We would like to tell you about the greatest digital radio station of all time. It is even better than Birdsong. It is called Real Digital and it's currently broadcasting in London but due to go off air at the end of next month.
One of the things we love about Real is its endearingly shambolic approach to broadcasting. Sometimes they play the same song twice in twenty minutes. Often — increasingly — we're treated to a minute of dead air, followed by the 'Windows startup chimes' as they reboot their server, followed by the transmission flipping over to their Real Yorkshire station, followed by another minute of dead air before the digital service resumes. Songs start playing before news reports finish. Tracks play over adverts, adverts play over songs. A few days ago a track stuck for over three minutes. It's radio anarchy with an easy listening soundtrack, but unlike Magic with its playlist of twenty songs Real Digital has a massive catalogue of The Best Songs Of All Time.
On one occasion they made the mistake of broadcasting an email address for someone working on Real, so we emailed in and struck up a brief (although from his point of view probably quite annoying and time consuming) email relationship. Earlier this week, when we emailed them with the message "YOUR CD IS STUCK", we received this message: "we do keep an ear on the feed here but there are quite a few and there’s only so many we can keep an eye on at once so thanks for letting us know if there are problems. There’s a fault with a server that looks after the London feed that’s probably what you heard re booting. If you’re gonna reboot windows, you might as well let the whole of London hear!".
We love the fact that we probably listen to Real Digital more than Real Digital do.
If you're in London tune in today and make the most of Real before it disappears in August. :(
VIEWERS! What's your favourite digital radio station, and why? Email us at the usual address and let us know…
