All About the Music

While tuning the radio for the football results one day I came across some French voices. This would not normally be unusual because being on the south coast as we often pick up crackly long range radio from over the water. What was strange about this was that it was coming through crystal clear on the FM channel. I later found out that it was being broadcast illegally from the home of a local man.

The story goes that upon travelling to France on holiday and falling in love this radio station (called FIP), he decided to share his love of the channel by downloading a stream from the internet and sharing it over the airwaves for the local population to enjoy! What a kind man…

So what is special about FIP? Well, apart from having no adverts and the only the occasional interruption from the French speaking newsreaders there is none of the inane chat that seems to ruin many British stations. The selection of music FIP plays is wide and often eclectic – imagine listening to the theme tune to Chariots of Fire, followed by some obscure world music, followed by a track from Nirvana! Difficult to imagine, but somehow it all seems to fit together and it works!

Throughout the day, the FIP listener is bombarded with a range that is so diverse it would be impossible to become bored! Importantly, for listeners looking for originality, I don’t recall ever hearing the same song played twice – a lesson that UK stations could certainly learn from.

If you would like listen to this station, you can do so over the internet. You will need a player to decode the stream – I’ve found Winamp works well – the software can be downloaded at www.winamp.com and once this is downloaded, if you go to file, play URL and paste in:- http://ogg.tv-radio.fr:1441/encoderfip.ogg you should soon be able to form your own opinion about FIP.

Au revoir.