Happy Christmas!

There's nothing I like more than discovering a good radio comedy series or a one-off I haven't heard before. Here are six of the best I've heard this year:

1. Two Episodes of Mash. That's both the name of the comedy duo and their very funny one-off sketch show on BBC Radio 2, broadcast as part of a comedy showcase series. Let's hope we hear more from them in 2011.

2. Nebulous. Mark Gatiss (from The League of Gentlemen, Doctor Who, Sherlock, etc. etc. etc.) stars in this hilarious sci-fi radio sitcom. It also guest-stars the wonderful David Warner. If you like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or early Red Dwarf, you'll like this. I think it's far funnier than both.

3. Beautiful Dreamers. Six mockumentaries, played straight, and all the funnier for it. Outstanding writing and performances, with my favourites episodes being "The River Europe", and "The Whalemen of Musungenyi".

4. Richard Herring's Objective, in which likable comedian Richard Herring attempts to reclaim things society has deemed unlikeable or unacceptable (i.e. the hoodie, the Hitler moustache). Lots of laughs and social commentary.

5. Rhod Gilbert's Bulging Barrel of Laughs. Especially funny are this Welsh comedian's Rant Club segments. The single-potato rant had me laughing aloud on the transit.

6. Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show. A very old-fashioned radio sitcom starring Steve Delaney as the arrogant, aging, malapropism-spouting stage actor, Count Arthur Strong. He is a fine comedic invention: all bravado and bluster and backpedaling. Delany has invested a lot in developing this character, and he shines here, making the mostly unbearable Count simultaneously acerbic and sympathetic.

Any surprise that these are all BBC Radio productions?

As far as I can tell, Nebulous and the first five seasons of Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show are available on CD. Season six of Count Arthur is running on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesdays as of the date of this posting. Of course, all these programs are "available" if one knows where to look. But support the productions and comedians by buying the CDs where you can, yes? Nebulous lists for C$21 and change on a popular book-seller's site, that's just over a buck an episode.

I heard a couple of poor comedy series this year too, but thought I'd leave the "bah humbug" out of this posting. Happy Christmas!

In praise of BBC Radio

If I could pay the BBC license fee of £142.50 annually, I'd do so gladly. What? you gasp. Nearly C$300 for radio?! Yes. First because of the excellent content, and second because, out of the major English-speaking countries' public broadcasters, the BBC's media player is the best.

Have you ever tried to find a podcast or live radio stream on the CBC's website? Maddening. You bounce around from page to page until you hit a dead end or, all too often, a dead link. Then you get to click "back" a bunch of times and start your quest again. Program and podcast pages are separate (why?) and often not even linked (huh?). It's like the Mother Corp doesn't want you to find something to listen to.

The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) site has fewer dead links, but it's difficult to find programming of interest due to poor layout. That said, the program pages, once you find them, archive past shows nicely. Once you find a program you like and its corresponding page bookmark it! You may not be able to find it from the main page a second time.

NPR's player is better, but a lot of their old material is up in .ram format, requiring you forego the player and use RealPlayer, if you have it installed... Does anyone use RealPlayer any more? I haven't seen it for years. Also, the site's navigation is far from intuitive: new content could be posted at any time on one of hundreds of pages, and with no index page or all-encompassing guide, you'd miss it quite easily.

The BBC iPlayer (despite some marketing dork's stupid recommendation for its name) is uncluttered, well-organised, and well-maintained. Everything from the stations' last seven days of airplay is there, listed by station then chronologically.

You want listeners? Build it simply and they will come.

And finally because I'm talking about finding content there are two excellent sites to help with that: PublicRadioFan.com and Radio-Locator.

P.S. BBC? I wasn't kidding about £142.50.

To make up for my grumpiness...

I've been posting a fair bit about things I don't like. Well, here's a couple of things I do like. A lot. Have a listen.

Resonance FM:
http://resonancefm.com/

WFMU:
http://www.wfmu.org/

NOT that I wish family illness on anyone...

...but, damn!, it sure is nice to listen to CBC Radio One's Metro Morning without that pretentious blowhard Andy Barrie yakking over the people he's "interviewing". If Andy doesn't return, the Corp. would be seriously remiss if they didn't offer the job to the always-engaging Kevin Sylvester.

When you monged so soft and blacked in cupboard

In the mood be deeply disturbed while laughing yourself silly? Download Blue Jam here:

http://chilled.cream.org/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=6fdbd33dd642ddf557929e04c1c2ddec&page=bluejam

You know those connections your brain makes when something is mentioned in passing? That's how I stumbled upon Blue Jam. I knew a bit about Chris Morris, having seen his excellent news satire The Day Today. But nothing could have prepared me for this. Hard to imagine it being broadcast on the radio, even after midnight.

I swear I do all the heavy lifting around here. Enjoy.

Get Thee to a Hootery

No, not the restaurant!

If you're a fan of odd stories, Google "Hooting Yard" and have a listen.