Saturday 21 August 2010

Panic over: the radio is tuned!

So now I have a car it's easy to fall into the trap of: but I don't like the seat covers/radio/colour...

Actually, I'm still in love with the shiny "new" Octavia but was worried because it has a free-range radio that has no instruction book and doesn't actually do anything except spew white-noise, sometimes at full volume. The radio doesn't appear to have an off switch.

But today I was in a "multi" story car park. (what passes for multi-story in these parts: it has 2 levels) Suddenly we realised that there was some kind of display on the radio that works, and that we could see which wavelength we were trying to tune. Easy peasy.

And on the offchance that saving the stations is pretty much the same on all of these types of thing I started tuning and pressing like a mad tuning and pressing thing.

Result!

We now have the ability to select, at the press of a(n unlabelled) button: BFBS2 and WDR2. They don't set the radio universe alight but they do have:

a) the Radio4 Today programme
and
2) the actual traffic news
and
iii) local news.

Yaayyy!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you read previous comments?

Witchy Woman

Sho said...

Indeed I do.
And I reply!

Yelbakk said...

At least you got BFBS... In my neck of the wood, the choice is between N-Joy Radio (where they think that playing Shakira and Christina Aguilera all day long is a pretty good idea), NDR2 (where they think that playing Phil Collins and Tina Turner all day long is a pretty good idea), FFN (where they think that mixing N-Joy and NDR2 means diversity), and Radio21 (where they have not noticed yet that 70's Rock belongs to the 70's).

I got so upset with the radio programmes here that I settled down to NDR Info, which is just news and commentary (and jazz after 10 pm. Luckily I have some CDs for night driving...)

Yay, then, for BFBS :-)

Y.

Sho said...

I had to have a good belly-laugh at your 70s comment. I've been here since the 70s and I have to say that German radio (fashion and hair too...) has not changed since then!!

In fact, I often think that if you can hear The Sweet of Suzi Quattro you know you're in Germany!

Thank goodness for CDs eh?

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness for CDs, that's right. And NO thanks to whoever designed my old Ford in a way that not so much inhibits storing CDs, but actively fights back anytime I try to place a CD, well, anywhere. Anywhere other than the CD player, it must be added, although fairness' sake makes me point out that at times the CD player, too, fights back on CDs.


Having CDs fly around the interior of my car ranges from annoying to dangerous, while it touches on the hilarious every now and then, causing CDs to get all mixed up in terms of style, artist and state of decay. (Note to self: CDs do not appreciate lying face up in the sun in an overheated car for several days running.)

The latest mixup resulted in The Sisters of Mercy (Some Girls Wander By Mistake), followed by some Depeche Mode (Sounds of the Universe), followed by Anton Dvorak's 9th Symphony.

Yes, my CD collection seems to be exclusively male. Add some Swedish "Melodic Death Metal" and some Springsteen, and you will be all set to recognize my car in a million.

Y.

Sho said...

Your car might be a little technophobic, don't you think? Maybe it needs a cassette deck or a super 8 caIrtridge thing?

Sisters of Mercy - oh yes. Dvorak - indeed. Depeche Mode? What is it with Germans and Depeche Mode? I remember the WDR2 great survey to find the best band last year. Who won? The Beatles? The Stones? ABBA? Nena?

Nope.

Depeche Mode.
*rolls eyes*

Today my radio didn't want to play anything except intermittant, extremly loud Dutch talk-radio which was more annoying than white noise. In my frustration I started pushing any old button in the hope of making it just stop.

And discovered that the front opens up to reveal space for CDs.

I might give that a try tomorrow. But what to play?

evie said...

yes the radio
i helped you :D
but yesterday it went all white noisy again :( didn't it :( bute luckely i saved you :D

Sho said...

yes, indeed, you helped me tune it (so thanks for remembering the correct wavelenght for WDR2 Aachen region)

Perhaps you had better be in the car all the time in case i goes all white noisy again...
<3