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Have you got an iPod? Of course you have. I could be the last person on Planet Earth to own one. Actually I’m not the last. Trevor White, a friend of mine who programmes the radio station Planet Rock stalwartly refuses to own an iPod because he’s a radio man through and through and believes, probably quite rightly that iPods will be the death of radio. I think I might agree. Since I got my video iPod I’m afraid I’ve also got an attachment which enables me to play the iPod audio through the car radio. So now I’m listening to more than just the Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio. Sure, I’m listening to my old record library - but how much Level 42 can any one man take? Worryingly I am listening to all kinds of spoken word content. Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code, the original Podcast, gets a listen a few times a week but not until I’ve heard the various F1 podcasts. There are quite a few of these now. The AT&T Williams F1 podcast and the ING Renault F1 Team Podcast are a couple of good ones and the Sidepodcast is cute and engaging. Radio 4’s Start The Week and Five Live’s Wake up to Money are also in my pod listening mix.

If we’re talking music there is a must listen place for me. It’s PANDORA.COM where you can create your own radio station to listen to. Just put in one of your favourite tracks and the software will start to play you a radio station that mirrors that selection. The really great thing about PANDORA.COM is that I don’t know all the tracks it plays. That is what I miss most about regular radio today. I started listening to the radio because it was the place to hear all the new stuff. Now there are very few radio stations where I don’t know almost all of the tracks some of which I have become thoroughly fed up of hearing because of the extremely tight rotations and high repetitions. Listening to Pandora as I write this I have never heard JD Blackfoot and “One time Women Don’t Bother Me” and I probably don’t want to hear it again for a while but hearing it once was a joy.

What are you listening to?

ROB JONES