News

“Like TiVo® for radio” is the most common way we hear it described.

We’re talking about the RadioTime online directory, combined with software such as RedButton (Windows) or Rogue Amoeba’s Radioshift (Mac), which allows you to schedule recordings of radio shows for listening later.

As the Random Precision Radio Network expands — five affiliate stations so far — we’ve turned to RadioTime to help us track our growing number of air dates and times for our weekly “Floydian Slip” show in a single space.

The real power of the directory comes when you combine it with one of many software or hardware products that use the directory to allow listeners to schedule weekly recordings of the program.

Desktop recording is just one option. Many mobile solutions allow you to tune in, capture streams and listen later on your cellphone.

We have no affiliation with Radiotime or any of the products it powers, but wanted to give them a shoutout as a great way to make sure you don’t miss a single episode of “Floydian Slip.”

L’Osservatore Romano, the unofficial newspaper of the Vatican, has published a list of its top album picks of all time. Pink Floyd‘s “Dark Side of the Moon” (1973) made the list.

Also on the paper’s list of desert island discs are: “Thriller,” Michael Jackson; “Revolver,” The Beatles; “Graceland,” Paul Simon; “Supernatural,” Carlos Santana; “If I Could Only Remember My Name,” David Crosby; “Rumours,” Fleetwood Mac; “The Nightfly,” Donald Fagen; “Achtung Baby,” U2; and “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory,” Oasis.

Though the image of Pope Benedict XVI, earbuds in place, chillin’ to “Dark Side” is irresistible, we’re told El Papa isn’t actually consulted on these types of lists and entertainment reviews the paper has recently been publishing with increasing frequency.

Pink Floyd University, a new correspondence course devoted to all things Floydian, has opened its virtual doors.

The project is an evolution of two courses Karl “Pink” Anderson (pictured) taught at Renton Technical College (RTC) in Renton, Wash., 10 years ago.

Anderson, now in Bay City, Ore., has expanded the curriculum to include what he promises will be an exhaustive study of the band and its output contained in 30 modules.

Registration for the course is $125, with each module costing an additional $50. Students receive course materials — including audio material — either via email or snail mail. With a maximum of four weeks to complete each module, students can graduate within 2½ years at a total cost of $1,625.

Anderson used archives from our Floydian Slip radio show to supplement his courses back at RTC. We have no official tie to PFU.

More information is available at the PFU Web site, or email Anderson at redpanda54@embarqmail.com.

Pink Floyd‘s 1973 album “The Dark Side of the Moon” was the third best-selling “catalog” album of the decade, according to Billboard magazine.

The album followed “Legend” by Bob Marley & The Wailers at #2, and “Greatest Hits” by Bob Segar & the Silver Bullet Band, which was the best-selling catalog album of the decade.

Billboard defines catalog albums as those that are at least 18 months old, and have fallen below #100 on the Billboard 200 chart, or are reissues of older titles.

“Dark Side” recently rejoined the Billboard 200 after a 20-year absence. The album is Billboard’s longest-charting album ever.

Read our previous posts about the chart history of “Dark Side”:

• “Dark Side” returns to Billboard 200
• “Dark Side” poised for return to charts

“Floydian Slip” is featured in the latest issue of MacFormat magazine.

Issue #216 features the Mac Pro setup we use to produce, distribute and market our weekly Pink Floyd radio show. The article includes photos of our studio and an interview with host Craig Bailey.

MacFormat is the U.K.’s best-selling Macintosh magazine, with an audited circulation of nearly 30,000. It’s published by Future Publishing Ltd. and is available in the U.S. at larger booksellers, such as Borders and Barnes and Noble.

Our thanks to Deputy Editor Christopher Phin.

Visit MacFormat on the Web.

At the risk of playing “Six Degrees of Floyd,” a couple weeks ago we reported that actor Richard Todd, probably best-known for his role in 1954’s “The Dam Busters,” the film playing on Pink’s TV during the film “Pink Floyd The Wall,” died at age 90.

Now there’s news Peter Jackson plans to remake “The Dam Busters” using new 3-D technology.

The director, most-recently known for bringing “The Lord of the Rings” to the screen, is shooting test footage in 3-D. If the tests prove successful, “Dam Busters” will be his first feature to use the technology.

