# Talk Radio Europe A Few Things I Didn't Know



## NotinUse (Oct 3, 2009)

It does Not Cover Europe
It doesn't even cover Spain
It is not our voice in Spain, how can it be
It only covers parts of the Costa del Sol and the Costa Blanca
You may need to climb on your roof with a 12' ariel to get it
It constantly gets wiped over by some French or Arabic stations
Its not a talk radio station at all
It only has 6 listeners who ring up
One always sounds drunk
They interview famous people who are selling their book
They interview non famous people who are selling their book
They will interview anyone selling anything
They never say what you are selling is [email protected]
They put the book on their website so no one buys it
Who the hell buys books anyway
If you ring up and complain about the reception they will fob you off with "we will get our engineers to look at it"
No one knows where the engineers hide, some think they have been abducted by aliens
They operate from an old caravan parked in someones back garden..allegedly 
They run the same advertisements over and over and over
Some bank in Gibraltar will drive you nuts
I didn't know Talk radio stations also played music
If your a night owl they do broadcast BBC world thank gawd there is something worth listening too


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## donz (May 5, 2010)

I know for a fact they don't operate from an old caravan....


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

NotinUse said:


> Who the hell buys books anyway


I do. Lots of books. From Amazon and from bookshops in Spain. I still have a functioning pair of eyes and a brain in fairly good condition so reading is my chief pastime.
I don't listen to Talk Radio Europe. If I want intelligent talk radio I'll listen to BBC Radio 4 - which is what I'm doing now.


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## Guest (Feb 2, 2011)

You´ve noticed that on/off button on your radio?


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

ShinyAndy said:


> You´ve noticed that on/off button on your radio?


:clap2::clap2::clap2:


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## zilly (Mar 9, 2010)

I got dodgy radio reception--so listen using my computer-no problems.
I do like it for local news -info etc.. I don't mind some of the programmes-I like Howard Berreton and his music very much.
At least it's more interesting than some other local radio stations IMO.


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## country boy (Mar 10, 2010)

Yes I agree with Zilly; Howard Brereton's morning two hours are the best in Spain in my opinion and well worth listening to. His other programmes are good too.
Generally the rest of the stations output is mediocre to say the least. The Blues programme is fine as is the classical hour on Sundays. Like all Radio Stations you just have to be selective. Endless phone-ins are a yawn on any level. Cheap Radio!
Signal however is fine for us.


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## zilly (Mar 9, 2010)

IMO if Howard Brereton stays on in the morning it would be fine and I think(did I dream it) Stephen Ritson is back at the end of Feb. to do the rest of the morning-then I will be happy. It would be great to have Stephen back.I do think TRE is struggling a bit at the moment- but I agree with Country Boy-it is cheap radio-but better than some on the coast.


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

I have never listened, and never would, to this radio station but I have to say that the Spanish English language radio that I have heard (usually when a passenger in some else's car) is dire in the extreme causing me to lose the will to live after a few minutes.

I, too, am a frequent listener to BBC Radio 4 for serious radio and the Dorset version of Heart 1062 when I want to listen to some good music.

When I am in the mood to cope with some Spanish left wing propaganda I listen to Radio Andalucía Información. It may be the mouthpiece of the Junta de Andalucía but it is good for regional news.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Beachcomber;452180.
I said:


> I'm from Dorset and would be interested in the regional Heart 1062...what's the frequency?


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

Unfortunately the regional variations of Heart are not available on satellite. I listen to Heart Dorset via the internet on this URL which I have saved in Winamp as a bookmark but if you click on the link it should open in Windows Media Player:

http://mediasrv-sov.musicradio.com/2CR?.wma

You can see that it still uses the old Bournemouth commercial radio station name of 2CR in the link.

Alternatively you can scroll down to Heart Dorset in this link:

United Kingdom radio stations streaming live on the internet - Listen online

and click on either '128Kbps' or '48 Kbps' or click on 'Heart (Dorset)' and listen live from the web site.

Programming is very similar to Heart London but obviously the advertising and travel news is local.

Happy listening!


