We had our quarterly audience figures in today for Chill. It's obviously been a difficult quarter for those of you who used to listen on DAB in areas where we came off a few months ago, so we were expecting something of a drop in audience size.

But you've surprised us - and I want to say a BIG thank you!

Chill's weekly audience has actually gone UP this quarter from 220,000 to 229,000. Now this does include some months of still being on DAB in places where we are no longer on, but I noticed something very encouraging. The audience figures show how people listen to Chill. Thousands of people have followed our invitation to switch from DAB to other ways to listen to Chill, like www.helpyouchill.com, Sky or Virgin Media.

You've also been joining our listener community and inviting your friends, so it's thanks to you that we've actually added new listeners.

Just to encourage you to join in if you haven't already, the audio quality of our web stream is fantastic, and you can listen in lots of ways - from new internet radios to picking us on a phone you may already have. There are lots of ideas in our FAQ section at www.helpyouchill.com - as well as people swapping ideas for tunes and other things which help them chill.

Hope to see you there, and thanks again for sharing Chill with your friends!
Bern

An update on our DAB coverage in London - as we mentioned on the blog last month, Chill was due to switch transmitters in London. This has just happened today.

If we've just dropped off your DAB radio today, all you need to do is autotune. You will probably find this restores several London stations which moved at the same time.

Unfortunately, as we mentioned a while ago, our new slot is mono rather than stereo. Most DAB radios only have one speaker, however, so hopefully you won't notice too much difference. If you have the option to listen on internet radio, however, you will find that the sound quality is better there.

There is good news for some people within 20 or so miles from London who found Chill disappeared from their DAB two months ago, however. The coverage area of our new London slot is a bit bigger than our old one, so it's possible that autotuning your radio brings Chill back! If you have been able to listen to Capital Radio on DAB, you should now be able to get Chill on DAB too.

Best wishes,
Bern

Chill producer Ben Eshmade is putting an incredible series of shows together at the Union Chapel in London in support of the "Margins" project for the homeless. Here are the details:




Four very special performances in the Union Chapel in support of the Margins project, a charity for people who are homeless or in crisis in London.




Monday 19th October GAVIN BRYARS ENSEMBLE

(performing Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet and other works)

Gavin Bryars and his Ensemble will give his first London performance for over 15 years of Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet in its entirety. The piece was originally recorded on Brian Eno's Obscure label in 1975 and a substantially revised and extended version for Point Records in 1993 which included Tom Waits.

hear the piece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YuW4eyec8g

the wonderful story behind the music: http://www.gavinbryars.com/Pages/jesus_blood_never_failed_m.html

Tickets: £20 adv + booking fee






Thursday 22nd October THE MUSIC OF VERNON ELLIOTT PERFORMED BY NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA

(a tribute to the world of Oliver Postgate)

Produced in association with Trunk Records, this evening celebrates the music Vernon Elliott composed for Oliver Postgate/Smallfilms productions such as The Clangers, Ivor the Engine, Pogle Wood, Noggin the Nog and more.

Relive the memories!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga23iSxyXO4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKOLYu4wIO0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HArUmqqiL0s

Tickets: £20 adv + booking fee






Friday 23rd October MAX RICHTER PERFORMING FROM THE ART OF MIRRORS

(London premiere)

For Marginalised and to coincide with the re-release of Memoryhouse (Fat Cat), Richter will be joined by an ensemble to perform works from his album Songs From Before, alongside the London premiere of From the Art of Mirrors; a fusion of music and film by Max Richter and avant garde UK film-maker Derek Jarman.

hear some of the music: http://www.myspace.com/maxrichtermusic

Tickets: £20 adv + booking fee






Saturday 24th October THE MICHAEL NYMAN BAND featuring David McAlmont

(World premiere / CD launch)

Following their first live outing as a duo in January, the remarkable collaboration between singer David McAlmont and composer/pianist Michael Nyman has developed into a new recording project featuring McAlmont with the Michael Nyman Band.

hear some of the music: http://www.myspace.com/michaelnymanmusic

Tickets: £25 adv + booking fee

VIP tickets including champagne reception available from Union Chapel 020 7226 1686 (£75, no booking fee)


About the Margins Project:
In October 1995 the Margins Project was set up to help with London’s homelessness crisis. From that beginning 13 years ago, the Project's emphasis was on social support and providing facilities to meet basic human needs. The project provides services and facilities for those people finding themselves living on the streets and in crisis.