Christian Rivers, responsible for animation in Jackson’s “King Kong,” will be part of the £24 million project. Stephen Fry will be co-writing the screenplay, adapted from the 1951 Paul Brickhill book.

As we predicted a few weeks ago, Pink Floyd’s venerable “Dark Side of the Moon” album returned to the Billboard 200 chart this week, after a change in the magazine’s methodology forced it off the list in 1988.

“Dark Side” returned for its 742nd week on the chart, appearing at #189. Its last week on the chart was Oct. 8, 1988.

Billboard recently began basing its chart on Nielsen SoundScan sales data, an all-inclusive list that disregards release date. This change was responsible for the album’s return. (Read more about the change in our previous post.)

The album, which debuted on the chart March 17, 1973, is the longest charting album in Billboard history — by far:

1. “Dark Side of the Moon,” Pink Floyd (1973), 742 weeks
2. “Johnny’s Greatest Hits,” Johnny Mathis (1958), 490 weeks
3. “My Fair Lady,” Original Cast (1956), 480 weeks
4. “Highlights From the Phantom of the Opera,” Original Cast (1990), 331 weeks
5. “Tapestry,” Carole King (1971), 302 weeks

Rare footage of Pink Floyd performing during a 1967 TV broadcast of “Top of the Pops” has recently been discovered in an anonymous collector’s stash by archivist Bill Harrison.

The heavily damaged one-inch reel-to-reel tape is from the July 6 and 27, 1967, broadcasts of the British television show. It shows the band, with Syd Barrett, performing “See Emily Play.”

The tape has been restored and will be shown at the British Film Institute (BFI) South Bank’s “Missing Believed Wiped” event to be held Jan. 9 in London. The performance hasn’t been seen since its original broadcast more than 40 years ago.

BFI’s Dick Fiddy told Mojo magazine, ”We gave the tape to the archive boffins. It was in a dreadful condition, with the oxide falling off. The best possible picture quality was recovered.”

BFI curator Steve Bryant said, “This is an enormously significant discovery that will generate huge interest amongst music fans all over the world, even though the surviving material is in poor condition.

“Footage of Pink Floyd from this era is extremely rare.”

BBC footage from the 1960s and ’70s is hard to find because the network often recorded over old tape or simply threw it out.

Music fans in Britain would like to see members of ’70s pop group ABBA reform more than Pink Floyd.

Music licensing firm PRS for Music conducted the poll of 1,500 Britons, which revealed 25 percent wished most for a reunion of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Faltskog —better known as ABBA.

The Police were second in the survey (13 percent), with Floyd tied at number three with The Smiths (11 percent).

Here’s the top 10:

1. ABBA
2. The Police
3. Pink Floyd
4. The Smiths
5. Oasis
6. The Jam
7. Dire Straits
8. The Clash
9. Spice Girls
10. Sex Pistols

ABBA last performed live in 1982.

It looks like Pink Floyd’s seminal 1973 album “Dark Side of the Moon” is set to return to the Billboard Top 200 album chart.

Its return won’t be due to any surge in sales — though the album continues to be one of the most enduring back-catalog titles in the history of rock. Instead, it’ll likely return to the Top 200 next month when Billboard begins basing its chart on Nielsen SoundScan sales data, an all-inclusive list that disregards release date.

“The events of 2009 and the continuing creativity in the repackaging of catalog titles have led us to the conclude that the Billboard 200 would be best served presenting the true best-sellers in the country, without any catalog-related rules or stipulations, to our readers, the media and music fans,” said Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard’s director of charts, in a statement released yesterday.

In 1988, Billboard changed its chart methodology so older titles were prohibited from returning to the Top 200 after they dipped below #200. As a result, “Dark Side,” which had logged 724 weeks on the chart, came off the Top 200 and started appearing on Billboard’s list of back catalog albums.

The chaos inflicted on Billboard’s charts by the recent re-release of The Beatles catalog and the surge in sales of Michael Jackson‘s albums following his death are believed to be the impetus for the change.

“The ability of consumers to impulsively purchase new or catalog titles electronically has changed music sales behavior,” Pietroluongo added. “There is a more immediate cause and effect between artist exposure and album sales in this day and age, and the Billboard 200 should reflect this activity, regardless of an album’s release date.”

The first issue of Billboard to reflect the change will be published Dec. 5.