Happy Radio Day to all those who celebrate.

Don't give anything an Emmy until it's as good as this.

“I urge the government to back the World Service, to act decisively and confidently about what we can achieve in this space, and to act soon” - Tim Davie, BBC Director-General. A dire warning about the World Service running out of money in just 7 weeks time.

Perfection

I tried to take a photo of a grasshopper on my windshield, but now it looks like a gigantic bug destroying the town.

In case you're a Stackridge fan, and you haven't seen this ... youtu.be/0cxU0qhV5l4?...

Brilliant analysis as usual from @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

#Reverberations #MusicChallenge Vaguely ranked Day 2 Stagefright Dave Evans - Sad Pig Dance (1974) Supernatural-level fingerstyle guitar youtu.be/zqTLkgImAdU?...

🚨A COALITION of creator groups is today calling on the UK government to implement immediate measures aimed at protecting the nation’s creative sector, or risk losing it. Charting Gen AI has the full story and comment. grahamlovelace.substack.com/p/creator-gr...

When you've been searching high and low for something and still can't find it, go back to the very first place you tried and it's usually right there. You just didn't collapse the wave function properly the first time.

Brave New World: Justice for creators in the age of GenAI In our ongoing commitment to campaign for author rights and interests, we have joined forces with other creator-led organisations to co-launch a ground-breaking report showing the onset of a creative jobs crisis in the UK. buff.ly/wThFNtu

On the BBC's The Lady from the Sea, 1953 I've rather gone to town with extended blog comments about this remarkable recording newly available on BBC iPlayer, and about how we need to learn to look again at exceptional studio drama like this. www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/bbc-ibsen-2-...

Near Leicester on Sat 7 Feb? At 2pm, it'll be the first (only?!) performance of 'Four Monarchs and a Mic: The BBC's Royal Engineer' The tale of RH Wood, the BBC engineer who started at 2ZY Manchester in the 1920s, rose to Head of OB, and became the king's favourite. An incredible tale - join me!

I can’t tell you just how good and hilarious and spot on these are …

Unreleased Blue Note UK albums from the era of cool #jazz. #graphicdesign

#OTD - 26 Jan #JohnLogieBaird successfully demonstrated his mechanical #television system able to show a human face, at 22 Frith Street, Soho. Today 100 years later an event will be held at the same location to commemorate the anniversary with JLB's grandson. [AI image from an original photograph]

As 2026 marks the centenary of television (probably), here’s the story of another of John Logie Baird’s projects from 1926: Noctovision - Infrared TV.

Dear USA Policing and law enforcement losing the confidence of the community does not end well. Yours, Great Britain and Northern Ireland

TV is (probably) a century old today. This event is happening a few miles from me but, sadly, I can’t go. I may chase up later. May be a few tickets left … www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-future...

Sorry to see Mark Tully has died - he was very much an old-school gentlemen reporter, immersed in the region he covered. His is a very 20th-century story that I suspect looks alien and in some ways troubling to modern eyes, but he was really devoted to his craft and to India

A few days ago, I stood in the graveyard of an 1100 year old church, getting damper and damper in the drizzling rain. A woman walked into the graveyard, waved, said hello, and, as we had previously arranged, handed me a paper bag full of human bones. The life of a churchwarden is a strange one...

Here it all began … the first web server in an exhibition at Cern, Geneva.

Every day, nine to five, the keyboard warrior goes to work.

This was posted by @mambarlife.bsky.social in the Other Place and it’s too good not to share it.

In the 2010s, the Icelandic tv station Channel 2 accidentally added subtitles from a gritty crime drama to an episode of Teletubbies. I have translated some of the highlights

Just an update on DAHR (pic for dramatic effect). There are several things going on in a bit of a perfect storm: -DAHR was migrated to AWS hardware about a year ago. This change in architecture resulted in worse overall performance, and we've been working on it ever since.

A recent piece by me for the BBC: The BBC as 'the nation's clock'. Or, how a century of broadcasting has shaped the rhythms of our day As told through a whistle-stop tour of the TV and radio archives...

