ORR is back

After an extended absence, Online Radio Review is back.

I'll be have tuning in to a few stations over the holiday period, but for those who've still got the RSS feed for this blog, take a trip to Soma where they have there seasonal radio stations Xmas in Frisko and the safe for kids Christmas Lounge.

See you in the new year

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.
>

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.

Soma - Secret Agent

The Soma series of radio stations were really responsible for my interest in internet radio. A friend had their Christmas station playing and I loved the idea of a channel popping up for a season then disappearing once the holidays are done. So yes, expect me to review their Xmas stations as soon as they're up!

But on to one of their permanent channels, Secret Agent. Soma describe it as "The soundtrack for your stylish, mysterious, dangerous life. For Spies and PIs too!" Does that help you any? Me neither, but I can understand why they haven't tried to pigeon hole it into a genre, it doesn't really fit neatly into any category. Bizarrely Reciva classifies it as Easy and Talk? I'm not certain how they come to these conclusions sometimes...

The music mix is at times sublime, blending from an upbeat modern rock number to some laid back 60's lounge via a Sean Connery soundbite. Similar to many Soma channels Secret Agent plays a LOT of instrumental music, but unlike with Illinois Street Lounge here I don't feel it limiting the mix at all. After all this is supposed to the soundtrack of the film, IE music to support the onscreen action of your life... Most of the tracks hover on the edge of recognition, but most of them draw me in and provide interest in the music.

Soma's stations are ad and DJ free, but you do get the very occasional plea for donations, but even these are quick and unobtrusive. Connections either via the PC or Wi-Fi radio is rock solid and other than the occasional rebuffer on the Wi-Fi, trouble free.

Having looked at a number of stations now, I have to say that the front end to Soma.FM's web presence is simple, bordering on the plain. They give you the music and little else. No forum, no music background, no hints about schedules. Their enhanced content in Windows Media Player is good though with links from the 'now playing' tracks and performers to Amazon.

Overall? I love it... It's just listenable too, put it on, leave it on, loud and out there, or quiet and in the background it does the job. The lack of an obvious genre makes it hard to recommend to people, but I say, give it a go if you've ever put on a Dinner Jacket (or tuxedo) and looked in the mirror at yourself with 1 eyebrow raised... Secret Agent gets a very deserved TUNE-IN rating for good music from a good theme.

Malt Shop Radio

Sometimes you hear a track and it inspires you to listen to more of that type of music.This happened to me recently, so when I started looking for my next station to review I tuned in to the 'Oldies' genre hoping for a bit of swing or early rock.

I'm not sure whether Malt Shop Radio delivered what I was after, and I'm not sure it delivered anything I'd be interested in returning to. This is not to say that it's particularly bad, but I'd not say it's much good either.

The music is a mix of late 60's, early 70's tracks from a fairly wide background, but similar to previously reviewed stations, the blend just doesn't work for me. I'm sure some maths graduate could come up with an equation for the perfect music mix, but for me Malt Shop Radio needs more recognisable or catchy tracks.

Connection to the station is good, however the fade between tracks / ads is very harsh and often seems to cut a tune off mid stream. Assuming this is an automated process, they need to tweal the settings a little. As part of a small cluster of stations, the ads on this station only direct you back to the overall Audiocandy website.

And finally, we look at the supporting site, and here things take a turn for the worse. For the second review in a row we have to complete a 'free signup' in order to access the music. I'll not go into it again, but this is not a good thing, see my previous post for more details. At least with this one thought you get access to 4 station with your ID. The parts of the site I could access looked a bit drab to be honest, it was mainly about Audiocandy not the stations that it represents.

Another slightly dull and hard to access station, I give Malt Shop Radio a DROP-OUT rating, the only thing preventing this from scraping the bottom of the barrel is that the music is ok, if you love the oldies and know the genre a little better than me, this could be a station you'd like.

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?

Planet Rock

For those of you who keep up with radio news, this one will need no introduction. Planet Rock has caused a huge uproar in the DAB market, as despite growing listener figures, awards and list of famous DJ's, their parent company (GCAP) is getting rid of them as they aren't profitable. There is a potential saviour though, as Brian May has taken an interest.

