Listening to the Wireless

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Over the Xmas holidays, I was reminded of how people in the old days would sit round and listen to the wireless. In the early days of radio, that gadget became the centrepiece of many living rooms, often built in wood and some of them quite magnificent pieces of furniture in themselves. It was the medium through which everyone got their news, drama and music.

Then TV came along and families re-arranged the furniture so they could watch the TV screen. The wireless became more portable and evolved into common speech as the radio.

We found ourselves over the Xmas holidays listening to the wireless again. Sometimes, you don’t want to watch telly and you don’t fancy listening to CDs. The wireless connects you to the wider world with music interspersed with voice and news bulletins. You can go about your business around the house and still stay connected to the outside world.

Yes, we were listening to the wireless, not the radio. Life has come full circle and the wireless is back - but in a different form. With wireless broadband in my home, I can tune in to radio stations via the internet but instead of listening to a huge piece of wooden furniture in one room, I can listen to it in any room where I have a laptop or computer (and being a gadget freak, I have many of those everywhere!). But sometimes, we find ourselves in the living room, sitting on the sofa and gathered round the wireless laptop - a curious re-enaction of the old days when people would sit on the sofa gathered around a crackling wooden box!

I love internet radio - there are no adverts if you choose your station carefully and in some cases, you can listen on-demand and not whatever the station is streaming live at any given time. For speech radio, I am a great fan of the BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4 and Radio Australia. Radio Australia has fascinating documentaries on the Asia-Pacific region and its Rural Reporter series is a great for getting a taste of the Outback while it’s raining in my London suburb! For music, I singalong to 3C, a UK country and western channel, chill to Chill and sizzle to theJazz while for more rowdy moods, I’ve recently discovered Planet Rock, the Arrow and Virgin Xtreme.

I’ve tried looking for Malaysian and Singapore stations but the ones I’ve come across don’t seem to have a 24 hour internet presence or on-demand listening. If anyone can guide me to any stations in that region that I could enjoy on the wireless, do let me know.

Photo: thanks to image-ination