The future of RTE Radio 1 LW

Sam Russell

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I have no interest these days in LW or MW.
I admit to leaving them behind in the early 80s.

A combination of FM and internet streamed radio, with maybe satellite also in the mix, is what I see as the ideal now.

It would certainly cover all my needs, and the needs of those I know.

AM or DAB is almost never used by those I know.

Maybe others have different experiences.

We need an AM station to act as an emergency broadcast platform as a single transmitter could cover most of the country. Athlone did the job once.

FM is much better than DAB - no doubt about that. DAB requires battery draining circuits, and aerials like those for TV, while FM gets by on a bit of wire.

Any advantage DAB has regarding quality is completely lost by the severely limited bandwidth given to the programme by greedy broadcasters.

TV benefited hugely by going digital, radio lost out by going digital.

Mickey Mike

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I have no interest these days in LW or MW.
I admit to leaving them behind in the early 80s.

A combination of FM and internet streamed radio, with maybe satellite also in the mix, is what I see as the ideal now.

It would certainly cover all my needs, and the needs of those I know.

AM or DAB is almost never used by those I know.

Maybe others have different experiences.

You're absolutely right, formats now are FM and online streaming such as Radio Player.
It is time to put LW, MW, SW and DAB to bed.

Johnboy1951

Sam Russell wrote: »

We need an AM station to act as an emergency broadcast platform as a single transmitter could cover most of the country. Athlone did the job once.

That was indeed very beneficial ...... when the vast majority of the population had access to AM receivers.

That has changed.
The majority now use digital devices and phones.
Those devices, in the majority, do not receive AM broadcasts.

So on what would a general emergency broadcast reach the majority of the population now?

On the other hand I accept there are some technical reasons for maintaining an AM capability which could be useful in a long term emergency situation.

Sam Russell

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

That was indeed very beneficial ...... when the vast majority of the population had access to AM receivers.

That has changed.
The majority now use digital devices and phones.
Those devices, in the majority, do not receive AM broadcasts.

So on what would a general emergency broadcast reach the majority of the population now?

On the other hand I accept there are some technical reasons for maintaining an AM capability which could be useful in a long term emergency situation.

When we got the Euro, every house was supplied with a calculator that converted from IRP to Euro for free. It would be quite cheap to provide an FM/AM radio receiver that worked into earphones.

If it was made available, we could keep it next to out Joe Jacob iodine tablets - you know - in case of emergency.

Johnboy1951

Sam Russell wrote: »

When we got the Euro, every house was supplied with a calculator that converted from IRP to Euro for free. It would be quite cheap to provide an FM/AM radio receiver that worked into earphones.

If it was made available, we could keep it next to out Joe Jacob iodine tablets - you know - in case of emergency.

Oh gosh!
I have no idea where my iodine tabs have gone!

galtee boy

So why is DAB such a success in UK ?

L1011

Sam Russell wrote: »

When we got the Euro, every house was supplied with a calculator that converted from IRP to Euro for free. It would be quite cheap to provide an FM/AM radio receiver that worked into earphones.

If it was made available, we could keep it next to out Joe Jacob iodine tablets - you know - in case of emergency.

That was the era of universal distribution of bits and pieces:

Euro Calculator to every house
Millennium Tree with details sent to every house
Millennium Candle to every house
Coin pack to every house - was it €3.88 or €5?
Joe Jacobs iodine tablets

Probably missed something!

galtee boy wrote: »

So why is DAB such a success in UK ?

Its been running two decades with buy-in from the commercial sector. More vehicles have been fitted with it for longer - remember we don't just get the UK spec cars as we have km/h clocks.

Mickey Mike

galtee boy wrote: »

So why is DAB such a success in UK ?

It was well promoted and push and in good time, another thing is the large population, you would expect that, even AM radio is still thriving in the UK, again its down to population numbers.
We can forget AM, DAB and DRM in Ireland.
As Sam says earlier we need AM in case of an emergency, one AM tx could cover the country, but the thing is if that is knocked out they will be nothing.
We will stick with FM and internet radio going forward, I don't have any more to say on the subject.

I won't be listening to internet radio, not on my 4g internet lol. So if that's the way they want to go I wouldn't be listening to radio and probably no harm as Irish radio gets worse and worse with more and more pop music ( crap ) and D's that talk crap and try to be funny to try keep the youth. Stations not adhering to the genres as they were licences and no enforcement etc.

If Gold was on FM I'd listen to it all day.

If Gold was on MW I'd listen to it all day.

