More recently the CD stopped turning. We never did get good radio reception in the kitchen, which is why the machine ended up on the window sill. On a good day, with the aerial extended at 45 degrees, you get passable reception. On a bad day you have to cancel the stereo to avoid hiss, and sometimes you have to abandon the radio altogether and move to the CD or tape.

Time for an update – so I went to explore what's available in Swaffham.
In the first shop the assistant was serving a lady who wanted to replace her radio/cassette player. It seems you can't get such devices these days. The sales lady was explaining that it's also becoming difficult to get radio/CD players. These days your recorded music is expected to be on an MP3 player and you plug that into the radio instead.

In the next shop I decided I had better abandon any hope of a cassette player and told the attractive young lady that I wanted a radio/CD slim enough to go on the window sill and with a socket for an external aerial. She was all smiles up until that last bit.

"Have you tried DAB?", she asked. I hadn't, but I knew the Web reported that my postcode makes it clear I can't get it.

"Don't trust the Web," she said. "We'll let you take a set and try it at home." Thank goodness for the service you get from a local shop rather than a national chain.

This all takes me back to the trials I had with TV last year. Under the old regime Turbine was forced to watch the news and weather from Hull. The properties immediately around Turbine Towers have aerials pointing towards Waltham (Midlands), Sandy Heath (Anglia West), Belmont (Yorkshire) and Tacolneston (Anglia East). If there's that much variety you know the reception will be bad.

In the end any hope of terrestrial reception was abandoned. Turbine Towers now has a dish and "Freesat". This is NOT "Freeview" but the free version of Sky.

Most importantly, it gives me the news and weather from Norwich (or anywhere else I choose). Sky never tell you about Freesat, as they want to sell you their subscription services, but make a call to a local friendly neighbourhood aerial specialist, and they'll fit you a dish, and supply the kit necessary for viewing the 250-odd free-to-air and free-to-view TV and radio channels.

If you're going to have to upgrade your aerial for the switch to digital then the extra cost of a dish is marginal. You don't need a new digital TV. As long as your current TV has a scart socket it will work.