Can you help us help others chill?
Current mood: hopeful

I'm very excited by the feedback we've had for our Chill podcasts.

Meditation is a guided journey which is the best I've heard of its kind. It's had lots of good comments from listeners and has even made it into the iTunes podcast chart!

Living a Chilled Life has set off some interesting conversations on email with listeners, as well as with friends. It's about stuff which helps me chill in stressful times, and you can hopefully hear that it's not useless nice-sounding ideas, but stuff that's been tested in the fire of real life...

Nutrition has been really helpful for people, and I think it's been getting better week after week, with practical tips on what to do instead of dieting, and good foods to fill up on which help us chill.

Here's how you can help us lots - have a listen and, if you like them, follow the link to subscribe in iTunes. The more subscriptions we get, the more prominently iTunes display the podcast, and the more we can help other people to find them. It's something you can do today to help people chill!

By the way, if you can't see the links above, you can get them from our Chill Podcasts Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chill-podcasts/25164439280

Hope you enjoy this week's new ones, and if you'd like to get in touch about them you can email chill@radiomail.co.uk

Best wishes,
Bern

9:01 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

There’s only one kind of chill this weekend...
Current mood: happy

I absolutely positively refuse to believe that it's going to be a rubbish cold weekend. Summer has officially started, so the sunshine songs are in full effect on Chill and that's all there is to it!

Can we do the BBQ indoors?

Thanks for all of your messages so far on what you do when listening to Chill. There is still a little time to enter (until the end of today, Friday 16th) and get in to win a copy of Ben Mynott's Chillout Lounge 2 compilation. Ben puts Fluidnation together for every Friday night (10pm to midnight) and Sunday lunchtime (noon to 2pm). We've had so much good feedback from the extra mixes we've played weeknights that we're going to play some more next week, 7 to 8pm. If you want to tell us what you think, or enter to win a CD (by telling us what you do when you listen to Chill) email chill@radiomail.co.uk

Thanks also from the people who enjoyed the "getting to sleep" mix on Monday's Simple City acoustic show. It sounds like lots of people who were hot and bothered are now a bit more chilled!

One of the artists we played on Simple City this week was Sufjan Stevens, and his instrumental tunes also feature in tonight's Chiller Cabinet (midnight to 2am, repeated Tuesday 10pm to midnight). Sunday's Chiller Cabinet features the music of John Barry, famous for Bond film scores, but responsible for a whole lot more. Have a listen to his chilled side tomorrow night (midnight to 2am) or Thursday (10pm to midnight)

A new Eclectronica mix from Alucidnation and a new Fluidnation mix join a whole bunch of new songs recently added to Chill for this weekend.

And on Monday, I'll be featuring the new Jamie Lidell album on Simple City (10pm to midnight). If you want me to make a special mix of songs for you, there's still time to email bern@simplecity.org - tell me what's going on with you, and I could be making something special for you on Monday.

Have a great weekend!
Bern

8:18 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Win "The Chillout Lounge 2" on CD
Current mood: excited

There's a new chilled compilation out, lovingly assembled by Ben Mynott - chilled musician from Fragile State, DJ of the Fluidnation nights at The Big Chill House and producer of Fluidnation on Chill.

It's called "The Chillout Lounge 2", and it contains lots of our favourite tracks you can hear on Chill.

We have a copy to win every day from Monday 12th to Friday 16th May. All you need to do to be in to win is email us with what you like to do when you listen to Chill.

Are you chilling with us over food with friends, or are you more of a quiet-space-alone-with-headphones type of chiller? Maybe Chill is the station you go to sleep or wake up with? Or perhaps it's your comfort zone in a stressful office? However you chill, just let us know and you'll be in to win.

Email chill@radiomail.co.uk by Friday 16th.

And to give you some inspiration, we're broadcasting more of Ben's Fluidnation mixes every weeknight 7-8pm next week. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Bern

10:50 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Chilling out on hot nights
Current mood: accomplished

Ohhhhh yes. It feels like we just turned the corner and summer is in sight. The windows are wide open in the day, the heating has finally been turned off, and the big duvet has been swapped for the thin one...

And our neighbours have just bought a BBQ. Does it get any better than that? We gave them a DAB digital radio a while back, and now is the time it gets used for Chill to supply a summer soundtrack.