If Gold was on LW I'd listen to it all day, it was quite popular and typical or RTE to get rid of one of their best stations except when they try sneak in "oldies" from 2010.

I would say Joe Duffy is what is mostly desired on LW so why not switch to Gold for the rest ? a good compromise.

Again, it makes no sense to keep LW ( for the reasons of more radios have MW ) it should be changed back to 567 Mw and I'm sure it could picked up just as good or better but truth be told the parts of the transmitter have been sold or it's in a complete state and would never work again.

I might remind folk here again of the big internet radio outage which not only caused several weeks of outage but also rendered a substantial amount of older internet radios obsolete, when I say obsolete, they are not compatible with the new service that stores the radio stations as favourites but the actual list of stations as well so for weeks my roberts was useless as I was not in any way going to type the ip address + port of every single station ! this is what turned me off internet radio big time and this is the problem with internet in general, there can be many disruptions to services not possible with traditional transmitters.

Johnboy1951

Deleted User wrote: »

.....

I might remind folk here again of the big internet radio outage which not only caused several weeks of outage but also rendered a substantial amount of older internet radios obsolete, when I say obsolete, they are not compatible with the new service that stores the radio stations as favourites but the actual list of stations as well so for weeks my roberts was useless as I was not in any way going to type the ip address + port of every single station ! this is what turned me off internet radio big time and this is the problem with internet in general, there can be many disruptions to services not possible with traditional transmitters.

Please do explain what this big outage was.
I must have missed it somehow.

You imply that all available internet radio stations suddenly went off air ......... really?

...... or do you mean that some proprietary radio you owned failed to work for some period of time, but the radio stations were still streaming?

Gerry Wicklow

People going on about internet radio and DAB as the way forward always reminds me of the story about the Russian MiG fighter the US got hold of many moons ago. The yanks thought it hilarious that the MiG was still using valves (vacuum tubes) until they discovered they would survive a nuclear burst far better than any silicon based gear.

Johnboy1951

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I have no interest these days in LW or MW.
I admit to leaving them behind in the early 80s.

A combination of FM and internet streamed radio, with maybe satellite also in the mix, is what I see as the ideal now.

It would certainly cover all my needs, and the needs of those I know.

AM or DAB is almost never used by those I know.

Maybe others have different experiences.

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Please do explain what this big outage was.
I must have missed it somehow.

You imply that all available internet radio stations suddenly went off air ......... really?

...... or do you mean that some proprietary radio you owned failed to work for some period of time, but the radio stations were still streaming?

No the stations were still streaming, tunein was not effected but quite a lot of internet radios connect to a service that went bust so they had to migrate to a new service. You could connect to a station by entering the ip address and port manually. Eah, no thanks it was a huge issue at the time.

So if you used tune in or the stations own app you would have been fine.

Johnboy1951

Deleted User wrote: »

No the stations were still streaming, tunein was not effected but quite a lot of internet radios connect to a service that went bust so they had to migrate to a new service. You could connect to a station by entering the ip address and port manually. Eah, no thanks it was a huge issue at the time.

So if you used tune in or the stations own app you would have been fine.

So nothing to do with internet radio per se, and all to do with some service you were connecting to.

No wonder I never noticed ..... there was nothing to notice.

Johnboy1951

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

So nothing to do with internet radio per se, and all to do with some service you were connecting to.

No wonder I never noticed ..... there was nothing to notice.

A service Roberts and many other internet radios were using.

What internet radio are you using ?

Johnboy1951

Deleted User wrote: »

A service Roberts and many other internet radios were using.

What internet radio are you using ?

Logitech
and apps on various devices.

Johnboy1951

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Logitech
and apps on various devices.

Logitech ? never heard of them doing an internet radio app, I use tunein the odd time.

Using mobile phones to listen to radio doesn't really float my boat.

Johnboy1951

Deleted User wrote: »

Logitech ? never heard of them doing an internet radio app, I use tunein the odd time.

Using mobile phones to listen to radio doesn't really float my boat.

Logitech radio, not app.


https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Squeezebox-Player-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B002LARRDK

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Squeezebox-Internet-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B001DJ64D4

Lots of different apps on other devices.

https://www.robertsradio.com/uk/products/radio/smart-radio/stream-94i

That's the one I got, very impressive sound for the size of it but it's the last yoke I will buy with DAB which will probably be the last one I buy lol.

Johnboy1951

I probably should have mentioned that by using the logitechmediaserver app on PC/NAS/FileServer I can stream my own music on the Logitech radio also.

