Ballroom Glitz

Have you ever started something and almost immediately think why have I done this? Tuning in to Ballroom Glitz was a little like this. It started with good intentions, I’ve watched that Aussie classic Strictly Ballroom, I’ve watched several series of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, the station will be a radio version of these surely?

Sadly no, as I enjoyed my other forays into this activity. Ballroom Glitz describes itself as “a variety radio show” and a “celebration of Ballroom and the Music of Dance”. I’m just not convinced it does it very well, or perhaps ballroom just isn’t meant for the radio?

The music was a bit of an eclectic mix, a little bit of disco, some old time swing, a little latin here or there. I’ll be honest, on paper this sounds pretty good to me, a hotch potch of different styles means I don’t have time to get bored, but somehow it just doesn’t gel. The disco isn’t that good and the mix doesn’t seem to flow, it’s as if someone’s selected the appropriate genre’s, then hit the random button. Individual tracks of interest pop up, but appear in a sea of mediocrity, rather diluting the effect.

So, the music is more miss than hit, what about the rest the technical side? Starting with the good, the Wi-Fi connection is strong, with very few ‘buffering’ pauses. The quality of the music does seem to differ, but that may be due to the age / availability of some of the older tracks. There is reasonably high level of self promotion, bordering on the intrusive at times, but the station does have active DJ’s to support, so maybe they need the extra cash? Now to the bad… To listen via your PC you have to sign up to their site. I don’t like this for places like Live365, but at least they are a collection of stations.

This idea really annoys me, not just because it inconvenienced me, I had to go via reciva’s site, but because it could really damage internet radio if everybody started to do it… I don’t really get it either, why make it harder for listeners to enjoy your station? I’m sure they’d say it was about keeping in touch with there listeners, but it feels more like a data gathering exercise.

So anyway, the bottom line… Ballroom Glitz has annoyed me on at least 2 fronts and we the listeners should actively discourage the ‘sign up to listen’ crowd.. For these reasons I give it a dismal DROP-IT rating. I liked the musical concept though, is there any other station that does it better?

0180's Lost Dance Treasures

This one popped up on my 'You might like this' list on Reciva, the site that supplies all the listings to my wifi radio. I'm not a huge fan of the site, it's exceptionally slow and really doesn't make finding a good online radio station that much easier, but I thought I'd give there recomendations a go.

0180s.com has a collection of channels, each with a slight different 80's theme from Dancefloor to Power Rock Ballards they cover a range of styles and tastes. As I was recommended Lost Dance Treasures, it was here I started.


I'll come straight out with it, I'm not a fan, neither was anyone within listening distance, in some cases, the lost need to stay lost... The music,as you'd expect from the station logo, is heavily 80's orientated, so at times there was a pleasant tingle of nostalgia. Unfortunately the tracks chosen more often led to a shudder of the 'I'd forgotten how bad that was' variety. I'm also not 100% sure they've got their themes right, from some soft rock to the Petshop Boys to Aciiiiiid to The B52's Rock Lobster. The consistency / flow of the music didn't really get going.

This leads me to possibly the biggest problem, in between EVERY track there's a 10-20 second pause. No station ID, just dead air. I guess it could be just scarily regular connection problems but it makes hard listening to whatever the reason.

0180s.com's website is very simple, it provides access to it's stations, it's sister sites (like 0170s.com, 01Jazz.com & 01Urban.com to name a few) and copious amounts of advertising. The nearest we get to some kind of extended service is a link to buy tracks heard on the radio.


Overall Lost Dance Treasures gets a DROP-IT rating for poor music, poor connections and a poor website. I originally gave this the next rating up, on the grounds that 80's music is popular, but I can't believe there's not a better 80's station out there, possibly one of 0180s.com's other channels...

Beach House Radio

Beach House Radio or BHR as they call themselves, promises to bring you "the best Chillout, Funky House and acoustic summer music to help you relax & de-stress no matter what time of the year", which to a large degree fits its music perfectly.

Another internet only, 100% music, no DJ's, no ads station, Beach House Radio relies on donations to buy it's bandwidth. It does also offer branded merchandise where I assume part of the profit would support the station. They even have a "Funds raised this month" caption to inspire people to donate

BHR delivers pretty heavily on the chillout, in fact I wasn't sure for a track or 2 whether I'd accidentally switched my wifi radio on to stream from a Ministry of Sound chillout cd. The tracks seem to be pretty mainstream when I've tuned in, but they do publish a schedule showing slightly differing music mixes, so there maybe newer unknown track played at other times. This all sounds good, but it felt a little too comfortable, there was no surpise at liking a track you've never heard before. I guess that's the trade off, known chillout favourites makes for few turn off moments, but few exciting moments too. They do include some station ID jingles every couple of tracks, but more strangely they also seem to just pause for 20-30 seconds between the occasional tracks. I've not worked out why yet, but it seems to well placed to be a connection dropping

Connecting through the wifi radio can take a few tries to get a solid connection with an occasional pause to re-buffer the music. I faired less well on their website with it all seeming to load, but no music on a number of occasions. That's a shame as the player gives you some interesting options, it shows a couple of tracks either side of the current one and allows you not only to click on them to see more details but also to buy them

The supporting website is basic, but fit for purpose (if you'll forgive a redirection to the parents companies url). Basic details about the type of music are included, some attempt to give background or news about the artist and a new forum for people to talk to the station producers.


I've yet to make up my mind on this one, I've a feeling it could be one of those things that grows on you. But if, as they say on their home page, they continue to struggle to get donations they may close before they get a chance.

I give them a tentative TURN-ON rating for the connectivity issues