Putting all the publicity to one side, what's the station like for us Wi-Fi users? 2 words:-

ROCK ON!

Ok for those who like things a little less succinctly, Planet Rock is good. To be fair it's a niche station, but it's a pretty big niche you could easily include bands from The Beatles to the Darkness and still have room for ZZ Top and Alice Cooper (who as it happens presents the breakfast show). I do like my rock, and this station gave me a big fat load of it, mostly from classic bands, but not always there best known work. Some early Hendrix, a bit of Clapton, then back to earth with a large slice of Meatloaf. All good rock.

The technical side is as smooth as you'd expect from a profesisional station, although it does seem to take an AGE to buffer to the Revo, no worries though as once it's buffered, it's a solid connection. The site is... a little dissapointing, it has a forum, it has features on some rock stars, it's ok, its standard. It's dissapointing as the station seems to exist on it's passion for the music, so this basic site just seems so vanilla...

At the moment a commercial DAB station, with the obligatory online / wifi side, the station has DJ's, news and ads (although these seem to be relatively sparse and repetative, which is, as someone pointed out to me, possibly the reason they're not making money?). Even here though they're pushing the music. As mentioned Alice Cooper presents the breaky show, what he lacks in a sense of humour and vocal flow he makes up for in his huge knowledge of the people making the music. He seems to have a bit of a back story for almost every track he plays, and I love it, other presenters are also (if not equally) part of the Rock scene.

So without a shadow of a doubt Planet Rock gets a TUNE IN rating, seems a little 'small potatoes', as they won the Sony Digital station of the year award a week or so back, but there you go. Good luck to Brian May with keeping the station open, Planet Rock is so good, I've retuned my only DAB radio to it (although that was partially an objection to how bad Virgin / Christian O'Connell have become)

Radio Paradise

One of the few pages I could find reviewing online radio stations was actually an article in Guardian newspaper. Written by Miranda Sawyer in April 2007, the article is more about the phenomena of internet radio, comparing it with the older style shortwave radio and its plethora of exotic stations. The article does then go on to review a number of stations, culminating in a "best of" list of her favourites. Radio Paradise was described as "A gentle listen, Paradise plays mainstream alternative, old and new, with the occasional twist". Of all the stations she favoured, this sounded most like my taste, so I tuned in...


Dissapointing would be the first thing that springs to mind. I understand that the online radio industry must have come on a fair way in a year, but Radio Paradise just seems dull in comparison to some of the stations I've reviewed so far. Gentle? Yeah I suppose I'd go with that, gentle in the way that the gentle music laps dully against your ears, I guess the occasional twist just got too rare for me. I recognised some of the tracks, but testament to their dullness (how many times can I get that word in?) I can't recall a single one as I write this review. Ok, some new, some old, but truly nothing exciting.

On the connection side of things, there's no issues, they're not new to this so one assumes they've worked out how to balance things there side to serve their listeners.

Ad free, but not beg free, the station exists on donations only and they remind you fairly often (not as often as ad in a commercial show but still fairly noticable).

Their website is fairly well laid out, good links to a forum, pages to buy Radio Paradise branded gubbins but most impressively, a searchable music database. This allows you to "get more info on the artist, share your thoughts about it, see what other listeners think of it, or buy the CD". A couple of clicks to work my way around it and sure enough Divine Comedy's Our Mutual Friend comes up with 6 comments. A REALLY good idea and something I'd like to see catch on.

But perhaps this little foray into the database tells me why the mix isn't working for me. Divine Comedy is one of my favourite bands, but if I was to pick out their best track (as Absent Friends is the ONLY track of theirs Radio Paradise has ever played) I'm not sure I'd pick that one. It's not one of their most catchy or popular tracks, frankly it's not their weirdest either, I just can't see why they picked that track. Expanding this to other artists, are they just playing album filling, also ran tracks?

I didn't study the tracks long enough to decide, but I listened long enough to give them a DROP-OUT rating. Shame as I'd love to see the DB idea appear on other stations, but the music just doesn't keep you coming back for more.