Marginalised is presented by Union Chapel, produced by Arctic Circle.

You can hear Arctic Circle's shows "The Hut" and "The Circle" on Chill every Tuesday from 10pm, and every Friday night from midnight. They are also available as free downloads from http://www.jointhecircle.net/radio

Hello,

It's been too long since I shared an update with you about how things are going.

First, I recognise from the messages still being received how disappointed many people have been with Chill dropping off DAB in many areas. I've responded personally so far to hundreds, if not thousands, and tried to answer any specific questions as well as giving the general answers which I hope can help keeping you chill. The most frequently asked questions and answers are:

Q. Why did Chill come off DAB in my area?
A. Our parent company Global Radio had to make business decisions about what stations to put where, within limits of what it could do overall. The company preference is generally to make sure stations like Galaxy can be heard as widely as possible - the business need is to attract the most listeners and advertising income.

Q. Can we still listen to Chill?
A. Yes! If we are no longer on DAB in your area, we're streaming at www.helpmechill.com as well as directly on this MP3 stream: http://media-ice.musicradio.com/ChillMP3 (if your phone can get internet audio, for example, that address can get you Chill on demand!). Internet radios are fantastic ways to listen in places where you prefer a radio to a computer. We're also on Sky and Virgin Media for a limited time. On top of that, you can find download some Chill shows for free to listen to anywhere, any time - you will find them at www.jointhecircle.net/radio - and we are always looking to add more ways to chill with us.

Q. What can I do to get more Chill?
A. Best thing is to join our community site - www.helpyouchill.com - and share what helps you chill. You will find all the Chill producers and lots of listeners there, and we love swapping ideas, tune suggestions, more places to find chilled music, etc. We have a mission - "we're here to help you chill" - and often that involves us pointing outwards to other things available, rather than just trying to get you to glue our radio station to your head.

Q. Can I make a complaint / sign a petition / etc...
A. Of course! Some listeners have been very active about getting a force together to try and get Chill back on DAB. Is a mass of complaints going to make this happen? Personally, I wouldn't go that way. I know that for me, complaints = stress, not chill. But we're not getting in the way of people who want to express frustration - I know that lots of people bought DABs especially for Chill, for example, and buying another radio is not what they would want to do right now. Of course that is annoying. The thing I'd like to encourage you to do is to come and chill with our online community for a bit, and see if we can come up with something creative to help you chill. And if you are part of one of our social network communities - thank you! Every time you share a tune suggestion, or answer another listener's questions with something that will help them chill, it is really appreciated.

Now for what's currently happening on Chill. We have some fantastic new mixes every week - Ben Eshmade's "Arctic Circle" shows have been a particular highlight for me. These are available as free downloads at www.jointhecircle.net/radio. Ben also has a series of live music events on called "Marginalised" in London's Union Chapel this week - I'm about to post about those separately. They are raising money to help with London's homelessness crisis, and they feature artists who have been very popular on Chill. More info at www.unionchapel.org.uk

I've been collecting some brilliant new tunes to drop in across the day and in my Simple City acoustic show, and the other producers are doing the same. We've also been very grateful for your song suggestions - you know some great music!

We're about to add a very exciting new producer to the lineup. Someone you probably know... More news shortly.

