LTR Parody’s

Source: ITV News

Many people have asked what our studio looks like, so we have added a small video below to show you.

Monday 23rd march 2015 sees London Taxi Radio host the BIG LIVE Phone In Radio Show, LIVE from the Oak Taxi Cafe at 2pm with Special Guests

Russell Howarth (@arrestinguber)

The LCDC @the_LCDC

The UCG @UnitedCabbies

Taxi Too @TaxiToo

Call The Show

You can call in and speak to anyone taking part in the following ways:

020 8144 8294

07873 994563

Skype: LondonTaxiRadio

If call numbers are high we may add more numbers during the show that you can call in on.

Listen to the Show

You can listen to the show by clicking play on the Radio Player on the right of this page.

Or via the Tune In Radio App on your smartphone http://tunein.com/radio/London-Taxi-Radio-s180775/

We really don’t know how many people will tune in tomorrow, we are limited by what the servers can handle, but in case you cannot Tune In by using Tune In Radio or via the website we have set up an Emergency Player Here

The precise condition of the body depends on which futurist you read, assuming you read futurists at all.

As for “futurist,” that’s a job title that didn’t really exist 15 years ago — just like most of the things that are supposedly killing radio.

Gordon Borrell, who worked in newspapers before he became a media marketing guru, predicted a few weeks ago that half of the existing AM and FM radio stations would be out of business in a decade.

Seth Godin, a marketer, author, entrepreneur and overall wise person, wrote that radio has been teetering on a cliff for years, and it’s about to plummet.

The fairly clear inference is that if you’re about to launch a career in radio, don’t bother signing up for the pension plan.

But wait, says Fred Jacobs of Jacobs Media in Bingham Farms. The future doesn’t have to kill radio, as long as radio looks to its past.

And wait, says Dick Kernen of the Specs Howard School of Media Arts in Southfield. What about the Weather Channel?

Kernen, 76, says he’s been hearing about the demise of radio most of his life — the first time from his dad.

In 1956, Kernen says, he had just landed his first job at what’s now WXYT-AM (1270).

Instead of applauding, since Kernen would now be able to take over the payments on his 1949 Mercury, his father followed a brief attaboy with, “Radio is dead. Who wants to listen to ‘The Lone Ranger’ when you can watch it on television?”

Changing with the times

Radio turned out to be an adaptable creature, much like the Lone Ranger himself.

Cassette players in cars were supposed to bump it off, cars being the place where Americans are most likely to tune in. So was SiriusXM.

Now the legitimate threats are all the ways to customize and deliver a playlist: iPods, cell phones, Pandora, Spotify, podcasts, downloads and everything else short of a mariachi band in the back seat.

Radio doesn’t help itself when it cost-cuts to the point of irrelevance. Rounds of layoffs by corporate-owned stations, Jacobs says, leave too many time slots with voices from afar that don’t know Taylor from Taylor Swift, so what’s the incentive to listen to their music instead of your own?

Jacobs is best known for inventing a format, classic rock, that’s now more widely heard than regular old rock. His company also consults and creates mobile apps for radio stations.

“Radio still does many things well,” he points out. It’s free, it doesn’t devour data, everyone knows how to use it, and you can summon it from your dashboard even when your house loses power.

“It’s not going away,” he says, “but it’s going to have to redefine what’s important to consumers, and be that thing.”

Keeping the focus

Good radio tells a story, Jacobs says. It’s not just a playlist; it’s a companion.

That’s how radio operated when stations were locally owned, and that’s what it needs to rediscover — even as it gets more tightly focused.

Kernen’s favorite example comes from television. “If you’d come into a station 25 years ago pitching an idea for 24 hours of weather,” he says, “they’d have called security.”

But the Weather Channel has flourished, along with endless others. Meanwhile, the fastest-growing radio format is Christian, with an audience advertisers can depend on to be loyal.

“You’re going to see a narrower and narrower focus,” he predicts.

The exceptions, he says, will be programs like “Essential Music,” weekends from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on WDET-FM (101.9), built around the widespread tastes and expertise of host Ann Delisi.

She gives you a reason to keep listening, Kernen says, unlike a host “playing one of the 350 songs approved by some goon in Atlanta.”

Delisi has her own channel at WDET.org. It’s nothing his dad could have envisioned when he was following the Lone Ranger, Kernen says, but it’s still called radio, the same way Honey Boo Boo is still called TV.

“Nothing is what it used to be,” Jacobs says, but radio will still be something.

Stay tuned.

nrubin@detroitnews.com

For those of you who were listening to the show a couple of weeks ago and enquired about the Woolwich Rap by Ray P here it is.