Are you chilling with us over food with friends, or are you more of a quiet-space-alone-with-headphones type of chiller? Maybe Chill is the station you go to sleep or wake up with? Or perhaps it's your comfort zone in a stressful office? However you chill, tell us and you could win a copy of Ben Mynott's new compilation album "The Chillout Lounge 2" - just email chill@radiomail.co.uk and tell us what you do when Chill is on. If you'd like to hear more of Ben's choice of chilled tunes, listen to Fluidnation tonight from 10pm to midnight, or Sunday noon to 2pm. We're giving away a copy of his compilation every day next week, so we've also put extra Fluidnation hours in every weeknight 7-8pm next week for you to get some inspiration, and enjoy chilling with us! Just tell us what you do when you listen - chill@radiomail.co.uk

Other Chill highlights this weekend include four fresh hours on Chiller Cabinet midgnight to 2am tonight and tomorrow, and another new Eclectronica mix on Sunday,

On Monday night's Simple City acoustic show, I'm alternating the focus between classic and new artists (see www.simplecity.org for why) - our first classic feature was on Nick Drake. This week - Joni Mitchell. Don't forget I can also make a mix for you if you're going through something and need some help to chill. I've done mixes in recent weeks for people moving house, cramming for exams and breaking up with boyfriends. What's happening with you? Email me - bern@simplecity.org - and I could make a 30 minute mix just for you.

Thanks to everyone who has given us great feedback about our new Chill podcasts - you can get them through our Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chill-podcasts/25164439280 . "Meditation" is proving really popular, "Living a Chilled Life" is getting talked about, and "Nutrition" has helped me get healthier this week!

Have a great weekend - hope to hear from you soon about how you chill, or what you'd like to hear.

Cheers,
Bern

10:26 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Chilling with us on the Bank Holiday weekend
Current mood: happy

It's been a busy week getting ready for a long weekend, so I hope you're feeling ready to chill as much as we are! If you can join us over the next few days, here's what you'll find on Chill:

Ben Mynott has produced a very special Fluidnation mix featuring the most beautiful vocal performances and acoustic songs. You can hear it tonight from 10pm or Sunday from noon.

There are two extremely mellow Chiller Cabinets to enjoy if you're up at midnight tonight or tomorrow, and they're repeated on Tuesday & Thursday at 10pm. Tonight's is a Skytone special, and tomorrow's is all about Tomasz Bednarcyk's "Summer Feelings". If you'd like a preview you can hear some tunes on his Myspace here - http://www.myspace.com/tomaszbednarczyk

Alucidnation has made more stunningly eclectic mixes for the weekend (10pm Saturday and Sunday), and for Bank Holiday Monday night I'm doing a special Simple City acoustic show featuring songs from the new album by  comedy legends Flight Of The Conchords (10pm Monday)

You can see all the track listings by following the links from www.helpmechill.com 

We're also chilling with you all day with tunes from our massive music library with no interruptions. It's not really looking like BBQ weather here, so I think we'll be enjoying chilling indoors with friends over some good old spag bol!

This weekend might also be a good chance to check out our new podcasts - we've just released the second episodes. Deborah leads another super-chilled "Meditation", Claudia explains why not to worry about diets in "Nutrition", and I share more about dealing with stress in "Living a Chilled Life". You can find them through iTunes or - a bit more directly - through the front page of www.helpmechill.com . Thanks for all the nice comments so far. We really want these to help you chill, so I'd love to know if they are doing that for you.

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,
Bern

9:22 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Internet radio - another way to chill with us
Current mood: productive

[Myspace has started making it hard to link to web addresses - it helps combat evil phishers and spam, but it also stops me helping you find useful stuff! So to read the full version of this post with all the links and pictures, go to my personal Chill blog here - http://www.bernleckie.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=10&Itemid=36 ]

Here's a common conversation I've had with listeners...

Listener: "Hey I love Chill!"
Me: "Thanks very much, we love making it!"
Listener: "But I can't listen any more..."
Me: "oh... why not?"
Listener: "I used to listen on DAB, but now I've moved / come back from holiday / etc and you're not on in my area. Aaaagh!"
Me: "You know you can listen online at www.helpmechill.com, right?"
Listener: "Yeah but I want it in my bedroom / in the kitchen / I don't want a big computer whirring away / my PC sounds rubbish / etc (x lots)"

If you're getting this, you might like to know about internet radios. I've been wanting to share this for a while, but I didn't know what to recommend until I got one and tried setting it up myself. If it wasn't easy to do, or if it didn't sound nice, I couldn't recommend it as a way to chill. Now thanks to a birthday pressie from my wife, I've been able to try this at home, and it's great news - it works, it's quite easy, and it sounds amazing!

All you need at home to set one up is a wireless router and an internet radio. You don't need your computer to listen to Chill!

What's a wireless router? 
This is the box you use to get a wireless broadband ("wi-fi") connection. This is now standard with a lot of decent web packages, like BT's Total Broadband where you get a free "BT Home Hub". Looking online right now, it looks like all of Sky Broadband's packages come with a wireless router, and they are also offered by O2, Orange, and others. Here is a list of popular broadband packages. If you need to switch to get a good offer, I've found this pretty easy in the past.

