All posts by Stan
Below are all of Stan's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
"FM will become a ghetto technology without the five national networks. Very few are going to bother switching to FM if it's only purpose is small-scale and community stations."
Opinion, not fact. I can see small-scale and community stations doing well out of this. No switchover will commence until half of all listening is digital. So the other half will still be listening via analogue, right? Hardly what I would call insignificant. Plus the will be more FM licences issued in the newly vacated spectrum. FM is vastly superior to AM in MOST of the country...
The future of FM? Well, it's not bright, ut it's not dim.
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Considering that the BBC were trumpeting the eventual death of 198khz some time ago because of valve expense (apparently-because it doesn't make any sence), I am surprised and delighted that great effort is being made by them to keep this much-valued service alive. Really it should have some kind of protected status as a national tresure/part of our heritage.
For the record, I'm 26 and rely on 198khz to listen to The World Tonight. It's great, as is Analog Radio in general. No DAB here!
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At this time, I cannot see a mass take-up of DAB+, by listeners or Ofcom, or Government for that matter. The horse has bolted. It would take some guts now to put it to all those listeners that have bothered to go out and get a DAB radio that the not-so-cheap Digital sets that they have bought in good faith would now YET AGAIN need to be "upgraded" to something else, and that their existing set would become largely redundant (unless, perhaps, it can recieve FM, which will be used for micro-local and community stations). And all this for ABSOLUTELY NO REAL BENEFIT to the average listener, who is perfectly satisfied with the choice and quality they have on their Analog reciever..
In fact, ditch the whole idea of any "switch-over". Keep the DAB signal on if you must but "NO", BBC, it won't do to try and save money on not paying dual transmission costs. Being multi-platform is simply a price for being in business in the 21st century.
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MikeB: I think the only thing that's certain about the future of radio is that it will be multi-platform. DAB/DAB+/whatever, wifi, streaming, and the trusty old Analogue all have their pros and cons, and all will have a part to play in the future of radio. Ed Vaizey himself said that "FM will always be available for local radio. FM will continue to be the appropriate midium for the scale at which these smaller stations operate" and "It is the Government's intention that DAB can work in tandem with FM, just like FM has with MW for decades." Yes, millions of listeners currently tune into MW to listen to their favourite programmes. There is no reason to think they will not be tuning into their favourite local station on FM, being as all DAB sets can also recieve FM.
Of course, even smaller local stations may at some distant point in the future adopt some digital format but even then they will more than likely simulcast on FM as well. So no, my precious old 4 band reciever Sony CF 270 L will not be facing retirement yet, if ever.
By the way, speaking on MW - I don't know what switchover they are contemplating when MW alone currently accounts for more listening hours that DAB.
My own view is that it is the duty of Radio to broadcast on whatever mediums their listeners consume in significant numbers (even if only, say, a quarter consume radio via Analogue) and that being multi-platform is the price for being in business in the 21st century.
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By the way, it's not just FM. You've got MW and LW as well. The BBC were trumpeting the eventual end of BBC Radio 4 on 198khz long-wave because of valve expense apparently-only about 10 left in the whole world and no longer manufactured anywhere, blablabla. How can this be the case when some parts of the world rely on LW for their broadcasts, like I rely on 198khz to listen to The World Tonight. Well anyway, they are now spending a fortune (no doubt!) on refurbishing the mast at Droitwitch, and quite rightly, too. I was pleasantly surprised and delighted that the BBC is making great effort to keep this much-loved and valued service alive.
Yes, Sweden switched off it's LW in 1991. The difference is that only TWO HUNDRED people were then tuning in, where here in the UK that figure is currently more like NINETY THOUSAND (not counting expats on the continent lol).
Precicely why proponents of digital are so desperate to switch off Analogue for the main stations, though, is beyond me. WHY CAN'T WE HAVE HAVE BOTH DAB AND ANALOGUE?!?! I mean, is digital is so much better, the public wouldn't need to be bullied into discarding their perfectly good, reliable (in some cases, vintage) Analogue Radios. But of course, nobody is worried about the jolly old listener, are they??? They just want to cut costs on not paying dual transmission costs.
Can't be, as was the case with TV, to flog off the bandwidth. FM and especially MW are technologically simply not suitable for any other modern data transmission, and even if they had been, there is LAW in place to prevent these spectrums being used for any other purpose than Radio Broadcasting.
Radio is currently in great shape. Let's keep it that way, and prevent all Analogue, which has served us well, from going the way of Short-Wave and becoming a desolate waste land of pirate operators, a handful of left-behind stations and religious fundamentalists.
