به رادیو گوش دادن

Listening to the Radio

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 265: Listening to the Radio.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 265. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in the beautiful City of Los Angeles, California.

Remember to visit our website at eslpod.com, and download a Learning Guide for this episode.

In this episode, we’re going to listen to a dialogue between two students, I think, college students, who are talking about “Listening to the Radio.” Let’s get started.

[start of story]

Kurt: Turn that radio down!

Gloria: No way! I’m listening to a simulcast of a performance and it’s live.

Kurt: Is it on campus radio?

Gloria: No, it’s on the public radio station. I finally got good reception after putting this long antenna outside my window and I’m not turning it off now.

Kurt: You are so low-tech. I can’t believe you’re still listening to AM/FM radio. You should get satellite radio. You get shows in hundreds of formats, and there are a lot of stations without DJs. And there’s never any static!

Gloria: I like listening to the regular broadcast radio. I don’t have to pay for it and I’m happy with the stations we have in this city. You’re just a technology snob. If it’s high-tech, you love it and have to have it.

Kurt: It’s true that I know quality when I see it, and I don’t settle for less. What’s wrong with that?

Gloria: Nothing, but I don’t have to jump on the bandwagon. Now, be quiet. I’m trying to listen.

Kurt: Fine. This is the thanks I get for trying to give you a little good advice.

Gloria: Shh!

[end of story]

The dialogue begins with Kurt saying to Gloria, “Turn that radio down!” To “turn something down” means to lower the volume; to make it less loud, to make it quieter. “Turn down” is the opposite of “turn up,” which means to make something louder. So, Kurt is saying to Gloria turn down that radio, meaning I don’t want the volume so loud.

Gloria says, “No way,” which is an informal way of saying, “no, absolutely not.” It’s something you might say if you were angry or mad. Gloria says, “I’m listening to a simulcast of a performance and it’s live.” A simulcast (simulcast) is when you have a live—not recorded—broadcast of an event, usually something that is shown in two places or in two ways at the same time. So for example, there is a concert on the television for the symphony orchestra—they’re playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony—and you can watch it on TV, but the local radio station also has the same concert; we would say that’s being “simulcast.” It’s short for “simultaneously broadcasting.” To do something “simultaneously” means at the same time. When we say something is “live,” we mean it’s not recorded; it’s happening right now.

Kurt says to Gloria is this program “on campus radio?” “Campus radio” would be a radio station that is owned by a college or university. Most colleges and universities in the US have their own small radio station—many of them do—and students are the ones that operate, or run, the radio. I, when I was in college, worked at a campus radio station. Not at my university, but at a university that was close to where I lived, and a friend and I had a music show every week on campus radio. That’s where I first got behind a microphone, I guess.

Gloria says that it’s not campus radio; it’s a “public radio station.” A “public radio station” is one that is not owned by a private company. In the United States, public radio stations are not owned by any one company; they’re what we would call a “non-profit” organization. They don’t try to make money; they don’t have commercials or advertising.

Public radio is not government radio in the United States, however. The United States doesn’t have a government radio station for here in the US; there is something called “Voice of America,” which is a radio station for international audiences. This is different than the BBC—the British Broadcasting Corporation—for example, in England, where the government gives a lot of money to the public radio and public television station. That’s not true here in the US; the government only gives a small amount of money. But, most cities have a public radio station that often plays classical music and has news.

Gloria says that she finally was able to get “good reception after putting this long antenna outside my window.” “Reception” (reception) is how well a radio or a television program can be heard or seen. We say, “I have good reception,” that means I’m able to hear it very clearly, or see it without any problem. To have “poor reception,” or bad reception, means you can’t hear it or see it very easily. An “antenna” (antenna) is a long, usually thin piece of metal that you use to get the radio “waves,” or signals, into your radio. Most radios have an antenna so that you can get good reception.

Kurt says to Gloria, “You are so low-tech” (low-tech), which is short for “low technology,” which means that it’s very simple or old; that it is not sophisticated. The opposite of “low-tech” would be “hi-tech” (hi-tech). “Hi-tech” would be, for example, using a computer to write something; “low-tech” would be using a pen and a piece of paper.

