The Joys of Internet Radio

It may come as no great surprise to some of my followers to know that Knottman is a classical music buff. We also love folk and popular music of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. A natural nostalgia of our age group.

One of my current enthusiasms is Internet Radio. It comes down your Internet connection and then via your Router or an Ethernet cable. In fact I have experimented with it for four years or more and have it on my hi-fi with an iPad App for finding stations. There are said to be 50,000 stations available worldwide to choose from.

But the radio above, which is a birthday present, has solved a great annoyance which I have with Radio 3. You see I wake up at 05.20 and listen to the Shipping Forecast and News Briefing. The latter is usually depressing so I need some good music to set me up for the day. You would think BBC Radio 3 on my bedside radio would provide the answer. But the Breakfast on 3 programme is infuriating. You have to listen to miserable news headlines every 20 minutes and why do I want to know where Mrs. P. From Brighton first heard Finlandia? Of course I joined the Friends of Radio 3 and we all complained to the Beeb, but to no effect.

So the Radio above has greatly cheered up my mornings. There are dozens of classical stations with no ads or news. And there are many for nostalgia and other genre. The sound quality is excellent and the controls are intuitive. And in any case there is a free App that gives you full control, including finding stations. So you can do it all from your armchair. It is so good that I find I am bringing it from the bedroom to the lounge each day. As I type one of my favourite stations Venice Classic Radio, is playing Mozart Horn Concertos.

Of course I must not advertise on Blip and there are other excellent Internet Radios made in England and Scotland.

Knottman mornings are bliss and he is feeling very cheerful.