response 17 of 39:

Oct 4 16:43 UTC 2006

Followup on resp:15 :: It's possible that last Saturday was the final
world music show in Charlie Gillett's timeslot on Radio London.  
Charlie departed his show abruptly in May due to health problems, as
described above in resp:15.  Numerous guest hosts have been keeping the
show alive since then, most notably Gerry Lyesight with his "Planet
Mambo" format, which mixes in a lot more jazz than Charlie used to play.
 
But the BBC has not announced any plans for the timeslot beyond last
Saturday, and the link to the replay of Saturday's show is very 
well hidden:  I can only get to it from Charlie's own page at 
http://www.charliegillett.com, not from the usual BBC pages.
In Charlie's discussion forum, both Charlie and Gerry write that they
think the show's run is over, as the BBC hasn't told Gerry, or anyone else
in the world music community, to do a show for this coming Saturday.

Why all this fuss over a retiring DJ?  Charlie Gillett, on his Saturday 
Night show on Radio London, was one of the two key DJs in developing the 
"world music" concept as we know it today.

response 19 of 39:

Mar 29 16:45 UTC 2007

Ken pointed out that I should post in here about a station that I
discovered recently.  It's WHFR, a low power station from Henry Ford
Community College on 89.3, and on the net.

Their website is: http://whfr.fm and includes links to listen to them
online, in one of two different stream types, and a jpeg of their
broadcast schedule, showing variety of music they feature.

This is pledge drive week, so they are talking more than usual right now,
but still playing a decent amount of music.

response 21 of 39:

Apr 25 04:01 UTC 2007

WHFR is an excellent station.  I listened a lot when I lived in the Taylor
area.   Since WDET and CBC2 / Winsor have cut my favorite music offerings I
am now strictly satellite radio and WCBN

response 23 of 39:

May 24 04:17 UTC 2007

I've hit my annual-or-so burnout on BBC listening.  The last several
years I've taken a one-month break after the coverage of the 
Celtic Connections festival in late January, but this year I 
kept going.  Now it's just feeling like an obligation though, 
so it's time for a break.   I'll probably cheat and keep an eye 
on the playlists, to see if there's anything I would die to have
missed.

response 25 of 39:

Jul 3 19:47 UTC 2007

The break extended to cover all of the BBC shows, for nearly
all of June.  Guess it was just time to stop for a while.  

Now that I'm interested again, the 
Radio Scotland shows are taking their usual summer break.  
Starting today, Global Gathering has been replaced by the Asian 
show Tigerstyle Presents, which I think was the same replacement as 
last year.  And then on Thursday, Travelling Folk will be replaced
with "Dean Friedman's Real American Folk" for six weeks.

response 27 of 39:

Jul 23 02:02 UTC 2007

Ah, I feel bad now about not catching his show more often, he is an awesome
DJ. Hope he's back soon!

response 29 of 39:

Mar 12 18:13 UTC 2008

As the SXSW music festival gets underway today, I thought I'd mention some
live music that will play (and stream) on Austin radio stations this week.

On KGSR - www.kgsr.com -
   Thurs, 13 March
    (all times Central US Daylight Time)
    * 12pm - Billy Bragg / Carbon Silicon
    * 1:45pm - Martha Wainwright
    * 2:15pm - Kate Walsh
    * 2:45pm - Yo La Tengo
    * 3:15pm - Carrie Rodriguez
    * 4:45pm - Kaki King
    * 5:45pm - Ingrid Michaelson
   Friday, 14 March
    *12pm - Bobby Whitlock & Coco Carmel / Bodeans
    * 2:15pm - Buddy Miller
    * 2:45pm - Susan Voelz (interview)
    * 3:15pm - James McMurtry
    * 4:00pm - Tift Merritt

On KUT - www.kut.org
   Wednesday (today!) at 1:30pm - Liam Finn
                         2:00pm - The Whigs
   Thursday, 13 March at 9:00am - Pyeng Threadgill
                        10:30am - Lobi Traore & Joep Pelt
                        12:00pm - Daniel Lanois

Tune in, if you can!

response 31 of 39:

Apr 6 19:18 UTC 2008

The monthly radio show from fRoots magazine is now available as a
podcast, a downloadable MP3 file, starting with the April 2008 show.
The May 2008 show is promised to be available in a few days.

I can't recommend this highly enough to anyone with an interest in
world music, and there are even a few spots of great folk music in
there, like the bagpipe tune that closes the April show.

http://froots.podomatic.com/

The file is 128K and sounds pretty good -- better than the old Real
Audio stream, and fRoots has one of the better-sounding Real streams.

(Editor Ian Anderson (not that one) says that the paper fRoots magazine
should also be reappearing soon in USA outlets like Borders, as a
result of a new distribution deal.)

response 33 of 39:

Jun 26 12:46 UTC 2008

Big changes ahead for BBC internet radio operations.
 
The BBC's internet radio will drop Real and Windows Media technologies
and move to a 128K stream for replay shows.
A "rewind" button will be added; previously one was not allowed to back 
up the program.  Changes to the live programs will come later, but 
as I listen to almost everything on demand, it's the replay changes
which will affect me directly.     
 
Actually I worry about this because Real degrades with some elegance
under congested network conditions; I expect the MP3 streams will just
stop working.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/25/bbc_iplayer_update/

response 35 of 39:

Jul 2 17:56 UTC 2008

I found the beta version of the new BBC Radio iPlayer.  However, 
it is still delivering the same old Real Audio streams -- no 128K
MP3 streams yet, as far as I can find.

response 37 of 39:

Jul 15 19:37 UTC 2008

The BBC's move to new software is underway.  Radio 2 and Radio Scotland
have moved to the new iPlayer software, which is not working well.
The replay shows I care about from last week on those stations appear
to be lost in the transition.   Seems like I'll be off the BBC for 
a while until things settle down.

response 39 of 39:

Apr 5 14:48 UTC 2010

Since 2002, a stable group of 6 BBC DJs have dominated my listening to
folk & world music radio programmes.  In a short three weeks, half
that group is off the air, and I'm somewhat in shock.   After eight
years, these voices had woven themselves pretty thoroughly into my life.

-- Charlie Gillett died on March 17.  Charlie was one of the key
broadcasters in the evolution of the "world music" marketing
pigeonhole.  He'd been sick for some time; he was disabled out of his
full-time weekly show in 2006(?), and about 18 months later he
returned on a part-time basis, doing two shows every six weeks for
Radio 3's "World on 3."  He left that show due to health 
problems in January 2010, and the
last we heard was that he was scheduled for heart bypass surgery, and
a few weeks later came the announcement of his death, age 68.   Tons
of tributes from listeners and music professionals on his website
forum at http://www.charliegillett.com

-- Verity Sharp, one of the two rotating hosts of Radio 3's "Late
Junction" since the show's beginning, has left.  No further
information about her departure has been available.  "Late Junction"
was one of my favorite radio shows ever, a mix of world, classical,
folk and jazz.  Verity has been an enthusiastic advocate for British
folk music.

-- Archie Fisher has left "Travelling Folk" on BBC Radio Scotland.
Archie had hosted the show since 1983, and he turns 70 this year.  I
have conflicting reports, none authoritative, about whether he retired
voluntarily or was pushed out.   I suppose I could ask him when he
plays a concert in East Lansing later this month.   So far the signs
are that Radio Scotland intends to keep the Thursday night slot for
folk music.