The Radio Academy has announced it is scrapping its annual awards ceremony celebrating the UK’s radio industry.

Following Sony’s withdrawal as the headline sponsor last year, the academy said “new models need to be explored”.

It added it planned to create a new event to “celebrate and reflect the radio industry in a dynamic and modern way” for the digital age.

The awards, which first began in 1983, are considered the most prestigious in the radio industry.

It was previously referred to as the Sony Awards, after their sponsor of 32 years, but was renamed the Radio Academy Awards when that sponsorship ended.

“I’m confident and determined that as an industry we can create an exciting and modern event that retains the gravitas of over 30 years of Awards,” Ben Cooper, chair of the Radio Academy, said.

The academy’s Radio Production Awards and its annual Hall of Fame induction will continue as normal.

At the 2014 ceremony, in May, BBC Radio 2 was named UK station of the year while Radio 1’s Zane Lowe was named music radio broadcaster of the year.

Tony Blackburn was also honoured with the Gold Award, in celebration of his 50th year in radio.

Source : BBC

As Commercial Radio becomes the most bland and predictable it has ever been since launching in 1973, I believe the future for entertainment based content is podcasting.

This article first appeared in eRADIO and is provided here as a catch-up. Subscribe to eRADIO to read more like this each Wednesday direct to your inbox.

Who the hell wants to hear the same few songs played over and over again by some boring bastard with nothing more than a nice voice? If it’s a channel distributing My Fair Lady musical tickets, perhaps that’d attract a larger crowd in contrast to playing only songs on the radio.

BBC Radio 2 are running away with the ball and Commercial Radio is being left behind, it’s stupid and foolish to keep doing what it’s currently doing.

We have a ridiculous situation where a pensioner is currently and ultimately responsible for overall programming for this country’s biggest and most powerful commercial radio group, and that is a massive concern.

If Richard Park thinks copying the winning Magic format from 10 years ago is the right thing to do for Smooth, I genuinely worry about the future health of commercial radio.

That format may have worked in London 10 years ago, but it’s now 2014 and the audience want more than just the same few songs played everyday in a different order. Even Magic has moved on and is not the same radio station is was 10 years ago. Why does the pensioner think this old format is right for 2014, because I certainly don’t.

Commercial ‘music’ Radio in the UK is dying and it concerns me. The BBC appear to be the only ones getting it right. Shining example Radio 2.
Huge personalities, compelling entertaining content during the day, great variety of music and a superb breakfast show hosted by my old friend Chris Evans. If Smooth Radio think playing the same songs every day in a different order with a terrible breakfast show (Andrew Castle) is the future, god help them.

I love radio, always have done, but UK commercial radio has now become the dullest it’s ever been in my opinion.

Personality radio is key to future growth but is being ignored to save money, incredibly wrong and short sighted business plan.

It’s simply no longer good enough to play back to back music when there are so many other places to find music…Spotify/iTunes/YouTube etc.

Personality, character and individuality has never been more important for the future good health of the radio industry. What saddens me most, my two youngest children Andrew (17) Catherine (14) who should be listening to the radio, NEVER think to switch the radio on, preferring to get their music and content from iTunes, YouTube, Spotify etc. Most of their friends feel the same way, so what does that say about the future of radio listening for the Apple generation.

Nothing excites them about radio in the way it used to excite me. WHY? Because radio is boring (their words, not mine). I’m sick of hearing identikit breakfast shows on commercial radio (Dave and Lisa in the morning) they ALL sound the same, nobody is doing anything different, everyone is copying everyone else.

What’s wrong with a strong solo personality headline presenter? Someone who can do it, someone who understands radio and can relate to an audience. Best example of this, Chris Evans Breakfast Show. This show is almost a throwback to the big successful Commercial Radio breakfast shows of the 80s and 90s, huge personality, lots of content, freedom for the presenter and FUN.

Commercial radio has lost its personality to the podcasters.

The life and career of a radio presenter can be like walking a tight-rope. You have to keep your listeners entertained but you also need to keep your immediate boss – the Programme Director – happy.

At one time, dozens of media owners controlled the UK radio industry.

Today, that same industry is controlled by about three or four main players. In real terms, the opportunities for on-air talent are shrinking almost by the day. Presenters are yanked-off-the-air, their website profiles deleted, and never mentioned again by the radio station they worked for, for so long. In my opinion, it shows a total disrespect for the talent and their audience.