As for other future things, we've been doing some serious work on how best to grow Chill in a sustainable way. I need to be honest with you - it's a challenge, and something we're thinking very creatively about. Providing a great radio station and paying the bills in a recession without overloading you with ads and interruptions is something we can only hope to do with the backing of a brilliant, supportive and creative community - which you can be part of! That's why I'm so keen that you bring your friends to www.helpyouchill.com. It's likely we'll have some fun things to do which will need volunteers in the near future - we'll post more there.

Finally I just want to share again how grateful I am for everyone's support, including - especially - Global Radio. If you do choose to contact them about DAB, please remember to thank them for years of support for Chill. The way you get in touch can make a real difference to people's days, and we want to be all about helping them chill too!

Best wishes,
Bern

It's been an eventful summer! I hope you've found some time to relax - it would be great to see your holiday pics if you have any that can help us chill! I'm just back from a short break, and can see there's a lot to update you on.

First, the big news that I'm sorry many of you only found when we dropped off DAB in your area. As you may know, our parent company Global Radio decided to swap Chill for other stations new to DAB in much of the UK. Many people have asked why, and are asking what's going to happen to Chill. We've not explained this well enough, or given you enough notice about the changes, and I'm sorry for that. There are some things about the future which are works in progress, so we don't have news to share about everything, but here is where we are now.

I started writing some history and context here to explain more about how Chill came to be on air in the first place, why it has been sustained without the need for too much commercial activity, and why this is changing. It's turning out to be a longer read than I expected, so I'm going to put it into a separate post - "A brief history of Chill" - for those of you who are interested. Suffice to say here, Chill's parent company has reached a point where it's no longer beneficial for them to keep running Chill on DAB in much of the UK.

We announced a number of areas in which dates had been set to swap Chill for other stations. Unfortunately this was at very short notice. I would have preferred to give you much more notice. The reason I could not is that such swaps require the approval of radio regulator Ofcom, this approval had not been given until shortly before the swap and, for understandable business reasons, the discussions any company has with Ofcom about changes like this are sensitive and never publically shared until approval is given for changes. Once approval was given, Global decided to make the change very quickly, again for understandable reasons. The stations which replaced Chill make more money. It's a company's job to make money, so management was simply living up to its responsibilities.

Since we announced the list of areas in which Chill was being swapped over, there were further discussions with Ofcom, and approval has since been granted to swap Chill out in Wolverhampton and Coventry (where the switch has now happened) and in Scotland (where it has not yet happened). Although I would prefer to be able to tell you a date for the Scotland change, it's not yet been set, so I have no specific news - it's likely to be very soon, however.

There are no current plans to remove Chill from DAB in Birmingham or London. In fact, the London coverage area should improve slightly as the plan is to move from the London 3 multiplex to London 1, but at the same time it will start broadcasting in mono. Most DAB radios only have one speaker, so you might not notice much change, but you'll probably find better sound quality on internet radio if you compare. Again, I don't yet have a date for this change but will let you know when I do.

Chill has been extremely fortunate to have had carriage on digital cable and satellite recently, for much longer than we had expected! Just so you know, and as we've said many times, these have always been temporary arrangements, and are subject to change at short notice. So please don't be too shocked if we move from here - though we'll stay for as long as we can.

Now for the understandable questions many have asked - will Chill disappear completely, and what can I do to help it stay on or get it back on DAB?

I've always believed (as I've heard many of you believe) that Chill can and should develop into a business which fully covers its costs while helping you chill. That strikes me as common sense in a stressful time - there are businesses that have paid, and more that will want to pay, to associate with the station and help listeners chill. This is the long term way to keep Chill going.

But it's not easy to do this on DAB. For one thing, we can't just flick the switch back to where we were. Global can only run a limited number of stations in each area (due to monopoly restrictions) and it has made its choice. If another company wanted to run a new chillout station in those areas, it would have to negotiate a licence as well as carriage costs, it would find a lack of available space in many areas, and the overall cost would probably work out too high to bear.

There is a possibility instead of running Chill nationally on DAB. This would obviously be amazing. Cost estimates run to the best part of a million pounds a year at the moment, without any kind of marketing budget (which never had anyway, mind you!). Just so you know, this has always been a considered option, but a difficult one.

