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The Herald Scotland
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
A radio station for builders? I tuned in - and this is what it is like
The upside is I've discovered radio stations I've never heard of before. Taking my daughter to work this morning I landed on Fix Radio, 'The Builder's Station'. Yes, that is a thing. It's a radio station for tradespeople, launched back in 2017. I tuned into The Bald Builders Breakfast, presented by Brad and Sam, which offered up the familiar Zoo format morning format which has been part of the radio landscape since the 1970s in the United States and the 1980s in the UK (thanks to the late Steve Wright). The difference here is that Brad and Sam, when they weren't discussing the strangest thing to wrap up a T-shirt in to send through the post (a melon, bizarrely), were talking about getting stuck into the plastering. Brad and Sam are brothers in law and they are actual builders, so they're speaking from a place of knowledge. Which must mark them out amongst their fellow radio broadcasters, you'd imagine. (And any passing radio reviewers for that matter.) The music played is all old school; mostly 1980s and 1990s with the odd noughties banger thrown in. It was a little curious hearing Franz Ferdinand's libidinous, polymorphous single Do You Want To blaring out in the middle of all this, but maybe building sites are more liberal places than when I spent my summers on them in the late 1970s. In truth, a radio station for the building trade - complete with appropriate advertising - seems a bit of a no-brainer. A radio is as essential a bit of kit onsite as a cement mixer and a spirit level. My last summer working with my dad - on a roof in County Londonderry back in 1980 - was soundtracked by Radio 1: Dexys, Grace Jones, Simon Bates's Golden Hour and Paul Burnett. (You never hear much about Paul Burnett these days, do you? I've just looked him up. Now in his eighties, he's still with us, hurrah, and even turns up occasionally on Boom Radio.) Funnily enough, I've been thinking back to my days as a labourer of late. Charlie Orr, my dad's workmate and friend, passed away the other week. He was a good man, kind to the fundamentally useless, dreamy teenage boy I was back then. He tolerated me playing Radio 1 all the time for a start. I'm ashamed to say I never asked him what music he liked. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting Charlie to turn up in this column, but he deserves to be remembered and so here we are. Anyway, it's not all banter and Boo Radley tunes on Fix Radio. Clive Holland - formerly of BBC One, GMTV and Channel 4 - presents a discussion show every weekday lunchtime. On Monday the topic was the impact of migration on the building trade. The impact of legal migration, Holland was at pains to point out. Mostly, the discussion amounted to Holland reading out messages from his listeners. The messages were actually rather more nuanced than you might have expected, with much talk of skill shortages post-Brexit. Further proof that we shouldn't stereotype anyone. That said, the Prime Minister probably shouldn't tune in if he's wanting an ego boost. From immigration to Eurovision. I was out on Saturday night so only joined Radio 2's coverage of the contest after all the performances had been completed. Rylan and Scott Mills were on duty. I tuned it just as they were talking over the Swiss performers who were filling the interval slot like a pair of over-caffeinated schoolboys. Ugh. Admittedly, I've never really warmed to Mills as a broadcaster (my failing, not his), but he was definitely invested in the proceedings. And it was clear (and quite amusing) that both men were 'fuming' when the UK entry Remember Monday received 'nul points' in the public vote. 'That's ridiculous …Ridiculous … I can't …' Rylan gasped, lost for words for once. 'That's made me quite upset,' Mills raged. He was all the more so when 258 points were then awarded to Estonia. How long before Reform calls for a referendum on leaving Eurovision? Listen Out For: Radio 2 in Concert, Thursday, May 29, 7pm If your tastes are more Britpop than Europop, you might enjoy this. A world exclusive session from Sheffield's finest, Pulp, recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre. They've got a new album coming out, you might have heard. So have Suede, come to think of it. And it won't be long before those Oasis gigs. It's 1995 all over again.
Forbes
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
NYT ‘Connections' Hints And Answers For Friday, April 18
Find the links between the words to win today's game of Connections. Looking for Thursday's NYT Connections hints, clues and answers instead? You can find them here: Hey there, Connectors (I'm sticking with it)! The weekend is almost upon us. Earlier this week, I went to a Franz Ferdinand show. I've seen them many times over the years and they're always incredibly fun ("Do You Want To" is a better and more danceable song than "Take Me Out," don't @ me). After I saw them in my hometown a certain number of years ago, I posted a tweet about how much I enjoyed the show. The next morning, frontman Alex Kapranos sent me a direct message to tell me he appreciated my praise. I appreciated his appreciation. It was such a nice little gesture. It only took him a few seconds to compose and send, but I still remember it over a decade later. Just like that time Duncan Jones tried to help me figure out screening times for Moon when I wasn't able to do so on my work computer. Going even just a little out of your way to do something that can brighten up a stranger's day can have an immense, positive, long-lasting impact. I'm a Franz Ferdinand fan for life. Before we begin, I've set up a discussion group for NYT Connections and this column on Discord. We have a great little community over there and we chat about more than NYT games. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It's a fun hangout spot. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder It's also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up since I don't look at the comments or Twitter much. Today's NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, April 18, are coming right up. Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT website or Games app. You're presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part. There's only one solution for each puzzle, and you'll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them. Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay. Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you're incorrect, you'll lose a life. If you're close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you're one word away from getting it right, but you'll still need to figure out which one to swap. If you make four mistakes, it's game over. Let's make sure that doesn't happen with the help of some hints, and, if you're really struggling, today's Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it's easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication's Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed. Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query. Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today's Connections groups, I'll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them. Today's 16 words are... And the hints for today's Connections groups are: Need some extra help? Be warned: we're starting to get into spoiler territory. Today's Connections groups are... Spoiler alert! Don't scroll any further down the page until you're ready to find out today's Connections answers. This is your final warning! Today's Connections answers are... Yet another perfect game brings me up to 52 victories in a row! Let's keep that going. Here's how I fared: 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 At first, I thought there might be a group of words with two sets of double letters – POSSESSION, GOODNESS, EFFECT and SHINING – but there were more than four of those on the grid! I also didn't think that we'd have a group of horror movies, since we had one pretty recently that included SHINING, if I recall correctly. But still, I took a stab with that, HAUNTING, EXORCIST and BIRDS. That turned out to be the greens. The yellows then became clear. Oh boy, halfway there! BELONGING and POSSESSION clearly had to go together at that point. GOOD and EFFECT were their obvious partners. I figures that had to be the blues and there was something trickier going on with the other group so I submitted that first. But no, "things you can pick" turned out to be the blues. That's a weirdly easy purple group today. I'm sure, because of that, Saturday's purple group will be something like the first four hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone. That's all there is to it for today's Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Saturday's game if you need them. P.S. I've loved We Are Scientists for a long time. That first album is fantastic and they've put out some great stuff since then. A buddy of mine sent over their latest song and video, "Please Don't Say It," and needless to say, I'm into this. As tends to be the case with this band, the song is a typically enjoyable slice of indie rock with a fun video. I hope you dig it too: Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love! Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. Also, follow me on Bluesky! It's fun there.