Kurt says, “I can’t believe you’re still listening to AM/FM radio.” “AM radio,” sometimes called “amplitude modulation radio,” and “FM,” or “frequency modulation,” are two kinds of common ways of listening to the radio—they’re the two types of radio signals that you will hear, usually. “FM” is usually a little better in terms of the sound. So, “AM” and “FM” are types of “radio signals,” or radio waves.

Kurt says to Gloria, “You should get satellite radio.” “Satellite (satellite) radio” is a kind of digital radio that uses satellites that are up in space to get the signal. A “satellite” is a machine that is up in the very highest part of our earth’s atmosphere, and is used to send different radio and television signals.

Kurt says that on satellite radio, you can get “hundreds of formats, and there are a lot of stations without DJs.” The “format” (format) of a radio station is the kind of radio station. It could be classical music format, or country music format, or rock music; these are all different formats.

A “station” is a particular channel on your television or on your radio. “DJs” (capital D capital J) is short for “disc jockey.” A “DJ” is a “disc (disc) jockey”. A “disc jockey” is the person who plays the music on the radio station, who talks and tells you the name of the song; that’s the “DJ,” it’s called a “disc jockey.” It’s a very strange term; “disc” is something that is round and flat, such as a CD— compact disc. A “jockey” is usually someone who rides a horse, but here we use it to mean someone who controls not a horse but controls the music; that’s a “disc jockey.”

Kurt says that on satellite radio, there is “never any static!” “Static” (static) is noise on a radio or television program that is not supposed to be there. When you have poor reception—when the signal is not coming in very well, you can get “static.” It sometimes can sound like “ssss”; that is static. Static has a couple of different meanings in English, as does the word “reception.” Take a look at our Learning Guide today for more definitions of those words.

Gloria says back to Kurt, “I like listening to regular broadcast radio.” “Broadcast” (broadcast) is a program that you will see on your TV or on your radio that you only need an antenna to receive. “Broadcast radio” is what anybody can get with a simple antenna.

Gloria says that Kurt is a “technology snob” (snob). A “snob” is someone who thinks that they are better than other people, usually because they like a certain kind of music or movie, or they know something more than other people. Someone who is a “snob” may say that they are better than other people because they like listening to opera or classical music. To be a “snob” means to think other people are lower than you. Of course, you can like classical music and opera, and not be a snob!

Kurt says that if he knows something is good quality, he doesn’t “settle for less.” To “settle (settle) for” something means to be satisfied with something, even if it’s not the best. “Don’t settle for anything less than the best” is an expression you might hear; it means don’t be satisfied with any thing that is not as good as you want it to be.

Gloria says that she is not going “to jump on the bandwagon.” To “jump on the bandwagon” (bandwagon) means to begin doing something that everyone else is doing; to begin to do something just because everyone else is doing something. So, everyone else is getting an iPod, and you decide, “Well, I’m going to buy an iPod,” you are “jumping on the bandwagon.” The word “bandwagon” also means the thing you use in a parade or a procession to carry the musicians—the band that is playing music, but nowadays, we usually just use this word in the expression “to jump on the bandwagon.” “All of my friends decided to get green hair, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon and get green hair, also. It looks pretty good on me, I think!” Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.

[start of story]

Kurt: Turn that radio down!

Gloria: No way! I’m listening to a simulcast of a performance and it’s live.

Kurt: Is it on campus radio?

Gloria: No, it’s on the public radio station. I finally got good reception after putting this long antenna outside my window and I’m not turning it off now.

Kurt: You are so low-tech. I can’t believe you’re still listening to AM/FM radio. You should get satellite radio. You get shows in hundreds of formats, and there are a lot of stations without DJs. And there’s never any static!

Gloria: I like listening to the regular broadcast radio. I don’t have to pay for it and I’m happy with the stations we have in this city. You’re just a technology snob. If it’s high-tech, you love it and have to have it.

Kurt: It’s true that I know quality when I see it, and I don’t settle for less. What’s wrong with that?

Gloria: Nothing, but I don’t have to jump on the bandwagon. Now, be quiet. I’m trying to listen.

Kurt: Fine. This is the thanks I get for trying to give you a little good advice.

Gloria: Shh!

[end of story]

The script for today’s podcast was written by Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. This podcast is copyright 2007.