While we can't plan to get back on your DAB radio right away, we are continuing to help you chill online. You will carry on hearing new mixes every night, and new tunes as we discover them through the day. Your suggestions and requests are, as always, vital for this. We've always been about swapping tune ideas, just as Chill was born from the idea of swapping chillout compilations, and the listener community really appreciates the time you spend on this and our other sites, investigating music and sharing what helps you chill.

Finally, let me offer a personal point of view on the business discussions about Chill's future. The station is owned by Global. I'm very appreciative of the support Global has given Chill over the years. I feel very privileged that being on has meant we could form a relationship with you, and we've worked to give you this space to share what helps you chill. As you continue to take part, shape and share it, I think this is a really important question:

Who really owns chill? (Note I'm talking about "chill" as an idea, not "Chill" the station with bills to pay to stay on air.)

If we've been helping you chill, and you can share this with your friends, please do. Find some shareable music (we're growing our collection at www.helpyouchill.com), make a playlist, pass it on. Or grab one of our free downloadable shows, pop it on a CD, give it to a mate. Look around our track listings and make a compilation of your favourite chilled tunes. Or just use the track ideas to make a free YouTube compilation and send the link around on email.  You choose.

Most radio stations are about "listen to us, lock it in, don't listen to anything else." We've never been about that. Instead we have a mission - to help you chill. That means pointing outwards at the things you've recommended. We've always worked to give you the power to create your own chilled mix, playlist or station, and help people chill with it. Technically, that's not just possible now, it's easier than ever, and I'd encourage you to have fun and give it a go.

The point is, Global owns "Chill", but it's your chill to share.

I'll be talking with Global about Chill with that in mind.

Thanks again for making it all happen here. Please keep sharing what helps you chill.

Best wishes,
Bern

Chill producer Ben Eshmade - maker of Chiller Cabinet and the Arctic Circle shows "The Hut" and "The Circle" - is hosting a chilled gathering with some stunning artists performing tomorrow night (Tuesday 11th August) in London.

Would you like to come?

Here are the details from him:

Tuesday 11 August @ Union Chapel 7.00pm

Arctic Circle in association with Type recordings presents:
Helios - Goldmund - Rameses III

[for those who enjoy the music of Peter Broderick, Max Richter, Dustin O'Halloran, Nico Muhly, Sylvain Chaveau and Hauschka]

Keith Kenniff was raised in rural Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Keith started playing drums, guitar and bass at a very young age. He played in a variety of touring bands, from rock to jazz and classical, and took influence from each situation, learning from the successes and inevitable failures, discovering his musical likes and dislikes. He was finally drawn to study percussion at Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music.

His primary musical venture is the solo project 'Helios', showcasing his skill in percussion, his delicate touch on the guitar, his measured and spacious songwriting, and his self-taught electro-acoustic production.

Another of Keith's projects is, 'Goldmund', which saw the light of day with the release of 'Corduroy Road', a selection of solo piano recordings released on the young British label 'Type Records'. This album was also well received internationally, and some of its tracks have been used in films and major television series.

Hear one set as Helios and another solo piano as Goldmund on this special evening.

HEAR why it will be amazing:
http://www.myspace.com/thesadepicurean
http://www.myspace.com/goldmundmusic
http://www.myspace.com/ramesesiii

http://vimeo.com/4822994
http://vimeo.com/3975909


More Details and where I get tickets?
http://www.unionchapel.org.uk/events.php/178/helios_goldmund_rameses_iii

How do I get there?
Highbury & Islington Tube/Train

And the directions?
http://www.unionchapel.org.uk/pages/visitor_information.html


Arctic Circle also would like to mention :
Wednesday 28 October
Barbican in assocation with Arctic Circle presents:
Efterklang with Britten Sinfonia performing Parades (a once in a lifetime show!)

and don't forget the weekly radio show jointhecircle.net/radio

Hello,

I have some bad news to report about some upcoming changes to Chill's DAB coverage.

