AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

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RogerD
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AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by RogerD »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8102797.stm

Good bye to Radio then, getting rid of AM and FM will kill it for sure.

Where's the audience?
At home? No... too many other things to play with
In-car? No... iPods and CDs
Kids? No... iPods
Housewives? No... women have to work these days

Who's left? And will they buy a new radio and put up with the lousy sound quality? :evil:

The only thing radio is good for is news on the hour, and for waking us up in the morning and getting us out of bed because we can't stand lying there listening to it :lol:
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by FoulOleRon »

Not everyone listens to "Radio-One-Station-Sounds-Like-All-The-Others FM", you know. Radio 3 and 4 listeners and their like will go to DAB, and there's quite a few of those (me included ;-) )
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by MrWeetabix »

I already listen to 5-Live on DAB, will just need to upgrade the radio in the shed to suit...

The only reason DAB hasn't really caught on now is that I would say 90% of radio listeners listen in their car, how many new cars out there come with DAB radios? How many affordable DAB car radios are on the market.?

Answers = Very few and not enough..., hence a low take-up

Make something cheap and easy and it will be a success.....

....I was gunna try a prostitution joke there, but thought better of it! haha :roll: :mrgreen:
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Mark-in-Essex
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by Mark-in-Essex »

I only listen to Talksport.....thats me fooked then :x
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by simon26OD004 »

I'm pretty sure you can get talk sport on DAB
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by Mark-in-Essex »

No DAB mobile though :( ....time to upgrade me thinks......funny how you dont mind shelling out 600 large for the Tansceiver for mobile but scrimp on the other.....perhaps im just tight... :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by MrWeetabix »

Yeah, but we shell out lots for stuff we WANT.....

Moving all the AM/FM stations to DAB means we'll have to shell out BECUASE WE HAVE TO!

Its always sh1tty spending money because of someone else's decision! :evil:
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by RogerD »

On the bright side, it's good for hams and CBers because any interference will either not happen any more (digital is more robust? And DAB is a different freq band to FM) or be untraceable if it does! If people lose TV/Radio reception they won't have a clue why! No more strange "breaker breaker 10-4" coming out of the radio or colourful wiggly lines on the telly.

The downside of that though.... if there are problems, then the blame will probably be aimed at anyone with suspicious looking antennas on their home. Any disruption to services may result in an angry mob on your doorstep :roll:
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by MrWeetabix »

Another downside will be cheaply made, hastily designed DAB sets which simply can't reject RF from "us" as well, so where you have have happily co-existed with your Analogue-loving neighbours, in a DIGITAL-ONLY Britain, things may be very different...

lets hope you're right though! Only thing we have to worry about is who OFCOM sell the old freq's too, saying that some of them are adjacent to, or sub multiples of existing HAM allocations. Could spell trouble for us long-term :(
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by bigbloke »

I fully admit that I have yet to read the consultation document in full,

but I understood it to be focused on the shutting down of AM (i.e. Long, Medium and Short Wave)
transmissions rather than Band II FM as well.

Where does it specifically say FM please ?

In which case, its about time they put a band II FM TX for radio 4 at Droitwich as theres a big hole
around strensham where neither sutton colefield, nor ridge hill fill effectively
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by RogerD »

dunno... I didn't read it... just going by what I heard on the telly :D
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by bigbloke »

I have re-read the document and have now located the statement:
POINTS 38 AND 39

38 One other aspect of our national infrastructure – that of sound radio – requires a clear direction from Government. The diverse and flexible nature of the medium places it at the forefront of device and platform convergence. It has many routes to digital, piggy-backing on other platforms – the Internet, mobile phones, digital broadcast television, satellite and cable. But as a medium it is more than just another stream of audio. Its appeal to the listener is that it is portable, intimate, and ambient as a medium. Those aspects cannot easily be delivered unless radio has its own dedicated digital medium – DAB – for which 9 million sets already exist in homes and cars.


39 The Government accepts that analysis and proposes, with the industry, the supply chain and consumers the process of Digital Upgrade so that all our national broadcast radio stations are DAB-only from the end of 2015. To that end, the Government is looking to the BBC to extend national DAB coverage so that it is at least comparable to FM radio coverage; and to the supply chain to deliver a range of DAB radios at the key sub-£20 price point that makes swap-out economic . The Government will also work with the automotive industry, and with the Commission and other key member states in Europe (one of whom has already indicated its intention to prohibit analogue-only radios in vehicles from 2013) on the five point plan set out in this Digital Britain Report to enable the majority of the vehicle parc to be converted to digital before 2015 and with low-cost converters for the remainder.

Not nice !!

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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by MrWeetabix »

Good assesment and break down here...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/19 ... umb_media/
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by g0slq »

After a promising start, the quality and lack of channels on DAB is awful.

Yes, you may get a few stations that your average radio will not pick up - but most of these are available online anywhere. To me, DAB has been neglected and the only advantage I see is 5 Live and Talk Sport don't suffer from the normal AM, but all of my other stations - especially FM are no better, indeed worse than a decent quality FM radio & antenna.

The much-vaunted "near CD quality" never arrived.

If the expensive and better quality radios are suffering because of lower bit rates, I shudder to think what the quality of these sub-£20 radios will sound like.

Internet radio p*sses on DAB for sheer versatility, thousands of stations, worldwide, many genres inc. comedy, rock, pop, country, talk, sports, religion etc.

None of them match good old FM for quality though - Still, 7 years to produce something half-decent.
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Re: AM & FM to be killed off by 2016

Post by FoulOleRon »

g0slq wrote:After a promising start, the quality and lack of channels on DAB is awful.

Yes, you may get a few stations that your average radio will not pick up - but most of these are available online anywhere. To me, DAB has been neglected and the only advantage I see is 5 Live and Talk Sport don't suffer from the normal AM, but all of my other stations - especially FM are no better, indeed worse than a decent quality FM radio & antenna.

The much-vaunted "near CD quality" never arrived.

If the expensive and better quality radios are suffering because of lower bit rates, I shudder to think what the quality of these sub-£20 radios will sound like.

Internet radio p*sses on DAB for sheer versatility, thousands of stations, worldwide, many genres inc. comedy, rock, pop, country, talk, sports, religion etc.

None of them match good old FM for quality though - Still, 7 years to produce something half-decent.
Don't forget that most of the DAB transmitters aren't running at full power because of the current Analogue service (same with DVB).
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