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Briantist: I am sure that many of the 90000 people who rely on LW to recieve Radio 4 are doing so for a very good reason i.e. they simply do not have the means to recieve it any other way. You can have all brands of sophisticated new fangled equipment, the problem is that none it is all pros and no cons and none of it (currently) ensures blanket coverage. Which is why we need DAB and FM and MW/LW.
Surely there IS a difference between switching off a service used by 200 people and 90000 (regardless of % of population?)
Not to mention that the LW was used during WW2 to send coded messages to the French resistance. Really it should have some kind of protected status as part of our history/national treasure?
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...except who will be willing to listen to radio solely via internet when at home and use 4 times more energy for the same result as Analogue or even DAB/DAB+??? Who will want to consume radio solely on their smart phone when in the car and drain their batteries (again for no additional benefit)?
Also, what if the inernet goes down??? There must then be a bomb-proof system (like the trusty old Analogue) in place, or else listeners could demand some explaining..
Look. I have nothing against digital, in principle. It has and will continue to have it's place, but that's about it. Analogue is, realistically, not going anywhere, any time soon, if ever. If there is one thing that will keep it alive for decades or even centuries to come, it's it's simplicity and low operating costs.
I don't think we will ever see a completely silent MW, as there will always be dedicated individuals out there willing to make use of this valuable resource. Of course, whether much of it will be meaningful enough to replace current MW services is another question though LOL.
DRM? Are you kidding? Trialled a set last year. The quality makes late-night Analogue MW sound avant guarde. The content is zilch. Well, nothing worth talking about, anyway. I wouldn't mind betting that by the end of the decade DRM will have gone the way of the Beetamax. India in the end won't use it.
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Mike B - You can't always just look at sheer volume of listernership (for LW). It remains indespensable for deep-sea fishermen to tune into the Shipping Forecast. MW, FM and DAB are simply not up for the job as the frequencies are too high to be robust enough to reach many miles out to sea, especially in less-than-perfect weather conditions. LW is also about the only signal that will be audible in a submarine, for example, and I suspect that many of the tens of thousands of people reliant on LW are stuck with it for other reasons than nostalgia. As for the expats on the continent - I don't think the BBC is hugely worried about them as they don't even pay the licence fee!
But I am sure that if resources are optimum-utilised by the BBC and common sence brought into play again, a way could be found to broadcast Radio 4 on 198kHz for next to nothing, ad infinitum.
Steve - LW would have been THE perfect medium in the event of a national emergency if it hadn't been allowed to die out. Unfortunately, I suspect very few new radios sold now include LW reception. Relatively few people posess a LW - recieving radio. Therefore, should some kind of crisis occur which would shut down DAB and the internet, we would probably have to rely on local FM/MW transmitters to recieve emergency information.
It may seem pointless to some to continue to invest in Analogue technologies. But that is unfortunately the way it has to work. To allow those technologies to die out completely rules them out as an asset in any would-be future emergency, in the event of which newer, more complex and less robust and time-tested technologies cannot be called upon.
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Anyway, back to the original topic of this thread: I tend to think that any more tinkering about with digital broadcasting (and broadcasting in general) will only serve to further confuse and disorientate joe public.
Re. the growth in digital listening - most of that is MAINLY youngsters consuming radio vial smart phones and the internet, NOT DAB itself.
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Thursday 2 January 2014 7:21PM
In an ideal world, we could have had DAB, FM and AM in remote areas, the problem is that the BBC won't agree to continue paying dual transmission costs ad infinitum. That's why this "switchover" is necessary from their point of view.
But wait a minute: noone seems to mention that FM is NOT being switched off at all, ANYWHERE. It will be used as a platform for smaller local/community stations. DO NOT DISREGARD THEM! My local comunity station, future radio 107.8 is excellent!!! I wouldn't even have been aware of it's existence had I not studied the Digital Economy Act. Ed Vaizey quite clearly state that "FM will always be available for local radio"...
Radio is not TV. Many people simply like to listen to radio as a background, so won't be too fussy whether it's BBC Radio 2 or their local small station. They might, however, not be too awfully keen on having to discard their old faithful FM reciever and having to spend north of £50 on buying a DAB radio. I for one won't be discarding my precious elderly 1970's Sony just because the buffoons at BBC are threatening to stop broadcasting on analogue. I will simply tune into any number of small local stations which will inevitably spring up in the newly vacated FM spectrum. And my gut feeling is that I won't be the only one.