Huge AM changes in NL
Christian station Groot Nieuws Radio in Holland has left its AM slot. The station, which had a 200 kilowatt signal on 1008AM from a site just North East of Amsterdam, has been forced to move to DAB by the transmission firm abandoning all its AM sites. The demolition gang felled the twin 38 year old masts on Flevopolder just a couple of days later.
Holland's last public service station, Nostaligia 747 on AM closed a year ago. Nostalgia had been broadcasting with 400 KW on 747 AM for several years.
Meanwhile hobby radio is flourishing in the Netherlands with over two hundred small stations now licensed to use either 30 or 100 watts on a variety of medium wave frequencies. In 2019, the former Radio Seagull frequency 1602 is also being made available to hobby stations.
Amazing Radio has become the latest station to stop broadcasting on DAB, saying that it saw its brand as being a global one, rather than local. It "thought it made sense to keep ‘proper radio’ in the mix, even though most people now listen online and on apps, and our London audience is a tiny proportion of the total."
The station disappered from DAB radios in London following fanancial disagreements with the MUX owner, SwitchDigital, who claimed they were pulling the stations feed for non payment of carriage bills, as it was unfair to give anyone preferential treatment.
"As Amazing Radio expanded and listenership became ever more global, we wondered if it made sense to spend so much money on a limited platform in one city," said a station spokesman.
"Today phones can put every radio station in pockets and cars. Do we really serve new music best with London DAB?"
DAB muxes lose another station
A low power Class C AM station, KYPA in Los Angeles, is being sold for over $6m.
The Woori Media Group, will continue to broadcast for part of the day in Korean, a language already on three other radio stations in the city. LA has the largest number of Korean speakers in the USA.
The station has a long history in LA, coming on the air in 1927 and it was thought to be the last one in the USA to transmit using a T Aerial.
Radio 1230 AM is on 1230 AM and has a directional pattern to protect other stations also on 1230. The transaction requires FCC approval as its being sold to a consortium which includes two South Korean businessmen. There are two other stations in LA that broadcast entirely in Korean - KMPC and KFOX.
The Swedish Government have decided to postpone indefinitely the closedown of FM radio stations in the country after hearing that the take up of the new DAB + radios has so far been very slow.
It is not expected that even half of all radio listeners will be equipped with DAB radios before 2022 or even later.
The Swedish Parliament hed that there were over 10 million FM radios still in every day use. They were very concerned that if these are switched off the country would lose its VMA alarm system, which is used in national disasters.
The London-based dance music station run by the Ministry of Sound has closed most of its outlets.
Although some shows can still be heard on Tune-In, where it recently had 480,000 followers, the station's other outlets are running a looped announcement telling listeners that "Ministry of Sound Radio is no longer broadcasting. The station was previously on DAB and online.
The Ministry of Sound web site shows a page saying: "MoS Radio is taking some time off the air while we work on exciting new projects. We look forward to sharing with you the next stage of Ministry of Sound and want to thank you for listening."
MoS Radio was previously was heard on DAB in London and also in some parts of Scotland but was replaced by the Yorkshire Galaxy FM in 2002. It's now become a Capital outlet.
Full details with links to suppliers, the kit you really need and how to make a radio station work profitably.
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A new transistor portable will probably be needed for DAB+ reception. This sleek looking model from AZATOM runs off the mains or its own batteries, and it will pull in the latest DAB+ stations as well as the older DAB channels.
The Azatom also has the standard FM band and a radio alarm feature. There are 20 preset channels to store your favourite radio stations.
The Azatom's display has scrolling text and station indication - no more wondering what the radio station you are tuned to, or what it is they are playing. The unit is only £29.99 - click on the picture above for more details or to order one direct from Amazon.
The BBC has replaced its BBCiPlayer with a new app, called BBC SOUNDS. The new app brings together live radio, podcasts and other 'on demand' recordings and has options to select output by type - such as science and technology, or various music genres.
The app is available to download free, but plans to make the service available to non-BBC broadcasters have not yet been implemented.
In 2023, the BBC removed its radio services from the RadioPlayer app.
Helen Thomas has been appointed Director of England at the BBC. She will have control over all the BBC's 39 local radio stations as well as regional TV operations in her new role.
Helen began her career in ILR before joining the BBC, then Yorkshire TV. While Managing Editor at Radio Humberside she also oversaw the regional TV operation merging East Yorkshire into Lincolnshire.
Former Radio Caroline star DJ Ian MacRae has just released a new episode of his popular podcast “A Radio Station Like No Other”. It features samples of some of the best of recent programs broadcast by Wilton Bay’s own renegade radio station Seventh Wave FM - uncensored!
