Jack Schofield is a clever man even if he is wrong
Posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 10:44pm. #
I’ve read Jack Schofield’s columns for a long while - he was my first friend on Orkut, indeed - and he struck me as a decent-enough chap, so I dropped him an email, inviting him to Virgin Radio for a look around.
I spent half an hour with him: showing him our studios, and talking about how we ensure very carefully that we were really careful about ensuring a really high-quality broadcast chain. Virgin doesn’t perform any file compression on audio that goes into the playout system, for example (unlike many stations), and has a linear link to the FM transmitter in London.
A quick email discussion with him earlier had shown that, in spite of spending acres of coverage slagging off DAB for “appalling sound quality”, he didn’t actually, you know, um, actually, have one. So, as a parting gift, I gave him a fairly low-range DAB Digital Radio. I didn’t expect that that he would write glowing comments about DAB - he’s an audiophile, he has an expensive separates system on which he listens to BBC Radio 3 almost exclusively - but I wanted him to understand the benefits DAB does give; particularly the additional stations and tuning convenience.
His predictable rant today even acknowledges that convenience:
My wife ended up using the DAB radio rather than our old manual-tuning Sony FM/AM/LW ghetto-blaster, even though the Sony sounds better
But he then goes on the well-worn route of audio quality - based on an apparent comparison between this low-end radio and his big posh separates system - and says he doesn’t like most of the stations, although namechecks quite a few he seemingly does see a point to. His point on audio quality is rather confused: he seemingly talks about the low quality of Test Match Special and complains it isn’t in stereo, which is odd, since that programme, in analogue, is only available on long-wave - which isn’t, quite, an audiophilic experience.
However. Matt Deegan and Nick Piggott have both leapt to DAB’s defence; so I certainly don’t need to add to the cacophony.
Indeed, Jack does make some valid points. He says that the UK should investigate DAB+ sooner rather than later - it’ll be the format of choice in Australia and other countries, and though it won’t necessarily lead to better audio quality, it does have its advantages and I’d agree that we should be looking at whether a migration (perhaps quite slow and partial) might make sense. He correctly points out that satellite or Freeview also gets you a good choice of stations at similar-or-better audio quality, though not so handy if you’re in a car. And he also correctly points out that broadcasters don’t particularly win if they segment their audiences into ever-smaller blocks; satellite television shows this too clearly, with a seemingly greater amount of crap and low-quality programming.
But I suspect Jack’s actually John C Dvorak in disguise. He posts rants, knowing we’ll heartily disagree and fill the blogosphere with links to his articles, thus increasing his traffic and ensuring he keeps in pipe tobacco for another few months. He’s no spring chicken - I remember reading and enjoying his columns in PCW, even, perhaps, the June 1982 issue with the chimp and the ZX Spectrum on the front. I suspect he’s reading this blog posting now, chuckling to himself, rubbing his hands together knowing that he’ll get a few more page hits. He’s our own Cranky Geek. We need more people with opinions.
So, instead of posting “Jack’s wrong”, again, perhaps I might simply link to this perceptive comment:
If Jack Schofield says it’s true, then it probably isn’t.
Photo by Jack Shainsky, used under licence