Next week, Chill will cease to broadcast on DAB in a number of areas: Bristol, Bournemouth, Cambridge, Cardiff, Exeter & Torbay, Kent, Norwich, Peterborough, Plymouth & Cornwall, Reading & Basingstoke, Southend & Chelmsford, Sussex Coast, Swindon and Severn Estuary.

This has been decided for business reasons by Chill's parent company Global Radio and Arqiva, the company which recently took ownership of a number of DAB multiplexes we have been broadcasting on. These companies have been fantastic for hosting Chill in so many places for so long, and I would really like to thank them for that. (They also have some exciting new stations coming to DAB in Chill's place. This will vary from area to area, so check your radio to find out more.)

No-one expected that Chill could ever reach so many people, or the massive response we would get from you. From emails to web chatter, fan forums to social networks, a community has formed around you, and it is still growing online every day. The technology is advancing surpringly quickly too, and this is why we have good news:

It's easy to keep listening to Chill in lots of ways - online, with a computer or an internet radio, with an iPhone, or with our growing number of free download podcasts for your MP3 player, now including music podcasts of our Tuesday night shows from Arctic Circle. For all the links, see our blog or our new community base www.helpyouchill.com

If you want to get involved and help the chilling community, please come and join us - the producers, listeners and fans of Chill - at www.helpyouchill.com. You can listen to Chill there, and we are making new things to share, like playlists of new music. You can also send us your messages and even write your own blog to share with the world and
help people chill.

In a stressful world, we're still here to help you chill, and I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
Bern

This week we are looking at new and convenient ways to listen to Chill, and chill with us.

Chill has new music podcasts available weekly

Chill producer Ben Eshmade, brains behind the Chiller Cabinet and legendary "Arctic Circle" live music gatherings, has the answer to your downloading needs. His new weekly radio shows The Hut and The Circle (Tuesdays 10pm to midnight on Chill) feature a variety of chilled songs, soundtracks and guest mixes.

You can listen online or freely download them any time from www.jointhecircle.net/radio

BEST BITS: easy to get, great variety of chilled music, free
NOT SO GOOD: errr... can't think of anything!
OVERALL "HELP YOU CHILL" SCORE: 10 out of 10

Frequently asked question - why can't we offer all our shows as free downloads?
Much of the music we play belongs to artists and record labels who make their living from selling their music. This makes it hard to give it away legally - our broadcast licence doesn't cover free downloads. However, Ben has done some exceptional work with artists who want to share what they do, and has licensed music to share as part of his Arctic Circle project. It has taken several years to get everything together for these exceptional shows! The tremendous response to the Arctic Circle shows has made all the work worthwhile, so we're hoping to produce more shareable shows soon.

Chill Meditation podcasts

About a year ago, we tried an experiment. Chill listener Deborah de Vries got in touch to suggest a way we could help people chill through engaging, creative meditations. We made some, offered them as podcasts for free downloads, and then watched an incredible reaction as the spread around the world.

Not only were they last summer's number 1 health podcast on the UK iTunes chart, they spread to the USA and became the highest UK podcast (of any genre) on the American chart too. Messages flooded in from around the world as these podcasts spread by word of mouth/email/Facebook/Twitter.

The original ten Chill Meditation podcasts are still available free - just search for Chill Meditation on iTunes or Google.

Deborah has recently been making new meditations available as audio books. You can find them on iTunes (for £2.95 each) or at audible.co.uk (£3.49 each) - search for Deborah de Vries.

BEST BITS: extremely relaxing, and creatively engaging - a unique style of meditation
NOT SO GOOD: you'll need to clear a few minutes to get fully involved
OVERALL "HELP YOU CHILL" SCORE: 9 out of 10

Other Chill podcasts

"Living a Chilled Life" is another experimental series from last summer which featured stories and advice on dealing with stress. It has had a long interruption (as Bern has been following the advice on the value of cutting things back!) but will return with more free downloads in the near future. You can get the original 13 podcasts from iTunes and other sites - just search for "Living a Chilled Life" on iTunes or Google.

