Fourth Street Radio

This one will be short and sweet, you'll see why soon...

Again, another station picked out of the thousands cos it's name lept out at me while scrolling through on my Wi-Fi radio. In my effort to avoid commercial stations I try to skip anything with FM or a frequency number anywhere near it.

Fourth St radio was tucked away in the RnB genre, but I wanted a bit of a change and even though it's not a style I'm immediately drawn to, I like to give these things a go. I guess this was part of the problem, as a genre I've only dipped into, I thought this would strech my musical tastes. All I really got was RnB pop from the last 20 years, some I'd heard before, but most I hadn't. I get the feeling the reason the unknown track hadn't been heard was less to do with there niche value and more to do with them being not vey good.
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And here's where the review comes to a screaching halt. Despite advertising there site on there shows, I can find no online presence for them. Someone also needs to have a word about domain names, I mean if you're going to have a domain name primarily read out to people, why choose one which has at least four legitimate ways of spelling it (fourth, 4th, Street & St). Anyway I couldn't find a website under any combination and google gave me no hint either.

So for fairly drab lack lustre music and no site at all, Fourth Street Radio gets a big fat DROP-IT rating.

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?

First post, first station - Soma Illinois Street Lounge

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It could be a lack of googling skills, but I can't seem to track down a site detailing or reviewing any of the 10 thousand radio stations available via Reciva on my Wifi radio. I switch it on and there's just TOO MUCH choice. So this is my attempt to fill the gap. I'd love to hear other peoples opinions on the stations I review or stations they know and love. So add comments or drop me a line if you want to post a review.

Soma Illinois Street Lounge. One of the ever changing cluster of SOMA radio stations Illinois Street Lounge offers "Classic bachelor pad, playful exotica and vintage music of tomorrow" acording to the onsite blurb. I wanted to like it, and occasionally I do, there's a little bit of swing, some old crooners and even the odd recognisable golden oldie. Can you tell there's a but coming?

On the downside, the vast majority of playlist seems to be synthesised updates from that era, I guess that's the "music of tomorow" element. Unfortunately this ends up feeling like the hold music from a particularly boring telephone system.


On the technical side, the connections always good, the music seems to go 24:7 with no real DJ interruptions and only the smallest hint of advertising. I say advertising, but really it's a request to support the station with paypal donations I've listened for hours and could only really say I've heard it 2 or 3 times.

Overall I give this station a TURN-ON rating