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I find it quite useful to be able to log on and listen to items from the NatRad "Nine to Noon" show (via the Xtra site) and extending this service under Radio NZ's own banner is nothing but good news.

It surprises me just how many people don't associate the medium of radio with anything other than music. It seems that most people these days only listen to the radio when travelling in their cars and then it's just to help relieve the boredom.

I wonder how many of these people realise the volume and depth of very high quality material that can be found on National Radio. News, current affairs, science/technology, The Arts - in fact just about every topic you can think of is covered to some extent.

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The big problem is of course, that most of us are working during the times that much of this material is broadcast.

To date, NatRad's response to this problem has been to replay some of the material at night and offer to sell recorded versions of other bits via its "Replay Radio" service.

Placing as much of this stuff online as possible will hopefully wake some of the sleeping masses up to the value it represents. And you might as well take advantage of it - you've paid for it with your tax dollars.

Quite frankly, radio is a highly under-rated medium.

I now spend far more time listening to radio than I do watching TV.

Unlike TV, radio is non-intrusive and allows you to perform any number of other tasks at the same time. It's also a medium that exercises the imagination somewhat more than TV -- that's something we can all benefit from.

When I'm not listening to NZ radio broadcasts, I find myself logging onto the Net and listening to stations from overseas via streaming media. I've discovered that you can learn a lot about a country's culture and "feel" by listening to their radio broadcasts in this way. Even the dreaded talkback radio is sometimes quite funny when it comes from another country where the values and perspectives are frequently quite different to our own.

The problem with streamed radio is that you've got to be near a computer to listen -- well that used to be the case but now I use a cheap FM transmitter (Dick Smith has them) to rebroadcast the internet stream through my portable radio. Now I can listen to streamed radio broadcasts anywhere in the house and even while I'm mowing the lawns.

With TV becoming increasingly like a dumping ground for bad taste and poor-quality content, I wonder if radio will ever make a comeback?

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