Mellotronists

<< The revolution is in geostationary orbit. >>

I think that the service is operated over a relay system of low-earth-orbit 
jobs, increasingly being used for data and mobile services because they're a 
bit easier to find and allow the receiver to choose amongst them for the best 
reception. 
I was very impressed to see their application for in-car services in the US- 
I fear this sort of use in europe may be hindered by territorial rights 
issues, the like of which the cellphone operators have only recently started 
to tackle. this despite those same operators agreeing easily to a common 
standard for the mechanism itself.

I'm glad, though, on both counts. the technology is succeeding and being 
demonstrated to work, but attention is also being paid to the content and 
it's copyright owners before going mad with the new toys. I think some of 
these lessons have come from the way the internet briefly threatened to 
prevent artists earning a living, but my greater concern is that the role of 
the broadcaster is being forgotten, with a gradual shift towards 
genre-content-provision instead of challenging the audience with the 
unexpected. the entertainment lies as much in the way the pieces are put 
together as in the pieces themselves- if we forget that, we risk missing out.

so it's good to hear of... kayak?.... getting aired. let us know if you track 
down any albums. andy k's right- there's slim-to-no chance of them getting an 
airing here. why? because the radio stations operate to smaller audiences 
(because of copyright and language barriers within europe) and can ill-afford 
to cater for "speciality" programming. it's happened more in tv because 
there's less back-catalogue anyway and the technology allows tv more channels 
than radio (until DAB takes off here). some genre-type radio services have 
appeared alongside digital tv channels, using the same satellite receiver. 
this practice dates back to the analogue days but only now is it becoming 
possible to accomodate a "blues-only" channel. there isn't a prog channel, so 
far as I'm aware, but even when there is, it'll be a while longer before we 
can get it on the hoof. a combined mp3 player/DAB walkman would liven the 
business up a bit, but no-one's had the sense to market one yet.

and then maybe the internet will replace broadcasting altogether. now there's 
a thought....

duncan.