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Beachcomber said:


> Unfortunately the regional variations of Heart are not available on satellite. I listen to Heart Dorset via the internet on this URL which I have saved in Winamp as a bookmark but if you click on the link it should open in Windows Media Player:
> 
> http://mediasrv-sov.musicradio.com/2CR?.wma
> 
> ...


Thankyou, I'll set that up.
I left home many years ago but have dozens of relatives in the Swanage, Dorchester, Shaftesbury and Wimborne area...
I like keeping up with the news.


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## Guest (Feb 3, 2011)

Gawd, I remember 2CR... truly dreadful local commercial radio


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## country boy (Mar 10, 2010)

We used to advertise on 2CR!!! If they ran out of paid advertisements they used to run old ones...extremely good value:thumb: (We're probably still advertising if Heart have got the same policy ).


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

I listened to 2CR from its very first test transmissions round 1980 and it was great. With no satellite or internet I obviously lost contact when I moved to Spain a couple of years later and when it became available online it wasn't the same. I do like Heart, though.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Beachcomber said:


> I, too, am a frequent listener to BBC Radio 4 for serious radio and the Dorset version of Heart 1062 when I want to listen to some good music.
> 
> When I am in the mood to cope with some Spanish left wing propaganda I listen to Radio Andalucía Información. It may be the mouthpiece of the Junta de Andalucía but it is good for regional news.


You're not one of these people who think the BBC is a hotbed of institutionalised leftism, then?


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

I frequently detect bias in the BBC slant on the news although it is not as blatant as that on Canal Sur radio here.

I do subscribe to the opinion that the hierarchy of the BBC is populated by a proliferation of left wing luvvies who would be more at home working for the Guardian and that it is time for a weeding out of the higher echelon apparatchiks who are more interested in promoting their own self-serving agenda than taking note of the opinions of their paymasters (the licence fee payer of which I am one despite living in Spain). When you hear the words 'the BBC has learnt that...' read 'the BBC has been told by the Guardian that...'

However, the bias has become so obvious that it is possible to take it with a pinch of salt and to draw one's own opinions on the news content.


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## country boy (Mar 10, 2010)

Beachcomber said:


> I listened to 2CR from its very first test transmissions round 1980 and it was great. With no satellite or internet I obviously lost contact when I moved to Spain a couple of years later and when it became available online it wasn't the same. I do like Heart, though.



They ran a competition for the naming of the station when they were setting up. I submitted Wessex Radio but I agree Two Counties Radio was a better name! We had it on at work all the time, it was fine!


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

I particularly enjoyed the Geoff Allen 'Euro Disco/Radiotec' programme on Saturday evenings prior to going out on the pull in Maison Royal/Le Cardinal in Glen Fern Road!


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## country boy (Mar 10, 2010)

Sigh!!! Good Times Bro))))


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Beachcomber said:


> I frequently detect bias in the BBC slant on the news although it is not as blatant as that on Canal Sur radio here.
> 
> I do subscribe to the opinion that the hierarchy of the BBC is populated by a proliferation of left wing luvvies who would be more at home working for the Guardian and that it is time for a weeding out of the higher echelon apparatchiks who are more interested in promoting their own self-serving agenda than taking note of the opinions of their paymasters (the licence fee payer of which I am one despite living in Spain). When you hear the words 'the BBC has learnt that...' read 'the BBC has been told by the Guardian that...'
> 
> However, the bias has become so obvious that it is possible to take it with a pinch of salt and to draw one's own opinions on the news content.


I'd be interested in your opinion of Murdoch's control over the UK media. Whilst I agree with some - not all -of your comments about The Guardian/BBC it could be said that if the BBC should reflect the voice of the nation it should display a bias towards the Government of the day???
I think that on the whole the BBC gets it right, with a few notable exceptions- Andrew Gilligan for example.. Both the Tories and Labour complain it's biased against them. 
There is no commercial counterpart on the left to Murdoch and Fox News.
Do you think it good for democracy when a rag like The Sun can proudly proclaim, referring to the '79 election,'It woz The Sun wot wun it'???


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

I would add the openly anti-Semitic Jeremy Bowen, as well as Christian Fraser and Hugh Sykes to the exceptions. There seems to be a running battle going on between the government and the BBC hence, I believe, the withdraw of Foreign Office funding of the BBC World Service.