"Chill Nutrition" features top consulting nutritionist Claudia Norris with practical advice on keeping chilled through healthy food choices. Claudia doesn't recommend gimmicks or drastic diets, but she does love food and relaxation. If you would like to eat to feel good, search for "Chill Nutrition" on iTunes or Google and get the free downloads.

Tomorrow: more ways to find Chill's music online. Why are we on so many social websites, and what can you get out of them to help you chill?

Every day this week we are looking at new and convenient ways to listen to Chill and our favourite tunes.

You'll already know that we are online at www.helpmechill.com. But many people want to listen in the kitchen, lounge, bedroom, or somewhere else they don't want a computer. So how can you listen to Chill's internet stream without a PC?

Chill is available on internet radios
There is now a wide range of devices which look and work just like familiar radios, but with a twist - they make an internet connection through your wireless broadband, and are designed to serve you thousands of radio stations from around the world.

Making all of these stations findable is the real trick, and the hard work is done for you. Internet radios read a directory of stations online, listed by name, type of music or location - so if you really want dance music from Bulgaria, you can find it. If you want Chill, you will find us listed on all the major directories, so we're almost certain to be on a new internet radio when you enter our name.

How much is an internet radio?
There is now a wide range - see this Amazon selection: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_tref_widget_0?ie=UTF8&node=310195011&keywords=internet%20radio

The most popular models currently cost between £100 and £130 - for this price, you tend to get excellent sound and build quality at a small premium over a similarly built DAB radio. The popular Pure Evoke Flow combines DAB and internet radio in the same box, so you might be able to flick between Chill on DAB and the internet (and maybe you'll agree with me that the internet version sounds better...)

However, competition to produce new, popular internet radios is getting fierce, so you can often get bargains on older models as new ones come out seasonally. Tescos and other retailers have been seen to offer internet radios as cheaply as £30. You won't get the world's best sound quality for this, but you do get the convenience of thousands of stations in places you wouldn't want an expensive computer.

Popular choice: Pure Evoke Flow (£119 from amazon.co.uk)
This is based on one of the most popular and iconic DAB radio designs, and features the Evoke's renowned sound quality which usually surprises first time listeners. You can also connect other audio devices (like an iPod) to listen to through those high quality speakers. Like other Evoke radios, one mono speaker is standard, but a second matching speaker can be purchased for stereo for an extra £35.

The directory of stations includes live streams, "listen again" streams and even podcasts. Chill is easy to find, and if there is anything you can't find, you can add the addresses of whatever you find with a computer.

MP3s from computers on your network can be played through the Evoke Flow, although it can be hard to navigate large lists of songs.

And if you're in the mood for a retro experience, you can also listen to FM or DAB radio built into the set, with all the trimmings (from RDS data to a wake-up alarm) you would expect from a good radio.

BEST BITS: great sound, easy to find Chill, easy to set up
NOT SO GOOD: second speaker costs extra, MP3 navigation fiddly
OVERALL "HELP YOU CHILL" SCORE: 8 out of 10

Personal choice: Pinnacle Soundbridge R1000 (£130 from computerwebstore.co.uk)
This is the radio I use to listen to Chill at home. It has exceptionally supportive bass and detailed treble speakers, sounding like a much bigger system than its rugby ball size suggests. The database of stations is comprehensive, but Chill is easy to find, and you can assign it to a preset button to make it pop up instantly if you like.

Like the Evoke Flow and many other internet radios, the Soundbridge will also play MP3s from computers on your network, or from a built in SD card slot - ideal for a home made party compilation.

Setting up can be a bit fiddly, because this model is a couple of years old, and needs a firmware update to talk to the latest wireless routers and get some popular channels like BBC national stations. It's not hard, just a little annoying, but if you're prepared for a little hassle, you get an amazing radio for about half of its original cost. Newer radios eliminate this annoyance.