However, there are now new opportunities for those broadcasters who, after many years loyal service to the radio industry, find themselves without a regular gig. My own radio career has included Virgin Radio, Piccadilly Radio/Key 103 in Manchester and London’s Capital FM. Until I sold it in January this year, I owned the station 96.2 The Revolution in Manchester.

These days, my style of personality radio seems to be out of favour with the radio big-wigs so I’ve started a Podcast: The Steve Penk Wind Up Show, which is now available on iTunes & Stitcher.

As an ex-media owner, I believe this is the broadcast platform of the future. It opens up the playing field and allows me to reach a far bigger audience without having to pander to the whims of often short-sighted radio
programmers.

iTunes has over 1 billion active subscriptions and carries more than 8 million individual podcasts. There is a demand for this type of audio content – even television executives are waking up to on line delivery of their own content as witnessed with the success of Netflix, Sky Go and other on demand services.

Podcasting also allows the user to choose the type of content they want to hear, instead of force-feeding them whatever is ‘commercially viable’. The convergence of technology, the internet and smartphones has created this new way that broadcasters, producers can deliver content to their audience, now a days people can even play cozino now with mobiles.

Broadcasters like myself can reach out in an unregulated way that radio can’t, but due to licensing restrictions, podcasts can’t yet contain any commercial music. But is that what the audience are looking for? They can get music anywhere, Spotify, Pandora… even YouTube. What they can’t get so readily is compelling and entertaining original content.

Will this disrupt the traditional commercial radio business model? I believe it already is: Q3 2014 radio listening figures (Rajar) are down, as audiences find other ways of hearing compelling content. Commercial radio seems to be ignoring its greatest USP: fun, entertaining, compelling content.

In my opinion, personality is king. But most commercial radio in this country now is devoid of personality, it’s just full of nice people with nice voices. In short, it’s boring. Simply playing back to back music in 2014 isn’t enough anymore.

Looking ahead, will French music-streaming company Deezer’s acquisition of Stitcher – one of the biggest podcast platforms ­pave the way for streamed music mixed with brilliant podcast content. Now that will be a game changer.

The United Cabbies Group have very kindly helped out London Taxi Radio?Sherbet Radio by sponsoring the station so that we were able to pay our license fees to both PPL and PRS, without these licenses we would not have been able to continue broadcasting.All of us at Sherbet Radio are extremely grateful for the kind generosity of the UCG which has enabled us to continue to build the station and grow it into the True Station for Taxi Drivers.

Sherbet Radio started off running from a second hand computer which was configured as a server running from a small office upstairs in a Taxi Garage connected to a BT business broadband connection which was running at around 40 Meg.Running a server based in an office which is basically in the roof of a garage posed various problems, in the winter the office was freezing cold and in the summer the temperature was unbearable which meant that the fans in the PC were running constantly. Last summer we managed to destroy 3 PCs during the hot spell and 1 hard drive during the cold spell which can obviously get quite expensive. Also a computer running with its fans at full speed continuously can also consume a considerable amount of electricity (a problem you can tackle through business energy comparison websites).Recently the garage that we were operating out of was sold to a new owner and since then the radio station server has been running from within my home on our internet connection! This was obviously less than satisfactory as every time I uploaded something to thee internet it would interfere with the radio station output as my upload speed runs at around 9Mbps.Initially this didn’t really matter as we did not have the funds to pay for our license until the UCG stepped forward and kindly offered to pay the stations license fees to both PRS and PPL which enabled us to restart broadcasts and get back on air and since then we have been looking for an alternative to streaming from a home broadband connection.We had in the past dabbled with running the station from a VPS (Virtual Private Sever) with varying success while the taxi garage was being refurbished but after the company that we were using decided to stop offering Windows VPS servers we went back to running the station from the office in the garage.It has taken us 2 months to find a suitable company who offers the level of VPS that we needed at a price that we could afford to pay and I am happy to say that we have now found one. There are a lot of companies who offer Linux VPS servers very cheaply but we needed a Windows VPS server as the radio automation software can only run on windows. I am glad to say that we have finally found a company offering just what we needed and at a very reasonable price.Now instead of running on an internet connection with an upload speed of either 18Mbps or 9Mbps we now have a connection of 1Gbps straight into the internet backbone which then connects to our streaming servers which also run at 1Gbps which means that there should be no buffering between the automation software and the streaming servers which is something that we were encountering in the past quite frequently which in turn would mean that the end user, i.e. the listener would have seen a drop in signal or severe buffering. Now the only buffering that the listener may encounter is purely down to the speed of their own connection to the net.

We have had some drivers say that they cannot receive Sherbet Radio because they now have Windows based Smart Phones.