I'm on Virgin Media's basic package, so I had to buy a wireless router. Just search for the words "wireless router" on your favourite shopping site. I have used a Belkin router for over a year now (it costs £35), but there are loads of alternatives. For a link to see what I use, go here.

Where does the router go, and what does it do?
Every broadband connection comes with a modem, where you can connect your computer directly. A router lives between your computer and the modem. It's like having a 4-plug mains adapter - the router lets you use one socket to connect several computers at once. The best bit is that a wireless router lets you do this... wirelessly - hooray!

That's the complicated bit. When that's done, connecting an internet radio and listening to Chill is simple.

Internet radios
These boxes simply connect wirelessly to your router, and play internet radio stations. Some will also play MP3s, or other music on your computers, or charge your iPod or whatever, but let's keep it simple...

I got a Soundbridge Radio. To see it, you need the full version of this blog - here.

I had to go here to the manufacturer's page to download the latest software for it to connect to my router. (Myspace won't let me paste the link here, so I've done it from my own page...) That was the hardest bit, and I needed an SD memory card to get the software from my computer to the radio, but it only took about 3 minutes. Then it got online as soon as I popped in the password.

It came with a big list of preset stations, including "Chill - United Kingdom" - that's us! It took about five seconds to get a connection, then ran uninterrupted for hours. In a week of listening, I've only heard the stream interrupted once, and it took five seconds (and no fiddling required) for it to fix itself.

Best of all, the sound quality is amazing. I love my Pure Evoke 1 DAB radio, and didn't think I could find a small box with a better sound, but this does the job.

Is this better than DAB?
To be honest, I think DAB is still much easier to set up - if you're in an area where you get us, you can simply switch on the radio and there we are. DAB is also cheaper, with sets available from £15 now, with no other equipment needed.

Setting up this internet radio wasn't too hard because I already had a wireless router. It was annoying that, for me, it didn't work straight out of the box. You would have to be technically minded to go and get the latest software for it instinctively... but as long as you know, and you can put it on an SD card from your computer, it doesn't take long.

The best bit was enjoying the end result, which is a great sounding box which I can plug in anywhere at home, and remembers how to set itself up in seconds after the first time. This means I can (and do) listen in bed, in the kitchen and over dinner with friends, without lugging a computer around.

If that sounds good to you, and you can get a mate to help with any of the bits which prove hard in the setup, I can highly recommend the listening experience.

What if I get a different internet radio and it doesn't have Chill as a preset?
Most internet radios have some way of entering addresses for your favourite stations. Some have keys to do it, others (like mine) have their own web pages you can access from a computer on your network, and you enter one of these addresses for Chill:

2:28 AM - 3 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Where to get our new podcasts
Current mood: excited

Meditation, Living a Chilled Life, and Nutrition are all available now!

Hope you enjoy them!

We also have a new group for discussions related to the podcasts on Facebook.

(If you can't see the links in this post, you can find them at www.helpmechill.com)

Cheers,
Bern

8:41 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Latest chill news, and congratulations!
Current mood: chill

We love chilling, and helping you chill, and we learned long ago that it's something which is often best done together. So I'd like to thank you for being part of our online community - your thoughts and comments, news and music tips make this a fun place to be.

We've just been joined by our 3000th Myspace friend, "Green Feet", and some nice chilled CDs are on the way to her.

We've also set up a new Facebook page around our new podcasts - it will host information and discussion about "Meditation", "Living a Chilled Life" and "Nutrition" - which were all ideas suggested by Chill listeners to help you chill. You can listen to the podcasts themselves by following the links from here or www.helpmechill.com

This weekend we have two brand new Chiller Cabinet mixes, one featuring John Barry, and the other featuring Robin Saville (ISAN). Both are beautiful! Chiller Cabinet is on at midnight to 2am Friday and Saturday nights, and repeated Tuesday and Thursday 10pm to midnight.

I've been challenged by something CS Lewis wrote, to read an old book for every new book I read, to get a better sense of perspective on things! That's inspired me to start featuring a classic artist on Simple City for every new artist we feature. This week it was the turn of new artist Bon Iver, so next week I'm featuring classic artist Nick Drake. There's no new album out (as far as I know...?!), just classic songs. What are your favourite Nick Drake songs? Please let me know!

Lots more new mixes this weekend too from Alucidnation, Ben Mynott, and Chill listeners in the Chillout Room. So I hope you have a nice chilled weekend!

Best wishes,
Bern

7:58 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Next week on Chill
Current mood: happy

Hello -

When I was a student, I was solemnly warned against trying to do too much at once. The received wisdom was that we could choose two out of three from academic success, "society" success (like sport, writing or radio), or having actual good friends. Sure enough, I could only ever get two at a time, never all at once. (I settled for radio and friends in the end, in case you were wondering...)