The BBC freely admits that it advertises its available executive positions in the Guardian so it is obvious what kind of people they are attempting to recruit. I believe that the BBC and the Guardian are inextricably intermixed; a position, given the Guardian's political allegiances, which is incompatible with the staus of a publicly owned, supposedly impartial, broadcasting organisation.

Whatever one's opinion of Rupert Murdoch it has to be accepted that he is responsible for making News International what it is. In the early days of Sky television he was making heavy losses which have now been turned into huge profits. If he had retained a controlling interest in Sky at that time the position now would be that 'they' would be trying to wrestle it from him rather than preventing him from trying to take it back.

As far as the Sun is concerned, it is more of a daily comic than a serious newspaper which thrives on sensationalist headlines like 'Freddie Starr ate my hamster'.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Beachcomber said:


> I would add the openly anti-Semitic Jeremy Bowen, as well as Christian Fraser and Hugh Sykes to the exceptions. There seems to be a running battle going on between the government and the BBC hence, I believe, the withdraw of Foreign Office funding of the BBC World Service.
> 
> The BBC freely admits that it advertises its available executive positions in the Guardian so it is obvious what kind of people they are attempting to recruit. I believe that the BBC and the Guardian are inextricably intermixed; a position, given the Guardian's political allegiances, which is incompatible with the staus of a publicly owned, supposedly impartial, broadcasting organisation.
> 
> ...


But you have craftily avoided my main question!
I don't disagree with what you say about Murdoch's commercial nous. But what about the influence he exerts over public opinion and politicians?
Yes, The Sun is a comic. But it influences people's political decisions as it proudly proclaims.
Doesn't the BBC advertise also in The Independent and The Economist? Also in the Sunday Times etc.?
I think we all feel that the BBC doesn't reflect our views at times.
You can't please all the people all the time....


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Beachcomber said:


> I would add the openly anti-Semitic Jeremy Bowen, as well as Christian Fraser and Hugh Sykes to the exceptions. .


By 'anti-Semitic' do you mean 'dares to criticise the foreign policy of the current Israeli Government?
By that definition I'm afraid I must also be considered an anti-Semite.
But it is not a definition I or most reasonable people wouold accept and I would take issue with it , just as I did with people who called Mrs.Thatcher a fascist.
It is a cheapening of terms and lowers the tone of political discourse.


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

If Mr Murdoch exerts influence over public opinion and politicians this is their responsibility for allowing themselves to succumb to it.

It is not the job of a reporter working for an 'impartial' broadcaster to either criticise or endorse the foreign policy of any country.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Beachcomber said:


> If Mr Murdoch exerts influence over public opinion and politicians this is their responsibility for allowing themselves to succumb to it.
> 
> It is not the job of a reporter working for an 'impartial' broadcaster to either criticise or endorse the foreign policy of any country.


So...you would approve of tightening regulations to prevent a Murdoch or whoever having the power to assert such influence?
Your argument about the public 'allowing themselves to be influenced' is interesting. Would you, using that argument, apply it to the BBC 's 'left bias'? Or , to take an extreme example, to the promulgation in the media of racist views? Would you allow, say, the publication of a Nazi journal on the grounds that the public should not allow itself to be influenced by it? 
Or does it apply only to commercial interests? After all the same principle applies.
Whilst agreeing in principle this is a non-starter in real life. False consciousness motivates people, as Marx said....
So Jeremy Bowen may have criticised the foreign policy of Israel. I didn't hear this broadcast so can't comment on what he said.
I will however say that to label someone as an anti-Semite is a serious step to take and in my view is quite wrong if it refers to what is perceived by a listener as criticism of a nation's foreign policy.
I'm beginning to think that the definition of 'bias' is 'hearing something which doesn't fit in with one's political opinions'.


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

I do not allow myself to be influenced by the left wing bias of the BBC just as I would not allow myself to be influenced by any kind of right wing bias whether it be from the Murdoch press or otherwise. I have the strength of will to make up my own mind but I accept that many people do not possess such a will. 

