Merry Christmas
- 21 Dec 06, 10:30 AM
In common with the rest of the country the blog will be taking a Christmas break until the new year. The Stephen Nolan podcast service will also be suspended until the first week of the new year - see you then!
Bah humbug
- 19 Dec 06, 01:23 PM
Had enough of the Christmas frenzy yet? Then you may well strike a chord with Stuart Prebble - he's the man behind the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s Grumpy Old Men series. And he's already had it up to here with buying presents, Christmas dinners and nativity plays. See if you are as wound up as him on the Stephen Nolan It also includes an interview with a man who drinks his own ... actually why not just listen for yourself?
The world's oldest record store
- 12 Dec 06, 03:10 PM
You may remember a few weeks ago Good Morning Ulster ran a feature on the demise of independently run record stores here.
Clearly this is not a trend which is confined to Northern Ireland. Today The Guardian is carrying a feature about the immenent demise of the world's oldest record store in Cardiff.
This time it is not lack of business but rising rent that is to blame and you can read the story
Does this bother any of you music fans out there or are you happy to pay the lower prices at Amazon or at the checkout in your local supermarket?
Stephen you're a...
- 12 Dec 06, 01:08 PM
If you missed what angry caller Wesley called Stephen before slamming the phone down on him this morning go to the download and listen to the last five minutes of it
Radio Days
- 6 Dec 06, 01:24 PM
There was a great deal of discussion about what the future holds for radio at a recent meeting of the in London.
The title of the day was 'Radio at the Edge' and it was looking at where radio will go in the era of the internet, mobile phones, digital listening, iPods and so on.
The day opened with Andy Duncan, the chief executive of who said he believed that the radio industry is going through a much bigger change than it realises. Andy believes that both AM and FM will fall away over the next five to ten years during which broadcasting will turn into a two way landscape with much more audience participation.
Basically Andy's warning was that radio is more vulnerable than people might realise - especially to a younger generation - and that if it does not reinvent itself it will decline.
But he also believes that digital will allow radio to reinvent itself in terms of its relationship to the audience.
This theme was later picked up by Martin Talks of which produces podcasts for companies. He described radio as being like a library where you have to wait for a book - but on the internet you can just go and get the book. Martin believes that relevancy to the audience is increasingly being dictated by the audience.
And Tom Coates, who has worked for Yahoo and for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, went further. He said all the media which have been in dominant positions so far will gradually diminish. Tom believes that although radio has been resistant to the changes so far it too will diminish gradually.
James Cridland from pointed out that there are more mobile phone users than PC users in the UK and therefore the radio industry would be better focusing on them because that is where young people spend their time.
With screens appearing on radios and radio's availability on phones and on television James wonders whether we should now just simply refer to the audience, rather than to listeners or to viewers.
Further evidence of the growing popularity of interactivity was provided by Ben Chapman, an interactive television producer at the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. He revealed that more than 19 million adults are listening to the radio on the television and that a million of them are pressing the red button on Freeview for the interactive options.
Later there was also a spirited discussion on what the future holds for AM. The most trenchant contribution came from Fru Hazlitt, of Virgin Radio.
She believes that it should be ditched as soon as possible because AM gives people the wrong impression of how radio will be in the future.
Or as she put it succinctly "AM makes you realise the need for a digital future."
So there it is there is everything to play for - but which direction would you like to see us head off in?
Download difficulties
- 5 Dec 06, 10:00 AM
News reaches us that we are having server problems which are sporadically interrupting download of podcasts from the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. This is being caused by a faulty connection to the server where the downloads are stored. Internet Services are trying to fix it at the moment but in the meantime you may have trouble downloading the Stephen Nolan show. We will let you know when it is fixed.
Who's to blame
- 4 Dec 06, 12:11 PM
Saturday's CIS Cup Final at Windsor Park between Glentoran and Cliftonville was described as a great showcase for the game. But afterwards a three hundred strong group of Cliftonville fans threw bricks and bottles at police. Several officers were injured but no arrests were made.
Who was to blame? Some callers to the Nolan Show were unhappy with police tactics - others said it was the fans who were at fault. Hear their views on the podcast.
Earlier the Belfast Telegraph's sports editor Stephen Beacom was forthright in his condemnation. You can find him on the listen again facility for Good Morning Ulster at about 50 minutes into the programme.
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