VHF-FM in Ireland

watty

Was it 1962 or 1966 that RTE Radio started on VHF-FM?

RnaG was initially on low power local transmitters serving Irish Speaking areas according to one report, but MW-AM or VHF-FM? What year RnaG on FM?

What year did 2FM start?

When and where was first legal commercial VHF-FM Station?

When did Stereo start?

SRB

I think RTE was on FM from 1966, RTE2 started at the end of May 1979, remember listening to it that day.
In the 80's RTE had a "community radio van" that went around the country producing local programming for that area - how long it stayed on and in each area, I can't remember, was it an hour a day ?
Leaving aside RTE and their Millennium 88FM, the first legal commercial station on air was Capitol FM in Dublin, launched in July 1989.

craoltoir

Raidió na Gaeltachta came on air at 3pm on 2 April 1972. Initially it was available on MW in the three main gaeltacht regions in Donegal (963khz) Galway(540khz) and Kerry(828khz). It went nationwide on VHF on 18 May 1973. Initially it broadcast for only two hours each afternoon. RnaG's FM frequency was used by FM3 (precursor to Lyric) outside of RnaG's broadcasting hours. Stereo broadcasting on RTÉ began in 1969.

watty

I wonder why so many online sources quote RTE FM as 1962? Confusion with TV VHF and start of site preparations?

Onthe3rdDay

watty wrote: »

I wonder why so many online sources quote RTE FM as 1962? Confusion with TV VHF and start of site preparations?

Offically RTE themselves say 1966

http://www.rte.ie/documents/about/history.pdf

However, years ago when talking to various people who were involved in RTE in the 50's and 60's they used to talk about an FM service running full time on an experimental basis from 1961/2 onwards.

I was a student at the time and didn't pay enough attention so I'm not certain on dates.

watty

My that is a singularly sparse document!

Thanks. The suggestion that 1962 to 1966 might have been one transmitter (or more) on experimental basis could be the solution. Though given that

Pre WWII USA VHF-FM on Band I
1945 USA Band II
1949 Germany
1955 UK

It sounds like they simply didn't have the money or resources or will to roll out VHF-FM, Even stereo was tested in 1958 to 1960 in USA and in Germany certainly and official service from 1963.

I guess in 50 years time people might argue when did continuous DTT MPEG4 start in Ireland
In 2006 to 2008 BT DCENR so called "Tests"
December 2007 RTENL separate transmission starts
March 2008 Specification published
October 2010 Over 90% coverage reached
November 2010 TV3 & 3e added
Official Launch: May 2011, May 2012 or October 2012

Onthe3rdDay

watty wrote: »

It sounds like they simply didn't have the money or resources or will to roll out VHF-FM, Even stereo was tested in 1958 to 1960 in USA and in Germany certainly and official service from 1963.

I guess in 50 years time people might argue when did continuous DTT MPEG4 start in Ireland
In 2006 to 2008 BT DCENR so called "Tests"
December 2007 RTENL separate transmission starts
March 2008 Specification published
October 2010 Over 90% coverage reached
November 2010 TV3 & 3e added
Official Launch: May 2011, May 2012 or October 2012

It wasn't just money, it was also the organisation itself. 1960's RTE makes todays RTE look like a mean lean broadcasting machine. It would take an age for anything to happen. They started discussing the starting of RnaG in 1945! It would have probably started later than 1972 but pirate activity was picking up on the west coast and they wanted to nip it in the bud.

RnaG did share the third FM network with FM3 until Lyric came along back in 1999 but for a long time there were only two national FM networks, I remember down in Cork when RTE radio one would go to MW only after the Gay Byrne show went off at 11am. RnaG would then come on until 1.30 when The News at 1.30 would restart the RTE radio one feed.

The same happened around 4.30 until around 7.30 (this was during a lot of the 80's)

Remember that RTE RADIO 2 was rushed onto the air back in 1979 when again pirates popped up and started to threathen revenue.

To be fair to RTE, The powers that be at the time restricted what could and could not be done. Restriction of broadcasting hours etc etc.

Mike 1972

Ive heard 1958 mentioned (cant remember where) for the first "VHF" tests with the service being rolled out to the full network (five transmitters) c 1966 many of the relay transmitters date from the 1990's.

RnaG original (pre 1978) MW frequencies were different. Ireland had only two high power (566 and 1250) and two "International common"/low power allocations (1484 and 1594)in the Copenhagen plan
There was an RnaG MW transmitter planned for West Mayo but this never came to anything.

RTE Radio 2 were in Stereo on all transmitters from the outset IIRC however the shared RTE R 1/RnaG network was only in Stereo on the east coast and much of Radio 1's programming (and IIRC all of RnaG's) was produced in Mono for a long time.

watty wrote: »

1949 Germany

(West) Germany was one of the first countries in Europe to adopt FM for a variety of political,technical and Geographical reasons