A friend of mine from England was visiting & couldn't believe how "pigeon holed" our radio stations were (country, rock, classical, etc). He told me about this station in England & how eclectic the music was. He was right. <BR><BR>If your internet connection allows you to listen it will certainly makes you miss the country. I especially enjoy their midnight program.

Hi Nancy,<BR>I listen to Classics FM online.The English classical stations are great and they have much more variety than the one (1!!) here in NYC!

British radio is great.<BR>For classics go to Radio 3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/<BR><BR>Radio 4 has great plays, talks etc.<BR>It's at<BR>http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

There are 6 national networks, over 40 local radio stations, 3 National stations (Radio Wales, Scotland, Ulster - the latter has a sister station based called Radio Foyle), a Welsh language station called Radio Cymru, and Gaelic opt-outs (Radio Alba) in Scotland. There is also an enhanced digital version of Radio 5 which gives more sport coverage than the mainstream news + sport channel does. Soon there'll be a special black music channel, again available on digital. <BR>On top of all that is World Service, which broadcasts in English globally giving news, business, sport and arts coverage. Likewise, there are over 40 language services, including Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Pashto, Persian, Turkish and Hindi. All broadcast to their specific regions and most are available on the internet. Most also have their own websites. <BR><BR>So that's quite a lot, and all the channels are FREE OF ADVERTS. <BR><BR>Givem them a listen. Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio and get the lowdown on the individual channels. <BR><BR>And, in response to the friend of the first poster, American radio is really very poor. N P R shines out brillantly, but the rest is below-average, ratings-obsessed nonsense.

Not that you're biased or anything, eh, Nigel<BR><BR>Me, I'm a died in the wool Radio<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>4 fan (bet you thought I was going to say Scotland)

I am addicted to R4 (but do slip over to R Scotland now and then). <BR><BR>I have even caught myself listening to the early morning shipping reports (and paying attention !?)

Please note that much radio 4 material is held on the website for later download.Useful for timezone shifting.<BR>Unfortunately they want you to use a realplayer.(spyware)

It is a "rite of passage" moment when one realises that one likes radio 2 so much more than radio 1, as it has better tunes, you can hear the lyrics, it's not too loud and has a beat you can really tap your feet to.<BR><BR>In other words you have turned into your dad. Happened to me about three years ago.

I'm glad there's someone else who likes the shipping forecast as much as I do! There's nothing quite so soothing on a night when you can't get to sleep as listening to the forecasts around Dogger, Trafalgar, South East Iceland and the German Bight....<BR><BR>Radio Scotland carries the football commentaries of all the games in Scotland, so it's useful for me (even in England) to listen to the Aberdeen games.<BR><BR>By the way, the BBC website also carries video of the BBC news programmes so if you want to see what's happening here it's a good place to start.

Nigel, thanks for the link to the bbc radio stations. I was only focused on Radio 2 that I didn't think about others. I'll give those a listen tonight!

One reason the radio stations here are so "pigeon-holed" is that the majority of them are owned by one company, Clear Channel Communications. So the music you hear in Little Rock is the same as the music you hear in Albuquerque is the same as the music you hear in San Jose. Completely profit-driven corporation. <BR><BR>Just discovered the BBC radio on the Internet and was really happy. They even talk about books!

Keith - there are at least two of us. it may seem weird, me sitting in my warm back garden in California listening to the shipping forcasts about force 8 gales in the North Sea or on the Channel . . . . <BR><BR>Julie: R-4 is really great - they have some of the most interesting discussion programs. And there are "day out" things where they record someone visiting a beauty spot or park or event and it is just like being there.

Just for a bit of fun...<BR><BR>For those of you who are devoted to the shipping forecast, my company is actually named after one of the shipping areas that until very recently formed part of the melodic report. Check out this link...<BR><BR>http://www.finisterre.co.uk/mailer.html<BR><BR>(to those of you who have never listened to Radio 4, this will mean nothing)

kate: I had noticed "finisterre" missing. Was somewhere else substituted and where exactly is finisterre? I can pinpoint just about all of the ocean/sea sectors and all of the inland ones but was never quite sure where finisterre is.

Yes, Janis, they renamed "Finisterre" "Fitzroy" in Feb 2002 - something to do with there being another area off the coast of Spain also named Finisterre. I believe Fitzroy was the founder of the Met Office, and the captain of HMS Beagle when Darwin was on board.<BR><BR>Now I'll have to get another shipping area tea-towel!

There's a map of all the shipping forecast areas at<BR><BR>http://www.met-office.gov.uk/leisure/shiparea.html

Thanks Ruth! (Boy, I bet some are wondering about all these strange folks obsessed about the shipping forecasts)

I'm looking forward to the day when someone comes up with a photo of the Channel Light Vessel Automatic bobbing around in the middle of the English Channel.

"Finisterre" disappeared because the Spanish have another shipping area called Finisterre, and as Finisterre/Fitzroy is in their waters (it's off the north-west coast) they had first call on the name.<BR><BR>Fitzroy, incidentally, was named after Admiral Fitzroy who was the founder of the Met Office.<BR><BR>Millymollymandy, I think there is a picture somewhere of Channel Light Vessel Automatic on a "fan" site on the internet!<BR><BR>(Oh dear, this is getting strange....)

Keith... ha ha... I knew there would be one out there somewhere!!