BEST BITS: superb sound, easy to find Chill
NOT SO GOOD: fiddly to set up initially
OVERALL "HELP YOU CHILL" SCORE: 9 out of 10 for confident gadget fans, 5 out of 10 for others who might need to ask around for help setting up

What else do I need for an internet radio to work?
As well as the radio, you need a wireless broadband internet connection. If you're not sure if you have wireless, check the box which plugs into your phone or cable socket - chances are it's a "router" - read its name and model number and check on Google to see if offers wireless connections. If it doesn't, you can purchase a wireless router from about £30. Cable customers need a different type from BT/landline broadband customers, but this is usually made clear on the box or in a description online so you know which one to get.

Tomorrow: more new ways to chill with us
Ever wanted to take Chill with you on your MP3 player to play any time? We'll tell you how...

One of the questions I'm asked a lot is how you can chill with us if (like most of the UK) you find we are not on DAB in your area. The good news is that there are LOTS of ways, too many to list all at once, so I'm going to post some new ones every day this week.

Chill is available on the iPhone and iPod touch.
If you have one - lucky you! - there is even a choice of ways to chill with us. You will need to get a radio application from the App Store, and here are my two favourites:

FStream (free)
This simple application does the minimum needed to get you chilling. You need to enter the address of our stream (see below), then it connects you, and remembers for next time. It even keeps playing when your phone goes to sleep, so you can set it, pop it in your pocket, and forget about it.

Here are the addresses you will need to enter:
MP3 stream (128k) = http://media-ice.musicradio.com/ChillMP3
AAC+ stream (48k) = http://media-ice.musicradio.com/Chill

That's the hard bit. The rest is easy - just click the big "play" button, and it will connect you for listening through the speaker, headphones or hi-fi (there are lots of accessories to connect an iPod or iPhone).

Like all App Store applications, it only lets you listen to audio when it is active, and you can only use one App at a time, so it will stop itself when the phone rings - and you can't listen while browsing the web.

BEST BITS - it's free, and simple to use when it's set up
LESS GOOD - you need to type in the stream address yourself, and you can't do other things on the phone while listening to the radio
OVERALL "HELP YOU CHILL" SCORE - 7 out of 10

WunderRadio (£3.99)
This is my overall favourite radio application. Not only is it simple to listen to Chill (just search for "Chill" and we are top of the list), but you get an amazing choice of other stations from around the world already set up for you. It's easy to feel spoiled for choice.

Even better, it has a built in web browser, so if you want to get on with reading websites, checking your webmail or a bit of light Twittering while you listen to Chill, you can do this on your iPhone.

Chill sends all of its track information to Twitter (username "chilldab") and WunderRadio even has a button to connect you straight from listening to the radio station. So if you want to know what is playing, or what you heard a few minutes ago, just press the Twitter button and you can browse the list.

One thing which gets in the way of chilling online is hearing the music stop and start when the connection is less than perfect. WunderRadio does lots of tricks behind the scenes to keep the music flowing and deals with this pretty well. If you are technically minded, you can fine tune it to get your ideal balance of sound quality and reliability, but if not, you rarely have to worry about the audio stopping. With the iPhone, you can even listen on the move when you have a 3G or Edge signal, although you should check your service agreement to see if your provider is happy for you to do this.

There are other radio applications which are slightly cheaper. But I've not found one which has a more comprehensive set of stations, in great quality, gives you live track information and lets you do many of the things you might want to do on the phone at the same time.

BEST BITS - simple yet comprehensive, amazing choice of stations, reliable audio (even on the move), and you can browse the internet while listening
LESS GOOD - it costs £3.99, but that's a lot cheaper than buying a separate radio!
OVERALL "HELP YOU CHILL" SCORE - 9 out of 10

Tomorrow we'll look at internet radios - are they worth considering as an alternative to DAB?