Tune In radio is available for Windows Phones although apparently there are problems installing the app on particular models.

With this in mind we have updated the stream details for our web app which should work on any device no matter what software platform it operates on.

The Web App should prompt you to save it to your home screen and will then appear on you screen in the same way as any other app.

I have been unable to test it on a windows phone as I do not have a device to test on so I would really appreciate if windows phone users could let me know whether or not it works.

The Web App is still branded as London Taxi Radio but both relay the same radio stream.

You can download the Web App by clicking here

Or you can download a low quality version by clicking here, lower nitrate means less data used

We regret to have to inform our listeners and contributors but unfortunately due to a lack of support and also due to the fact that our licenses run out tomorrow at midnight combined with the ongoing monthly costs which we pay out of our own pockets that Sherbet Radio and London Taxi Radio will cease broadcasting from Midday tomorrow Tuesday 31st December 2013.

It is just over a year since I first had the wacky idea that the London Taxi Trade should have its own Radio Station. I looked at various mediums to broadcast on but quickly found that the only option within our budget was internet radio as the others were either not available or totally out of our price range.

When I initially posted up the idea on Twitter the response from drivers who wanted to get involved was extremely promising but despite numerous requests for drivers to do shows very few have actually taken up the challenge to actually produce a show or podcast that could be broadcast on London Taxi Radio. The lack of response led to Mac and myself becoming a little despondent about the project and letting things slip a little. Due to this and what we thought had been a lack of listeners to the station we had decided to close the station down on 17th December when our licenses were due to be renewed but a few things have prompted us to change our minds.

After a conversation with Mac he remonstrated that we should keep the station going and try another big push to get people interested, Mac believes as do I that internet radio is before its time and will become more popular as time goes on, other factors such as the BBC closing down its AM services and the planned shutdown of FM (which I believe wont actually happen) and the very slow uptake of DAB radio combined with the news that car manufacturers have started to fit Internet Radio in cars in the UK makes us think that it will be the preferred medium for radio delivery in the future, while also using other measures for accident prevention such as airbags and balance systems, and still if accidents happen, having resources as a car accident lawyer Brooklyn is useful in these cases. Also this week I had to file a report for the stations listener hours for which I was very surprised, our listener hours had actually increased when we were thinking that they had gone down, in fact they had increased quite considerably.

I also had a conversation with a Taxi Driver from outside of London but who is currently doing the Knowledge to become a London Taxi Driver, Rachael, who said that she would be interested in getting involved and maybe doing a show on the station, during the conversation we concluded that London Taxi Radio in its current form was targeting a very limited audience of around 25,000 people and considering the response from the London taxi Trade that maybe we should look further afield for drivers who may want to produce a show or podcast or maybe even doing a chat show on the station, this got me to thinking that maybe we should offer the station to drivers around the UK and that maybe a change of name could benefit the station in order to achieve this aim so after a conversation with Mac it was agreed that maybe a name change would be beneficial so I  promptly registered taxi-radio.co.uk and I was about to start building a new website to promote the station to the trade around the UK but then I had another conversation with Rachael in which she said that Taxi Radio as a name wasn’t very inspiring and that we should be looking for a name that is a little more quirky a catchy than just plain old Taxi Radio, after a lot of brain storming between the two of us we came up with a name that was staring us right in the face! Well I bet you want to know what it was? Well, I will tell you that later.

I had another interesting telephone conversation last night with Allen AKA Rockin Cabby Allen who does a 50s show on the station where I explained how disappointed we were that not many drivers were coming forward to volunteer to do a show or a podcast, Allen offered what could be an explanation as to why this may be? he said that it might be because people are either scared of doing it wrong or that they do not know how to do a show live or how to record a show or podcast, now this is something that I had considered in the past but that we had not really tried to combat. We decided that the best way to tackle this problem might be to run some sort of workshop, maybe once a month, in order to show people who they can go about making a show or podcast that can be broadcast on the station. We can also then ask people to bring their laptop along so that we can provide them with the necessary software in order to enable them to produce a show or podcast. So we will announce details of the first radio workshop that we will hold sometime in November.

Even though we are going to change the name of the station the London Taxi Radio website will remain and shows that originate from London Taxi Drivers will still be branded as London Taxi Radio shows and we will still play London Taxi Radio Jingles during those shows but we will be arranging for our preferred production houses to produce new imaging for the station in the new name that will be played out most of the time, and for this the use of lawyers was necessary to register the brand and to check the copyright or such, and the use of services from www.danielhegwer.com/services was essential for this.