It's looked like that recently with our Chill "what's playing" feeds which let you identify our tunes. We have three - one to DAB digital radios, one to Twitter (which also comes up on Facebook and my Simple City page) and another to Last.fm (which feeds our Myspace page). And I can't remember the last day all three worked.

Today I thought some planets must be in alignment somewhere - our DAB info is working again, and Twitter and Last.fm are both up too. Hooray! Except there had to be a problem... we were due to launch our podcasts this afternoon, and our specialist team (who do all of GCap Media's podcasts) are having trouble getting them set up on iTunes.

Doh! So, rather than do a half-launch now, we're going to save it until next week. They are worth the wait, I promise:

• "Meditation" is a relaxing and uplifting journey, with gentle, soothing music and the warm voice of meditation guide Deborah DeVries. You will feel refreshed as Deborah creates images to engage the senses and focus the mind away from stress...

• "Living a Chilled Life" is a guide to dealing with stress, presented by Chill's founder Bern Leckie (that's me). The aim is to start a conversation about what makes us overstressed. How do we turn stressful events into learning experiences which help us chill? That's what we get into here.

• "Nutrition" is a guide to how food and drink can help us chill. Nutritionist Claudia LeFeuvre doesn't believe in dieting, but does know how our choice of food can make us feel better. You will get inspiring ideas based on Claudia's experience of consulting for stressed city professionals and companies.

What we do have coming up between then is a beautiful Fluidnation mix from Ben Mynott tonight and Sunday lunchtime, and a fresh Eclectronica mix from Alucidnation on Sunday night. Both of these have been attracting lots of nice comments from listeners, so if you haven't checked them out yet, I hope you get a chance soon.

On Monday night I'm featuring Bon Iver on my Simple City acoustic show. Bon Iver is the artist name for a singer-songwriter called Justin Vernon. His album "For Emma, Forever Ago" was recorded during a self-imposed three month exile to a log cabin in north east Wisconsin. It speaks of darkness, fragility and hope, and was released last year in America to critical acclaim. It finally gets a UK release next month, and is getting rave reviews from the music mags. You can hear some of the best tracks on Monday night, 10 to midnight.

Hope you have a great weekend chilling, whatever you're doing.

Best wishes,

Bern

7:53 AM - 0 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

New shows, podcasts and gadgets!
Current mood: happy

Next week we have a packed schedule at Chill, with lots of music and some new ways to help you chill online.

Have you heard Alucidnation's new show on Chill yet? It's called Eclectronica, and it's a wonderful mix hand made by Bruce Bickerton, best known to the world of chillers as Alucidnation. (We play loads of his tracks, and you may have seen him at The Big Chill festival.) It's on Saturdays and Sundays. 10pm to midnight. Bruce also makes a podcast with the best bits and some thoughts about what went into the mix - it's at www.alucidnation.co.uk/eclectronica

In my Simple City acoustic music show on Monday (10pm-midnight) I like to feature a special artist each week and explore some tunes I think you'll love. This week I'm featuring Camille, whose voice you might have first heard singing chilled covers in Nouvelle Vague. She has just released a new solo album with some stunning tracks, and I'll play some of the best on Monday night. If you'd like the track list, it will be up from Monday at www.simplecity.org

We also have beautiful new mixes from the Chiller Cabinet and Ben Mynott's Fluidnation, another eclectic selection from Paul Noble in The Deep End, and more from Pete Lawrence.

Our big new launch on Friday will be our range of podcasts, designed to help you chill any time, anywhere. Our first weekly series will be:

- Living a Chilled Life - how we can chill in the middle of stress
- Meditation - a guided journey of deep and refreshing relaxation
- Nutrition - expert tips on how our food can help us chill more

These are a brand new experiment for us and, we hope, the beginning of a conversation with you about how we can help each other chill. They are designed for download and enjoyment in your own time - don't worry, they're not going to get in the way of the music you came to Chill for!

Our other innovations are all about that music. For the longest time, listeners have wanted more information about what we're playing, and we have been testing some new ways of providing this online. Here's where to find the info:

www.last.fm/user/chilldab has a live, up to date listing, archives going back several weeks, charts of our most played tunes and artists, links to find that music online, and a fast growing community of friends who love that music as much as we do.

www.twitter.com/chilldab is a more simple listing which is also live and up to date, and it's easier to follow on your mobile phone than last.fm

You'll also see our latest tracks on our Myspace page - www.myspace.com/chillradio - and our very fast growing Facebook group - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=7705060758 

The idea is that wherever you are, you shouldn't be far from what you need to help you chill. So please feel free to spread the news and share the links with friends you want to help chill.

You can find more info and listen to us online at www.helpmechill.com

Looking forward to sharing more with you next week. Have a great weekend!

Bern

11:42 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment