It has today been announced that the BBC Trust has rejected plans to shut 6 Music.

In March 2010, BBC management put through cost saving proposals to cut 6 Music and the Asian Network, as well as scale back 25% of the BBC’s online content.

Following a series of concerted campaigns, Facebook protests and flash mobs, it seems that the BBC Trust don’t feel that the case has been made to axe the station, and 6 Music has a reprieve. The BBC Asian Network is not so lucky, and is set to close.

The public awareness of the plans to close 6 Music has had a massive effect on 6 Music’s listening. At the time of the announcement, 6 Music had 600,000 listeners a week – this has now risen to 1 million.

In 1920, what we now know the radio broadcast started. Radio pioneers at the Marconi works in Essex started the first broadcasts on station MZX in Chelmsford, and today marks the day that the first entertainment broadcast was made.

Few back in June 1920 had a radio set, but those that did were getting bored with the test messages being broadcast. The Daily Mail newspaper paid what was then a huge sum to secure the services of world-famous singer Dame Nellie Melba to perform the historic broadcast. The signals were heard as far away as Persia.

Ninety years later, in June 2010, a group of radio enthusiasts met in Chelmsford to remember this historic day, and Radio & Telly was there. We managed to secure an interview with John Bower, the chairman of the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society, and asked John to explain just what happened all those years ago.

As well as discussing the history of radio, John shares his thoughts on today’s broadcasting, DAB and how to communicate with space.

If you’re interested in radio, please take a listen to this illuminating 22 minute interview. You can download the interview for free, or listen online, at the following address:

http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/historyofradio.html

We wonder what Mr Marconi would make of the broadcasts filling our airwaves today…

One of the national DAB stations is to fall silent today. The Asian service Panjab Radio is to leave the Digital One national multiplex on 31st May 2010. The service will continue on Sky Digital’s radio service.

A few days ago, London saw the departure of one of their stations, Q Radio, which was an offshoot from the music magazine Q. Q Radio will continue to be available on the Freeview platform.

An odd situation – two stations opting not to stay on digital radio, but to continue to offer a radio station via a digital TV platform.

We all know that DAB radio is having a tough time at the moment, even though the recent RAJAR audience research shows an increase in digital radio listening.

The Government is keen to push ahead with the plans to scrap FM radio and get us all onto digital radio as early as 2015, and the next step of this drive is underway, in the form of The Radio Amnesty.

Retailers including Argos, Comet, John Lewis and Tesco, but oddly not Dixons and Currys, will offer a trade in of up to 20% on FM and AM radios brought in to their stores. If you have an old FM tranny you don’t want, you could get a decent discount instore on a Pure, Alba, Bush, Panasonic, Philips, Roberts or Sony DAB radio.

Old radios traded in will be reconditioned and sent off to kids in Africa.

The Amnesty is being promoted by Stephen Fry on BBC and commercial radio at the moment.

Some voices in the UK radio scene aren’t convinced though, including the radio group, UKRD.

William Rogers, CEO at UKRD says: “We are not prepared to encourage any of our listeners to go and replace their perfectly satisfactory analogue radio set with a DAB one which may not be able to pick up a DAB signal at all. This is absolutely appalling and one has to question both the moral and ethical basis for running such a campaign.”

Radio group Niocom and broadcaster Steve Penk are also against the Amnesty, with Steve referring to the Amnesty as “farcical, misleading and dishonest”.

Those interested in taking advantage have until the 26th June 2010 to take advantage of the Radio Amnesty.

Looking for a cheap, high-powered Internet radio / media player? o2′ slashedthe price of their oddly-named Joggler to under £50. It’s a steal.

Get this Internet radio, media player digital picture frame, news/travel/sport,weather service, shared calendar, YouTube player and Google Maps tool for half price for the next couple of weeks.

A great deal at £50, but it’ll be  twice the price on the 1st of June 2010, so hurry!

Get one quick from shop.o2.co.uk/joggler

Hot off the press, a brand new show from our Podcast team. Our presenters Pete and Carl talk about the future of TV, radio and the Internet, as we look at how the Government’s new, and controversial, Digital Economy Act affects you.