You can listen to the 2SM morning star's podcast online or subscribe to it for free on iTunes (which has now been rebranded as Apple Podcasts) or Android at this link
Minster FM DJ Roxanne Pallett has been discharged from Hull Royal Infirmary after being airlifted there from Bridlington when a car stunt crash went wrong.
Roxanne seems to have found the secret of eternal youth, as she was still playing the part of a teenager in Waterloo Road when she was 29!
After further controversay on a reality TV programme, Roxanne has now left her shows on Minster FM
UK based online radio stations can once again use the LIVE 365 broadcasting service. This follows the American ONLINE service provider reaching an agreement with the major UK copyright bodies, PRS and PPL.
There had been a geo-block on Live 365 service for UK listeners for the last two years after the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 changed the rates of royaltiesfor small webasters. “Our mission continues to expand by delivering the most diverse audio content to users around the world while ensuring rights holders are fairly compensated,” stated Live365’s CEO, Jon Stephenson. “Other platforms willfully exploit copyrights as part of their business model. Live365 is the compliant solution for webcasters that benefits the entire music industry.”
Live 365 can now expand and deliver the most diverse audio content to users around the world, while ensuring rights holders are fairly compensated,” saidd Live365’s CEO, Jon Stephenson. “Live365 is the fully compliant solution for webcasters that benefits the entire music industry."
Live 365 welcomes European stations to Live 365, which offers many benefits and advantages to them and their audiences, including full coverage into North America. For details of Live 365, CLICK HERE.
Dutch AM Closedown
opens frequencies to hobbyists
Christian station Groot Nieuws Radio in Holland left its AM slot at at the turn of 2019. The station, which had a 200 kilowatt signal on 1008AM from a site just North East of Amsterdam, has been forced to move to DAB by the transmission company abandoning all its AM sites. The demolition gang felled the twin 38 year old masts on Flevopolder just a couple of days later. The station previuously carried 747 AM transmissions; the frequency is also now used by small scale local stations.
Meanwhile hobby radio is flourishing in the Netherlands with over two hundred small stations now licensed to use either 30 or 100 watts on a variety of medium wave frequencies.
While the UK's two biggest groups are creating waves by firing 200 staff in their 'nationalisation' of local radio, the News Group stations are busy building networks. In 2020, Newscorp launched a new station TIMES RADIO, to rival BBC Radio 4. They hired many well known names from the BBC and the world of print.
News Group started the year well when the UK's DJ with the highest profile, Chris Evans, began his breakfast talk show on Virgin Radio.
The company are now busy moving their other three stations into the new studio centre, alongside the Shard building in Southwark. TalkSport 2 has now moves, with the main TalkSport channel moving across shortly. TalkRadio will join the stations later this year from the Hatfields studios, where Talk has been since 2000 when it moved from Oxford Street.
Several dozen applicants applied to run 25 small scale DAB multiplexes in the UK in the first round of licences and these are now launching. In January 22, a further 25 muxes were offered - if each licence offered had the 30 stations possible broadcasting, that would be an extra 2200 radio stations on the air!
Paul Rusling's latest book DAB& DAB+ - the Future of Radio has full narrative on the evolution of this exciting new direction for radio. Click cover for details.
After years of telling listeners that DAB is the only way forward, the BBC have put their latest radio station onto the AM band.
BBC Radio Bradford, launched in December 2020 is to be heard on 774 Medium Wave (390 metres). The new station, in one of Yorkshire's biggest cities, is part of an expansion back into true local radio being undertaken by the BBC. Other stations will serve Sunderland and Wolverhampton.
The Oxford based UNION JACK RADIO group is run by Clive Dickens and CEO Ian Walker, who said: "The launch of Union JACK Rock and Union JACK Dance allows us to strengthen the offering for our national audience, who can now enjoy the brilliant comedy that is at the heart of our Union JACK brand with a wider choice of British music genres.."
"The launch of Union JACK Rock and Union JACK Dance allows us to strengthen the offering for our national audience, who can now enjoy the brilliant comedy that is at the heart of our Union JACK brand with a wider choice of British music genres," said Clive Dickens.
STOP PRESS - In February 2022, the main investor poulled the group's three stations from the national DAB network and offered them for sale via an Insolvency Practitioner.
The French launched 24 of national DAB+ services in France in Autumn 2021. Installation of the transmitters and new aerials encountered communication problems and delays at some of the 25 main transmitter sites. Some began test transmissions in June, but coverage was patchy.