It is a matter of fact that Jeremy Bowen has been publicly chastised by the BBC for anti-Semitism after a number of complains about his reporting so it is not just me labelling him as such.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Beachcomber said:


> I do not allow myself to be influenced by the left wing bias of the BBC just as I would not allow myself to be influenced by any kind of right wing bias whether it be from the Murdoch press or otherwise. I have the strength of will to make up my own mind but I accept that many people do not possess such a will.
> 
> It is a matter of fact that Jeremy Bowen has been publicly chastised by the BBC for anti-Semitism after a number of complains about his reporting so it is not just me labelling him as such.



Alas, not many people think as we do about the media. I can state this with utter confidence having dealt with the voting public over decades. It is sad but yes, many people do not possess such a will. A failure of education, perhaps?

I know nothing about the Jeremy Bowen incident but was he chastised for anti-Semitism per se which we would all deplore or merely for criticising the Government of Israel?
There is a difference as I'm sure you'd admit.
And what about censorship and regulation to prevent abuse of the media by organisations of either left or right, public or corporate?
I'm not sure what I think of that.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

*In April 2009, the Editorial Standards Committee of the BBC Trust published a report on three complaints brought against two news items involving Jeremy Bowen, the Middle East Editor for BBC News.[59] The complaints included 24 allegations of inaccuracy or impartiality of which three were fully or partially upheld.[59][60][61] Parts of a news article were found to breach BBC guidelines on accuracy and impartiality. Also, one statement in a radio broadcast was found to breach BBC guidelines on accuracy.[59] The original website article was amended and Bowen did not face any disciplinary measures.[62]

The Jerusalem Post reported the story using the headline "Complaints of BBC bias partially upheld".[63] However, the report does not accuse Bowen of bias.[60] According to The Guardian, the problem was only that "Bowen should have used clearer language and been more precise in some aspects of the piece".[64] Also, for the disputed claim in the radio broadcast, the committee accepted that Bowen had an authoritative source.[64]*


OK, it's from Wikipaedia but other sites say the same.
No allegation of anti-Semitism whatsoever....
If the Jerusalem Post is satuisfied, should we not be?


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

BBC rebukes its Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen for anti-Israel comments 

This also makes interesting reading:

Biased BBC

but needs to be read with the strength of will that I was talking about.


​


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Beachcomber said:


> BBC rebukes its Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen for anti-Israel comments
> 
> This also makes interesting reading:
> 
> ...


Anti-Zionist is not the same as anti-Semitic. I am anti-Zionist, so are many Jews, but I am not anti-Semitic and neither is Jeremy Bowen.

The Israeli government is so paranoid about its illegal activities being seen in a bad light that they will protest about any report or article that they feel is "biased". They even made RTVE withdraw a travel documentary called _Españoles in el Mundo_, because it was one-sided. Of course it was one-sided - it was about Spanish nationals working in Jerusalem and it showed the place from their point of view. 

Personally I wish the BBC and the Guardian would be a bit more outspokenly left-wing, they are both pretty spineless these days.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Beachcomber said:


> BBC rebukes its Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen for anti-Israel comments
> 
> This also makes interesting reading:
> 
> ...


I saw the Daily Mail article. But both these sources could be said to be biased to the right!! And neither calls him an anti-Semite.
I view the Mail as I view The Sun...
And as I posted before, I no longer read The Guardian -well, I don't pay for it -after over forty decades of not being able to start the day without it.
I abhor the politics of the well-meaning yet woolly -minded metropolitan elite...whether from Notting Hill or Islington..


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina;453262Personally I wish the BBC and the Guardian would be a bit more outspokenly left-wing said:


> It is not the job of a publicly-funded broadcaster to be left or right wing.....the BBC is neither Der Sturmer nor Pravda.
> But I agree about The Guardian.
> At least I might find something solid to either agree or disagree with in it then!
> As it stands, I'd rather read The Telegraph and argue on its blogs.
> ...


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

I shall retain my own views in respect of the people I mentioned. These are my own opinions and I stick by them and I shall continue to treat their reports with the suspicion they deserve.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Beachcomber said:


> I shall retain my own views in respect of the people I mentioned. These are my own opinions and I stick by them and I shall continue to treat their reports with the suspicion they deserve.