As well as looking at what the digital future has in store, we also look at the first 3D TV to hit the market, and see what’s new in the world of HD TV. We also answer our listener’s questions, and have a little fun testing out walkie-talkies and a rather pointless sound machine.

As this show covers some important topics, we’d ask that you download the show or listen online to this month’s podcast, Show 51, to make sure you don;t miss out. You’ll find it at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.

If you have an iPod or iPhone, you can get today’s show and sign up for the next shows via iTunes.

Remember, our shows are free, and we’d ask that if you enjoy our shows, you sign up, and tell your friends via Facebook, Twitter, email, or, of course, in person!

Bargain alert: o2 has just slashed the price of their Joggler. Whether this is because it’s not selling well, or this is a push to get them into people’s homes en-masse, is unclear. What is clear though, is that this is a bargain.

For under £50, you can get a media player, Internet radio, digital picture frame, news/travel/sport,weather service, shared calendar. With built-in Wi-fi and a USB port. It’s a steal, and we’re not sure how long it’ll be at this daft price.

The o2 Joggler can be purchased online for just £49.99. Limited time only.

Get one quick from shop.o2.co.uk/joggler

The BBC is rumoured to be considering axing two digital radio services, 6 Music and the BBC Asian Network, as part of a cost-cutting drive. The Beeb is apparently also planning to scale back its online web presence with a reported 25% of its online content under threat.

6 Music pulls in 695,000 listeners a week, equal to 0.4% of all UK radio listening (Source: RAJAR) and is one of the station’s more popular digital radio services. The loss of 6 Music would also be a blow for DAB radio listeners at a time when the Government is looking to drive more people to DAB ahead of the proposed 2015 FM Switchoff

A “Save 6 Music” Facebook group has already popped up – at the time of writing with over 65,000 members (nearly a tenth of their audience). .

The commercial station Absolute Radio has made an interesting statement. According to a report in The Times, the national commercial music service has announced that it would be prepared to buy 6 Music from the BBC, and run it more efficiently that the BBC has been doing.

The story rumbles on, with the BBC stating that discussion of the closure of 6 Music is “premature”. As the body of support continues, could we see a stay of execution for 6 Music? Don’t touch that dial.

Seen the ads for the o2 Joggler? The device that sits in your home replacing the fridge door?

When the o2 Joggler was launched earlier this year, the big selling point was the shared diary to keep the family in touch. In reality, is so much more than that – A wi-fi enabled device that pull down news, weather, sports and travel news, and allows you to stream music and video from your PC or the built-in memory. It’s also a digital picture frame, and from today – an Internet radio. Check our the FileSaveAs Joggler review for more.

Partnering with DAB experts, Pure, the o2 Joggler is now running Pure’s Lounge digital radio service, providing free access to around 100 radio stations.

o2′s decided to drop the price of the Joggler too, and this powerful media device is now below the crucial £100 mark – just in time for Christmas – until 31st December 2009.

More details on o2′s Joggler site

Digital station ourkindofmusic has been removed from the digital radio platform.

The station was available until today on the local DAB multiplexes for Bristol and Bath, Swindon, Reading and Basingstoke, and Southend and Chelmsford.

The station started in 2005 and featured jazz and easy-listening music from the likes of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Gershwin. The station was set up by radio veteran Eddie Blackwell, former Chairman of Essex Radio and director at GWR.

Apparently the station will continue as an online Internet service available at www.ourkindofmusic.net – you can listen online, or using a Wireless Internet Radio.

Update 28 Nov 2009: Website for Our Kind of Music no longer appears to be available.

The landscape of the UK industry, just changed.

GCap Media, owners of a whole bunch of the UK’s commercial radio stations has just been acquired by Global Radio for £375 million.

GCap owned a number of big-name stations including Classic FM, Capital Radio and Xfm. GCap was in the news in February for its decision to shut a number of national DAB radio stations, as we reported in show 24 of our podcast. Global owns stations including London’s Heart and LBC, as well as Galaxy. The new group of stations will now dominate over 40% of the UK’s commercial radio listening