So back to the name! What have we decided to call the station? Well, we decided that the name should be Sherbet, either Radio Sherbet or Sherbet Radio, which way round we use the words I cannot decide. I was a little worried that the slang word Sherbet may not be recognised around the Country but Rachael thinks that most people around the UK should associate the word Sherbet with Cab, so there you have it, we are to be called Sherbet Radio or Radio Sherbet, please let us know what you think, which way round we should use the wording.

So the Radio Station has been given a reprieve and will be broadcasting for at least another year, we are already adding new shows that are produced by Taxi drivers and we are open to any suggestions for Taxi related content for the station so if you know of a Taxi driver who does a radio show or produces a podcast then please let us know.

We are extremely pleased to announce that as from today at 4pm we will be broadcasting the Mason & Collins Show on London Taxi Radio.

The show will not be branded as London Taxi Radio as it is actually produced for another radio station but keeping in line with our commitment to bring more Taxi related content we feel that the Mason & Collins show fits in very nicely.

So please give your support to both Andy Mason and Marc Collins and of course London Taxi Radio by tuning in from 4pm today.

Well it is just over a year since I had the original wacky idea that the London Taxi Trade should have its own radio station. After looking at AM & FM and deciding that they were both unavailable to us I then looked at DAB and found that the cost was totally out of our price range.

Internet Radio was the only financially viable medium that we could afford to launch the station on. After lots of testing with various online streaming hosts and changing hosts a few times we finally settled with a reliable streaming provider who is both reliable and reasonable in cost.

The next step was licensing which of which we needed 2 different ones, PPL and PRS for which the total cost was £400 for the year for what they call Small Webcaster License.

Mac and myself have spent endless hours testing services and getting the output right from the station, we have also invested quite heavily in getting professional jingles made for the station.

When I initially had the idea of starting the station I asked whether taxi drivers would be interested in getting involved and providing content for the station and the response was very good but unfortunately very little content has been forthcoming except a couple of shows from a few drivers.

We would liked to have had a varied schedule of content ranging from music shows to chat shows and basically anything that interested taxi drivers and have on numerous occasions asked for help with providing content for the station which can be quite easily done, podcasts can be recorded on something as simple as a smart phone.

Also the listener figures have been quite disappointing to say the least, we did expect that by the end of the first quarter that the listener figures would have increased but amazingly they fell!

The commitment required for running a radio station in time and effort is quite considerable and the ongoing costs can be quite high, here are a list of the ongoing monthly costs:

License Fee: £34
Streaming Server Fees: £20
Internet Connection: £54
Webhosting: £10
Music & Jingles: £40

Total: £158 per month

These monthly costs have ben coming out of our own pockets!

So it is with regret that we have made a decision! And that decision is this:

Unless enough people come forward to provide content for the station before our license runs out on the 17th December 2013 then London Taxi Radio will close down, a sponsor would also be appreciated but if we felt that there was enough interest in helping to provide the content for the station then we would continue to foot the bills until such time as a sponsor could be found.

The other alternative is that if someone else would like to take over and run the station and have a go for themselves then we would be only too willing to hand everything over to them including all the jingles and everything that we have paid for free of charge and we would also give that person all the help and assistance that we could.

We did not start London Taxi Radio to massage our own egos, we did it as we both felt that the trade could benefit form having its own voice and we both still feel strongly about this project and would still like it to continue and flourish. I would even still pay the streaming fees to keep the station on air!

So come on London Taxi Trade, its now up to you, do you want a radio station for our Trade? or are Mac and myself just wasting our time and effort? Your choice!

After taking a bit of a break through the summer and reconsidering the format of the station we have decided to give the station another big push during the autumn.

We recently conducted a survey and the consensus was that you, the drivers, want more Taxi related shows and content on the station, this is something that we also want but unfortunately there are only so many hours in the day and we all still have to earn a living as well as try and keep the radio station running.

To create more Taxi related content we need help from you the drivers, we need people who are prepared to go out do interviews, prepare radio shows, host radio shows, and a lot more. We still have the details of the few drivers who contacted us and offered help and we will be contacting you over the next fews weeks but we still need more help. There are 24 hours in a day and that is a lot of time to fill with content for the station so we need all the help we can get.

So if you want to get involved in any way no matter how big or small please get in touch by sending us an email admin@londontaxiradio.co.uk

We have recently moved servers due to our hosting company moving their radio servers from abroad and bringing them back into the UK.

So if you have bookmarked our Tune In Links you will need to update them otherwise you will not be able to listen to London Taxi Radio.

You can find our Tune in Links on the website on the right hand menu

Thanks

London Taxi Radio Team