The channels now being used are indicated on the two maps.
Digital Radio UK, the joint company and pressure group which has led the charge to DAB for some years, has finally begun a series of radio commercials extolling the virtues of DAB PLUS (DAB+). It is scheduling a 60 second trailer on many digital stations around the UK, including some of the national channels.
There are now 25 DAB+ stations opearting nationally, plus around 60 DAB+ stations in the London area. Public perception of DAB+ is however still very low with most people being confused as to the two types of DAB now receivable in (most parts of) the UK.
"DAB+ is playing an important role in the expansion of digital radio in the UK and with the number and quality of DAB+ stations higher than ever and increasing, now is an appropriate time to start raising listener awareness and understanding about the benefits of DAB+ to ensure they are not missing out," said a DIgital Radio UK spokesman.
Extensions spell hardship for Dutch
Dutch commercial radio stations have been awarded a surprise THREE YEAR EXTENSION to their licences but few are rejoicing.
The extensions have enormous cost implications for most of the stations:the extensions were awarded to counter economic consequences of the CoVid crisis. The intervention could have the opposite effect, as the current license holders must recalculate the renewal prices.
The costs for the four current unqualified channels – Radio 538, Sky Radio, Radio 10 (Talpa Network) and Qmusic (DPG Media) – will be seven to thirteen times higher. According to Paul Römer, chairman of the Association for Commercial Radio VCR who is also a director of Talpa, it will be impossible to run a profitable business.
Extensions spell economic
hardship for Dutch
Dutch commercial radio stations have been awaredd a surprise THREE YEAR EXTENSION to their licences,but few are rejoincing. The extensions have enormous cost implications for most of the stations:
The extensions were awarded to counter economic consequences of the CoVid crisis. The intervention could have the opposite effect, as the current license holders must recalculate the renewal prices.
The costs for the four current unqualified channels – Radio 538, Sky Radio, Radio 10 (Talpa Network) and Qmusic (DPG Media) – will be seven to thirteen times higher. According to Paul Römer, chairman of the Association for Commercial Radio VCR who is also a director of Talpa , it will be impossible to run a profitable business.
The UK Government's Digital Radio and Audio Review has given the two main analogue bands a further reprieve from their much touted 'death knell'. In a report published on 21st October, the DCMS simply advise broadcasters to plan for the migration of AM services around the mid 2020s. The time frame for moving FM transmissions to digital is even further rdelayed, to a point "in the early 2030s".
The announcement will give some comfort to the six million or so who still tune to the band and who the DCMS recognise would lose their favourite broadcasts if the analogue transmissions ceased.
The report is very comprehensive and shows that AM listening has now fallen to around 30 million listening hours.
The actual recommendation reads: "Industry should begin planning for the long-term retirement of analogue services in line with the projected decline in analogue listening" It set no mandatory dates for the end of AM services at this point of time. Operators of national MW services are advised to develop a plan for the migration from AM services to take place at some point in the mid-2020s."
The full report can be downloaded from the UK Government website
HERE.
Former offshore radio station RADIO CAROLINE have substantially improved their signal on 648AM. Previously the home of the BBC World Service, the AM site is at Orfordness on the UK's east coast. After being awarded a community of interest licence in 2017, Radio Caroline moved there. The power had been limited to 1kW since launch and previously used a standby 200' tall omni-directional mast.
In 2021, Caroline switched to a 350' tall mast, much closer to a quarter wavelength high and thus a more efficient radiator. This has given some reception problems in a few areas and work continues to improve the site, with the addition of a solar energy farm planned in the next few months. caroline has also applied tothe regulator for a substantial increase in power.
see
for more details
The UK Government's Digital Radio and Audio Review has given the two main analogue bands a further reprieve from their much touted 'death knell'. In a report published on 21st October, the DCMS simply advise broadcasters to plan for the migration of AM services around the mid 2020s. The time frame for moving FM transmissions to digital is even further retarded - "in the early 2030s".
The announcement will give some comfort to the six million or so who still tune to the band and who the DCMS recoghnise would lose their favourite broadcasts if the analogue transmissions ceased.
The report is very comprehensive and shows that AM listening has now fallen to around 30 million listening hours.
The actual recommendation reads: "Industry should begin planning for the long-term retirement of analogue services in line with the projected decline in analogue listening" It set no mandatory dates for the end of AM services at this point of time. Operators of national MW services are advised to develop a plan for the migration from AM services to take place at some point in the mid-2020s."
The full report can be downloaded from the UK Government website HERE.
