Showing posts with label FM Radio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FM Radio. Show all posts

Monday, August 16, 2010

Radio stations use sneaky ways to make you spend money and listen for longer...

As I drive around JHB daily, I often find myself at a loss when it comes to which radio station to listen to.
I am pretty sure I am not alone here - Jacaranda seems to play some decent tunes for most of the day, while 5FM and Highveld have their moments too.
When all 3 options are exhausted though, sometimes I find myself tuning into Classic FM - it can be surprisingly calming in the midst of Johannesburg traffic madness :)


now this is a funky radio

So we have options - great.

The point of this post though, is to highlight how sneaky some (and probably all) of these stations can be - not sure whether we even notice it anymore...
For example, last week on Friday 13th (OOOOOOOOOH scary!), one of the DJ's (on Jacaranda I think...?) was asking listeners what they thought was the ideal Friday 13th movie to watch that night.
He then proceeded by saying "We know the perfect Friday 13th for you to watch tonight.......... if you want to find out what it is, just SMS the word "movie" to 39xxx and we will send it to you! SMS cost R 5 000 000 each..." :)

Ok so the SMS did not actually cost R 5 000 000 each, but you get the idea.
For an almost entirely useless opinion about a topic which is probably not immediately foremost on people's minds, the radio station will gladly charge you a fee. I wonder how many suckers fell for that one?

The other one I hear a lot (which is more a ploy to keep people listening), is when the DJ announces some part of the show that is "Coming right up!... after these 49033905 songs and an advert about gastro-intestinal reflux..."
...Or some other such delaying tactic - in the end, the part of the show that has listeners patiently hanging on, ends up being about 4.57 seconds in length, and is something you could probably have looked up on Google anyway...

Ok that's it for my ranting... for now at least :)
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Bluetooth, WLAN, 3G, GPS, DSTV, FM Radio... are we frying our brains? And why the name "Bluetooth"?

We live in a world of interference - the air around us is constantly filled with invisible signals transmitting large amounts of information to and from our radios, PC's, TV's, GPS receivers... the list just goes on and on.

Is it then unreasonable to suggest that these signals can somehow interfere with our bodies, and indeed our brain - something that is effectively one huge electrical circuit?

Specifically, I wonder what effect Bluetooth headsets have on the body - Google it and you will find hundreds of cases where users have complained of headaches and other physical symptoms after using a Bluetooth headset in conjunction with their cellphones.



Trouble is, scientists are still trying to work out how the brain actually works!
That's a bit scary - if we are not even sure how our brains function, how can we be sure that the wireless technologies of today have no effect?
See what Wikipedia have to say on the topic.

Onto something a bit lighter - have you ever stopped to think about the name "Bluetooth"? Why on earth use such a name for a short-range wireless technology? The answer actually makes for some interesting reading:

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

"The word Bluetooth is an anglicised version of Swedish or Danish Blåtand, the epithet of the tenth-century king Harald I of Denmark and Norway who united dissonant Danish tribes into a single kingdom. The implication is that Bluetooth does the same with communications protocols, uniting them into one universal standard.
Although blå in modern Scandinavic languages means blue during the viking age it also could mean black. So a historically correct translation of Old Norse Harald Blátönn would rather be Harald Blacktooth than Harald Bluetooth.

The Bluetooth logo is a bind rune merging the Germanic runes (Hagall) and (Berkanan)."





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