I respect everyone's opinions - even those which never allow facts to influence their judgments!
You are clearly on the right, Alca on the left. I would position myself to the right on some issues and to the left on others.
My guiding principles would be those of Oliver Cromwell (I beseech ye, brethren, consider: ye may be wrong) and Mark Twain (When the facts change, I change my opinions; what do you do?)
I can't believe you hold up the Mail as an example of bias-free reporting.....
I regard it as a nasty, salacious little rag which speaks for the ignorant and bigoted. Most people who read it - my dil included - see it as a comic, easy to read whilst strap-hanging and full of gossipy articles about the sex lives of all sorts of non-entities, so-called celebrities and politicians. Certainly not a newspaper of record. 
But they stepped up to the plate over calling the murderers of Stephen Lawrence just that: murderers. So credit due there.
And you really were wrong: no-one accused Bowen of anti-Semitism, not even the Mail or the clearly unhinged Melanie Philips, whose views I used to respect and to some extent share..
He was accused of bias and partiality. 
That is very different.


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

We shall have to agree to differ. Anyway, no such problems with the news on Heart I'm glad to say.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Beachcomber said:


> We shall have to agree to differ. Anyway, no such problems with the news on Heart I'm glad to say.


I enjoy debating with you as it annoys me sometimes when there is too much agreement!
My favourite site at the moment is Conservative Home which gives a good survey of all the media and has fascinating discussions between 'modernisers' and 'true blues'.
I find these discussions interesting as the focus tends to be realistic and practical, unlike the vague, woolly 'peace, love, motherhood and apple pie' stuff that passes for thinking on much of the left.
The left concentrates too much on abstractions such as 'equality' and not enough on their sometimes very different real-life application...i.e. fairness.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> unlike the vague, woolly 'peace, love, motherhood and apple pie' stuff that passes for thinking on much of the left.
> The left concentrates too much on abstractions such as 'equality' and not enough on their sometimes very different real-life application...i.e. fairness.


You´ve just described what we used to call the "muesli belt" in East Oxford. (Many of them now vote for the Greens rather than Labour of course.) People who will join the union then take paid leave rather than go on strike. People who claim to support state education then send their kids to private schools because "you can´t put your principles before your children". They will give money to charities for the homeless but kick up a stink if the charity wants to put a hostel in their street.


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## Beachcomber (May 10, 2009)

Reciprocated, but I won't go too far down that new road at the moment except to say that I'm glad that David Cameron's finger has, at last, found the right button:

BBC News - State multiculturalism has failed, says David Cameron

Sorry to the OP of this thread for drifting totally off topic.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> You´ve just described what we used to call the "muesli belt" in East Oxford. (Many of them now vote for the Greens rather than Labour of course.) People who will join the union then take paid leave rather than go on strike. People who claim to support state education then send their kids to private schools because "you can´t put your principles before your children". They will give money to charities for the homeless but kick up a stink if the charity wants to put a hostel in their street.


I know that type and they left the Labour Party (if they were members) ostensibly because of Tony Blair's reformism, the Iraq War - neatly forgetting that war (which I did not and never will support) started in 2003 yet Blair was reelected with a handsome majority in 2005.
Many of them have lucrative careers in law or the public sector and would be appalled at the sentiments of the 'man in the pub'. They have little experience of business although enjoying the prosperity it brings. They work for Labour to gain power yet accuse it of selling-out when it has to make hard choices in the real world. When we lived in London my ex-husband called our particular brand the 'Muswell Hill Middle-Class Mafia'
Such people live in a world of abstractions and debate. To quote Bevan'They are purists and therefore sterile'.
They are also a huge pita when you are trying to achieve something.
I am ranting because I have suffered from these people....

Beachcomber; if a thread is interesting why worry about off-topic? How much can be said about TalkRadio?
And yes, good on David Cameron.


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## NotinUse (Oct 3, 2009)

ShinyAndy said:


> You´ve noticed that on/off button on your radio?


Ha such intelligence from someone who claims to be in the PR business.

So misleading advertising and false claims are ok are they

Nevermind

Don't call us we will call you.


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## zilly (Mar 9, 2010)

Are we talking about TRE again?


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