I Love My Radio, My Wi-Fi Radio
Many of my chums might tell you otherwise, but I’m not really a tekkie and certainly not an early-adopter of the latest gadgets and gizmos. But the one recent innovation that really has changed my life is my Wi-Fi radio. Currys were banging them out at half-price a while back, before anyone was really interested in the whole concept. And at around 35 quid, I thought it was worth a punt. I wasn’t disappointed.
I’ve now got three of them dotted around the place - while the two DAB sets I possess now sit silently gathering dust. What’s the big deal you ask? Well, for a radio-head like me it boils down to one word. Choice.
So far this week, I’ve tuned in to Newstalk 106-108 in Dublin; Radio Gibraltar down on the Rock; Polish music station Radio Zet; Liverpool’s City Talk 105.9 and Sussex-based internet station Play 2 UK. All at the simple twist of a knob. Of course, I can still use it to hear the all the usual analogue and digital stations available in my neck of the woods, but the list of channels on offer to me right now stands at 1,157. And that’s from the UK alone.
You see, apart from giving me an ear on what’s happening elsewhere in the world, the great thing about my Wi-Fi radio is that it offers me a welcome antidote to UK radio’s "more music variety" myth and those endless discussions about whatever happens to be on the front page of the Daily Mail.
For the uninitiated, Wi-Fi radio works off your wireless internet connection at home - no cables, no subscriptions, no fuss. The quaility’s great and while yes, you can already listen to a zillion stations through your computer - there’s something rather comforting about having a little box playing out on the kitchen shelf as you tackle the washing up.
Interestingly, car-makers in the US are now starting to fit this technology into new cars in readiness for Wi-Max. That’s where whole cities or even states will have blanket access to a wireless internet connection. And this is the really exciting bit because it will allow people to hear internet radio on the move.
If and when Wi-Max eventually makes it to Britain, the radio industry will be turned on it’s head. No longer will Ofcom decide what stations I’m allowed to hear as I go about my daily business. I’ll be able to listen to anything I like, whenever I like. Suddenly, the great DAB innovation will turn into radio’s Hostess Trolley - an appliance we were told every home should have but in reality, something just shoved under the stairs and forgotten about.
As Marconi may well have once said himself many moons ago - the future’s bright, the future’s wireless.
Tags: DAB, Internet, Radio, Technology