It can also be controlled remotely ..... the larger one came with a remote control.
For the lazy man

Johnboy1951

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I probably should have mentioned that by using the logitechmediaserver app on PC/NAS/FileServer I can stream my own music on the Logitech radio also.

It can also be controlled remotely ..... the larger one came with a remote control.
For the lazy man

Yeah I can stream from the NAS too, the Roberts can be controlled by the Undok app. It is handy.

Sam Russell

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

People going on about internet radio and DAB as the way forward always reminds me of the story about the Russian MiG fighter the US got hold of many moons ago. The yanks thought it hilarious that the MiG was still using valves (vacuum tubes) until they discovered they would survive a nuclear burst far better than any silicon based gear.

There are many stories f how the Americans and British laughed at Soviet solutions.

British. The Concorde engines fan blades were machined to an impossible tolerance to improve performance. The Russians achieved the same by using carborundum paste, like grinding in an engine valve.

American. The Americans spent a fortune getting a ball point pen to work in zero gravity in space. The Russians used a pencil.

I am sure there are plenty more.

The old ways can be a better solution than the new. FM is better than DAB.

Sam Russell

Deleted User wrote: »

https://www.robertsradio.com/uk/products/radio/smart-radio/stream-94i

That's the one I got, very impressive sound for the size of it but it's the last yoke I will buy with DAB which will probably be the last one I buy lol.

I have a Roberts Stream 83i.

It only connects to the network when the Network radio is selected, and it takes ages to connect. They do not upgrade the software - so tough if the service becomes obsolete. Hopeless crowd - part of Dimplex.

I certainly wont be buying a Roberts.

Oscarziggy

Is this the old MW mast -- bad news if it is .
https://www.offalyexpress.ie/news/home/530097/offaly-landmark-set-to-be-removed-from-the-skyline.html

Oscarziggy

Oscarziggy wrote: »

Is this the old MW mast -- bad news if it is .
https://www.offalyexpress.ie/news/home/530097/offaly-landmark-set-to-be-removed-from-the-skyline.html

Sad but not beyond RTE. What a waste of perfectly good infrastructure paid for by the Irish taxpayer.

I'm just after reading on Wiki where 252 took over due to improved coverage of the U.K. Then they turn down the power.........

L1011

Unused infrastructure with ongoing maintenance costs and no serious/sensible proposals for future reuse. Masts do not keep themselves upright by magic.

Eventually they need to be replaced anyway, e.g. Truskmore a few years back.

dxhound2005

Sam Russell wrote: »

There are many stories f how the Americans and British laughed at Soviet solutions.

British. The Concorde engines fan blades were machined to an impossible tolerance to improve performance. The Russians achieved the same by using carborundum paste, like grinding in an engine valve.

American. The Americans spent a fortune getting a ball point pen to work in zero gravity in space. The Russians used a pencil.

I am sure there are plenty more.

The old ways can be a better solution than the new. FM is better than DAB.

The one about the pencils is an urban myth.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-write-stuff/

L1011

Deleted User wrote: »

There is no reason not to use it. RTE gold on MW would get a lot of listeners with proper DJ's, but no, destroy their only decent station too while they're at it.

They never put it up for sale or I bet even advertised it for lease. No, rather destroy perfectly usable infrastructure.

Have you any proof, at all, for that conjecture?

Are you willing to fund keeping a white elephant around because you like it? As in personally fund it - not force the rest of the licence payers to fund your whim?

AM is dead.

L1011

L1011 wrote: »

Unused infrastructure with ongoing maintenance costs and no serious/sensible proposals for future reuse. Masts do not keep themselves upright by magic.

Eventually they need to be replaced anyway, e.g. Truskmore a few years back.

There is no reason not to use it. RTE gold on MW would get a lot of listeners with proper DJ's, but no, destroy their only decent station too while they're at it.

They never put it up for sale or I bet even advertised it for lease. No, rather destroy perfectly usable infrastructure.

L1011

L1011 wrote: »

Have you any proof, at all, for that conjecture?

Are you willing to fund keeping a white elephant around because you like it? As in personally fund it - not force the rest of the licence payers to fund your whim?

All RTE have to do is power it up make it a station again, advertise it and see what happens, but they would rather destroy it than say they were wrong about digital.

L1011

Deleted User wrote: »

All RTE have to do is power it up make it a station again, advertise it and see what happens, but they would rather destroy it than say they were wrong about digital.

And that "all" has a huge financial cost behind it. Are you willing to underwrite that? Again, personally.

The year or so you'd need to trial it (to show it was a pointless flop) would cost hundreds of thousands at least.

AM is dead - please just get over it.