cultural organizations such as the Canadian Recording Industry opposed the original terms of the licenses. Reasons include that they have weakened domestic content rules. These rules require Canadian music and talk programming to be prominent on the airwaves. “This is a black day,” said Ian Morrison, a spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. “In effect, the Americans have won.” The new licenses call for eight new Canadian channels and 72 American channels.

While some people are complaining, independent and emerging artists favored the satellite licenses. They believe that the new services will provide them with exposure in the United States and abroad. Satellite radio, while initially intended mainly for car radios, has made several new improvements for portable and home satellite radio. Automakers, whom have factory ready satellite receivers in new 2006 models supported the applications. Just as in America, subscrition to the new radio services can be purchased and heard anywhere in North America.

Scott Fish is the owner of Satellite Radio Sirius and XM satellite Radio Reviews | Search Engine Optimization Firm

Sirius Radio – Everything You Ever Wanted to Know

Writen by Nick Smith

Sirius radio, or more generally satellite radio, came out just a few years ago. If you’ve never listened to satellite radio or heard about it, this article is your lucky break. In this article you’ll find out what satellite radio is and how it works.

What Is Satellite Radio?

Just like the name indicates, satellite radio uses satellites and related equipment to broadcast radio channels to car or home radios. The concept really received its impetus in 1992 when the FCC set aside a chunk of radio frequency for what they called Digital Audio Radio Service (DARS). Five years later, Sirius Radio and XM Satellite Radio purchased licenses from the FCC, and both companies started putting the pieces into place to be able to start broadcasting.

Conventional radio waves can only travel 35 to 45 miles before they die out. The signal for satellite radio services is broadcast more than 20,000 miles above the Earth’s surface. Programming on satellite radio is subscriber based, meaning you pay a monthly fee to descramble the signal from the satellites. But, most satellite radio service comes commercial free, so you don’t have to worry about channel hopping. Channels include music, talk radio, sporting events, kids programs, and news.

The Who’s Who of Satellite Radio

There are currently three major players in the satellite radio game: Sirius radio, XM satellite radio, and WorldSpace. Sirius radio covers North America, including the continental U.S., Canada, and Alaska. XM provides service in the continental U.S. WorldSpace is developing coverage in other parts of the world (Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America) and are definitely the most ambitious in terms of client coverage (a potential of 4.6 billion clients covered on 5 different continents). Each company uses different satellite technology and methods to provide service in their respective areas.

Satellite radio equipment, such as car receivers and home stereos, are sold at a variety of consumer electronic stores, and are starting to become standard installations in new cars. Conventional radios cannot receive satellite radio transmissions, so picking up the service usually entails purchasing a receiver, though some kits are available to make conventional radios satellite-radio compatible.

Because of the different technology each company utilizes, receivers are not compatible with every company. For example, if you subscribed to XM but then wanted to switch to Sirius radio, you would need to get a new receiver that was compatible with Sirius. Some satellite television companies include satellite radio service in their channel packages, and you can receive the transmission through your television satellite dish.

How Does Satellite Radio Work?

This is the cool part. The music, talk show, sporting event, etc., are recorded digitally in a studio, after which the message is encoded. The encoded signal is sent to the satellites from ground stations (Sirius radio based in New York; XM based out of D.C.). The satellites then relay the signal to receivers in your car or at home. The receivers contain chipsets that decode the signal and play it through you stereo. In urban areas where taller buildings might block the signal from the satellites, ground repeaters or transmitters are used to resend the signal, eliminating pockets of dead space.

XM uses two satellites to cover the continental United States with their signal. Sirius radio uses three satellites to form a satellite constellation. The way they are set in orbit ensures that each satellite spends about 16 hours at a time covering the U.S. and that there is always at least one satellite over the U.S. at any given time. WorldSpace satellites beam three signals each to increase the amount of territory they are able to cover with their three satellites. All three companies have reserve satellites ready to launch in case one of their satellites stops working.

Satellite radio technology looks like it’s here to stay. It is ideal for those that live in areas where normal radio reception is poor, or for those willing to pay a little each month to not have to listen to commercials. Chances are good that soon every new car you buy will have satellite radio installed, and that more and more homes will be equipped for it. I have only covered the basics. It is definitely worth your time to find out more about what each company has to offer.

Nick Smith is a client account specialist with 10x Marketing – More Visitors. More Buyers. More Revenue. To find out how to get Sirius radio with your satellite TV service, check out I-Satellite.

Abatement of Acoustic Disruptions for Radio

Writen by Lance Winslow

We all have heard of acoustic disruptions for instance if you are driving down the road and your radio makes a weird buzzing sound this could be caused from the spark plugs messing up the radio sound waves. It might also be caused by interference of the electromagnetic energy from high-tension power lines that are nearby. If you’ve ever driven by a radio station and you are listing to a different channel you may notice the interference from those radio station towers, as they will indeed affect the radio in your car.

Luckily with new noise canceling technologies the abatement of acoustic disruptions is possible and can be easily achieved. Currently the Bose Co. has created headphones with noise canceling technologies that people can use while listening to their radio or an iPod and believe it or not the systems work extremely well. In fact one company now has a pillow, which has a radio speaker inside and the person sleeping next you will never even hear it.

Noise canceling technologies and the abatement of acoustic disruptions obviously has other applications in education, space technology, military, business conferencing and personal technology devices. Imagine the thousands of applications for noise canceling abatement of acoustic disruptions. Consider this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Why You Should Get XM Satellite Radio Now

Writen by Jim Johnson

If you like listening to the radio, you should know that there are huge changes happening in the radio broadcasting industry and they all center around satellite radio. This new breakthrough will change forever the way that we listen to radio programming. If you haven’t already heard a sample, or experienced satellite radio for yourself, make sure that you do soon.

Currently there are two major providers of satellite radio in North America and that is XM and Sirius. In this article let’s see what you can expect to get when you become an XM radio customer.

First and foremost is the incredible unique programming that XM offers as part of it’s service. With over 100 channels to choose from there is always something good to listen to. But check out some of these one-of-a-kind special broadcasts that is available, many of them only on XM :

* Music shows hosted by Bob Dylan, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Tom Petty, and Wynton Marsalis.

* Public Radio’s Bob Edwards

* Major League Baseball games

* NASCAR

* World Cup

* Good Morning America Radio

* The Ellen Degeneres Show

* Oprah & Friends

and much more. New and fresh programming is being added constantly too.

Now consider that with all that great programming to choose from, most of it is provided absolutely free of all commercials and ads. Who actually likes listening to those anyway? And who likes having their favorite music or talk show interrupted by a person pitching something instead? Since the subscriber base pays for the programming with their $9.95 monthly subscription, there is no need to load up the channels with ads and commercials.

XM also records and transmits all of their radio signals in digital format, so as the listener you get clean clear sound that rivals that of CDs. This allows you to play XM satellite radio over your home or car stereo equipment without any hiss, fade, or loss of sound quality.

And because the radio signal is broadcast from satellites you never have to lose it like you do with standard radio stations. One of the most irritating things about standard radio for travelers is that the sound begins to break up and fade after just 30 miles or so and so you have to keep fishing for new radio stations that have the kind of programming that you like to listen to. But with XM radio that is a thing of the past.

So all-in-all XM satellite radio is inexpensive, high quality radio programming is always on no matter where you go. What could be better?

Jim Johnson is a successful author and publisher on consumer related matters. You can find out more about xm satelite radio and xm radios by visiting our Satellite Radio Review website.