Something for History of TV Fans tonight on BBC4 It’s 100 years ago John Logie Baird first invented Television They are Repeats, but well worth watching - or recording if you’re old like me :-)

Where there’s a hit, there’s a writ … Part 643766 (But is streaming a sale or a performance?)

Close-up encounter with a jellyfish this afternoon. It was noticeably relaxed.

Free family of hyperlegible® fonts designed to improve legibility and readability for people with low vision. H/t @fredgatesdesign.bsky.social. www.brailleinstitute.org/freefont/

#70sTop30 #MusicChallenge Vaguely ranked Day 8 Go Your Way Anne Briggs – S/T (1970) She deserves to be so much better known, but highly influential nonetheless youtu.be/-P86wCfXNkY?...

I see that “FTSE breaks 10,000” record didn’t last long.

The word is that I’ve a 'movie' out shortly. It's true. My 2022 theatre show The Beatles / Evolver:62 was filmed, and selections from that + new material shot in Liverpool and London comprise a feature that'll be streaming from Feb 2026. More details to follow, sample here vimeo.com/1023543808?f...

NY Eve 1979 on BBC Radio London saw a six hour Breakthrough marathon, hosted by Mike Sparrow and me, to see out the decade with our and our listeners’ pick of the decade’s rock albums. We time traveled with 2JJ in Sydney and WNEW in NY either side of midnight. genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/se...

🟦 CLEAN FEED | MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s and Club MTV have now ceased broadcasting in the UK and Ireland. The main channel ended as it started, playing Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles. As of 6am, each channel has been playing a looped closure notice. #MTV #MTVClosure

A friend of mine got asked by some people if any good bands were playing at the weekend, she said "Well the New York Dolls are playing here tonight but I wouldn't bother, they're shite". They replied that they were the New York Dolls

Just up on the Telegraph, a thorough and thoughtful piece about the wrongheaded policy changes at WAC. Thanks to Kate Murphy, @illuminations.bsky.social, @unamccormack.bsky.social and @marklewisohn.bsky.social for giving up their time. Gift link here www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/65a1031...

I’ve just been reminded that the BBC Domesday Project will be 40 years old next year!

🚨CREATOR GROUPS and their allies are calling on the UK government to make its intentions on AI and copyright clear, and drop its support for a copyright exception in favour of Big Tech. That story all the week’s key developments in Charting Gen AI. grahamlovelace.substack.com/p/pressure-g...

THREAD. My parents' cat Bridget vanished. As the weeks dragged on they became ever more worried, so to distract himself my dad began to paint Bridget's adventures, imagining her travelling through time and popping up at some of art & music's most important moments. I've collected his work here...

A seasonal infrared greeting photo of Saint Hilarion Castle, in the Kyrenia mountains in Northern Cyprus

NOW OUTSIDE PAYWALL A guided tour of President Trump's 33-page, $5 billion lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation How some parts are strong, some parts are weak - and why a strict legalistic analysis will not tell the whole story. emptycity.substack.com/p/a-guided-t... By me

Thanks Cambridge Independent for this week's spread on my new book 'Time & Space' - can you spot the special guest at my book signing (not Rory)?

It’s time for the UK government to rule out an AI copyright exception. Stand up for British creatives, and pave the way for an AI industry that can thrive without exploiting millions of people. My piece in today’s Times: www.thetimes.com/business/tec...

Damn. I was really hoping I'd get to send THAT birthday card to Stanley Baxter. I wish I'd seen him in panto - common consent has it that he was the best dame of all, and it's easy to believe. However, I did get to meet him a few times, and I interviewed him at home for one of my books.

Long shot, but does anyone in Switzerland have an emergency Theremin to loan tomorrow night ( Friday 12 December )? #ViaMardot is playing a show in St Gallen, and the airline lost her equipment!!! We can help pay for a courier if needed, please share to get this message out!! #theremin #switzerland

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

I remember this story from a few years back: edition.cnn.com/2014/03/27/l...