Amazing Radio has become the latest station to stop broadcasting on DAB, saying that it saw its brand as being a global one, rather than local. It "thought it made sense to keep ‘proper radio’ in the mix, even though most people now listen online and on apps, and our London audience is a tiny proportion of the total."
The station disappered from DAB radios in London following fanancial disagreements with the MUX owner, SwitchDigital, who claimed they were pulling the stations feed for non payment of carriage bills, as it was unfair to give anyone preferential treatment.
"As Amazing Radio expanded and listenership became ever more global, we wondered if it made sense to spend so much money on a limited platform in one city," said a station spokesman.
"Today phones can put every radio station in pockets and cars. Do we really serve new music best with London DAB?"
One of the latest online stations to launch in the UK is RADIO ANYWHERE, an initiative of legendary talk radio host IAN LEE, who was also heard on the BBC and seen on TV's I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!"
Radio Anywhere begins regular shows on 15th November. The station promises to have "something for everyone" and offers listeners the opportunity to host an hour long programme for £80 or the chance to sponsor one of Iain's own shows.
As well as Iain, the line up includes Fadson and PDT and key shows include 'psychedlic magic' on the Muggey Bonehead late night on Wednesdays, and those potty mouthed ladies on the Nerdy T-Shirt club and offers sponsorship opportunities.
The station has Apple and Android Apps and can be found on Alexa by enabling the Radio Anywhere skill.
https://radioanywhere.live
The French launched 24 of national DAB+ services in France will take place in Autumn 2021.
Installation of the transmitters and new aerials encountered communication problems and delays at some of the 25 main transmitter sites. some began test transmissions in June, but coverage was patchy.
The channels now being used are indicated on the two maps. Early surveys on listenership have been suppressed, giving rise to speculation that the service has yet to gain much traction outside the cities.
Huge changes are planned on the radio dials next summer (2022). DAB areas in the Netherlands, are being re-alligned to more closely match the actual provinces in the country.
All existing stations and other interested parties were consulted and nine of the existing 22 'blocks' will swap frequencies, to make way for the new network DAB+ format.
The regional public and non-national commercial radio stations (which are now Layer 4 in the frequency plan) will leave the five existing DAB+ allotments next summer to find a new home in seven new allotments.
Huge changes are planned on the radio dials next summer (2022). DAB areas in the Netherlands, are being re-alligned to more closely match the actual provinces in the country.
All existing stations and other interested parties were consulted and nine of the existing 22 'blocks' will swap frequencies, to make way for the new network DAB+ format.
The regional public and non-national commercial radio stations (which are now Layer 4 in the frequency plan) will leave the five existing DAB+ allotments next summer to find a new home in seven new allotments.
Multi-media group TALPA have once again consolidated their position as market leader in the Netherlands, according to the latest Dutch radio listening figures from the NRO (Dutch Listening Research Foundation).
While the NPO's Radio 2 has the biggest reach (17.7%), Radio 10 is runner up with 10.5% reach. The Talpa Media Group have FOUR of their stations in the Top Ten! Sky Radio, Radio 538, Radio Veronica and Radio 10 - with over 30% share of listeners.
Talpa's listening figures show that over 8 million listeners are tuning into a Talpa station daily, that’s over half the Dutch population! SKY RADIO listeners tune in longest in NL, over 3m hours!
In the Netherlands, just over 13.1 million listen to the radio, which makes Talpa's reach a remarkable achievement. All four of Talpa's radio stations trace their roots and station names back to former Radio Caroline and Radio Veronica DJs. Radio 538 was named after Veronica's wavelength at sea in metres, now known as 558 kHz.
Return of the
RADIO NEWS podcast
The much missed weekly radio industry's news podcast is to return, thanks to the Radio Academy. The podcast, previously known as Radio Talk, is to be hosted by Radio One Newsbeat journalist Roisin Hastie will have a new episode every Wednesday and can be found at:
Three SUN branded radio channels in Scotland (Sun Hits, Sun chilled and Sun 80s) have all abruptly closed down with no explanation to listeners. The stations opened almost 4 years ago but have failed to attract audiences, only 0.1% share and just a few thousand listeners each.
The roll out of new Small Scale DAB muxes , each host to a myriad of lopcal stations, continues apace. Mid August hasa seen the start of the new LIK DAB mux in Glasgow. Initially using only one transmitter site , the new services offers 18 new stations - more are to follow shortly.
Among the new stations are several community stations, such as Awaz, Paisley FM, plus some national channels such as BFBS, Eirewave, Nation's various decade channels, Like One & Like Retro plus Panacea, Angel and Gaydio.
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