The future of RTE Radio 1 LW

Oscarziggy

11am -- still there ! Must be a belated April Fool joke.

letovo3275

Lets start a petition to get it shut down!

Gerry Wicklow

Perhaps some last minute ministerial intervention? Or maybe an angry, grey haired mob, waving umbrellas and walking sticks, blocking 2RN staff trying to access Summerhill. 🤣

Declan A Walsh

Steve Conway wrote an article on Jounal.ie about this.

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/atlantic-252-steve-conway-longwave-shutdown-6043078-Apr2023/?utm_source=facebook_short&fbclid=IwAR3haEWE_I6nQxBck8d9-14n0jYEbiylRWticVHU-rfWqejQ6V-6N4pbm3k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120476552#Comment_120476552

It would probably get more signatures than the 350 signatures the "postpone 252 closure" one has at the moment.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120476936#Comment_120476936

All the "postpone 252 closure" petition needed was at least 252 signatures, which they achieved! 😀

Mickey Mike

My guess for the delay in switching LW off is probably due to the visit of President Joe Biden.

I've only noticed from listening today that RTE radio 1 has A LOT of dead air moments

046-9557350 is the phone number of the transmitter site if anyone wants to phone up and ask when it's closing down

Mickey Mike

At 2pm today, they are still announcing the closure of LW 252.

Mickey Mike

Tried ringing and its only ringing out, NOBODY HOME.

Gerry Wicklow

9PM and still chugging away.

Mickey Mike

Its gone, at 00:02am RIP 🙏 now on a loop.

Good luck everyone

Apogee

Shutdown Loop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfbeaQntg78

webwayz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120457870#Comment_120457870

Or just before the Director Generals term in office expires!

rathfarnhamlad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120477861#Comment_120477861

Was it ringing out or just busy? If the latter, then obviously someone was already on the phone to them.

Maybe it was Paul Rusling... 😏

Hotblack Desiato

Maybe they'll turn it into a numbers station in Irish 😁

Mickey Mike

Just ringing out.

In England Save long wave group had their petition, first it was get to 200 signatures which they did successfully, then tried to reach 500 signatures but only achieved 363, so the momentum wasn't there this time. Ok I'm off this time 👍

boardsuser1000

People are still signing the petition. Do they expect the station to be turned back on or does it mean that people signing the petition never listened to RTE on LW (and therefore unaware that it shut down) but are concerned on behalf of an imaginary group of people that can't use anything other than a LW radio.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480317#Comment_120480317

It seems to be a group of about 5 people who have created all the noise on this topic over the past decade, using elderly people as a stick to beat their drum

CrabRevolution

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480317#Comment_120480317

I think their case is further weakened by the fact we've several posters here, experienced in radio, who need to take several steps with their equipment just to actually listen to RTÉ instead of Algeria in Ireland. Yet they claim there's emigrants in the UK who despite being portrayed as not adopting any modern technology, are effortlessly able to tune in to LW 252 on their old radios?

Testcard

The real elephant in the room is the massive cost to RTE of maintaining the FM broadcast network. The electricity bill alone to broadcast radio using 80 year old technology must be enormous. I have no idea what ideas are rolling around in Montrose but I am certain the LW Shutdown is a good trial of shutting down the FM network. If a bunch of listeners in Britain can be pushed off traditional radio to save money, the same can be done at home too. I’d say the days of broadcast FM are numbered. Don’t be surprised if the bean counters in Montrose are looking at this and planning to save a few more bucks.

dulpit

The latest results show 3.207 million listeners (15+) tune into radio every weekday – that is daily radio listening at 78.3% of all adults. Weekly listening increases to 90.7% of the population.

This is from the latest JNLR survey. I would be astounded if the majority of this number isn't via fm, especially in the car. Smart speakers are great, but have had issues (rte radio has had ongoing issues on Google home devices where they randomly won't play via tunein for a few days). Can't see fm going anywhere any time soon...

JDxtra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480800#Comment_120480800

We’re at least 10 years away from any FM shutdown in Ireland. FM is the bread and butter of radio stations here and that won’t change any time soon.

I don’t know how old RTEs FM equipment is, but there are only marginal improvements in efficiency with modern transmitters.

We missed the boat with DAB, that would have been the path forward for broadcasting. It would take a miracle now at this stage to turn it around (i.e. will not happen).

TAFKAlawhec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480800#Comment_120480800

Much less "real elephants" and more "seeing pink elephants" in RTÉ looking to close its FM network in Ireland in any reasonable length of outlook.

I've addressed most of that idea in the relevant thread in the Radio forum. No point repeating it here.

But to add, for the UK IMO the four FM networks for the BBC National stations (the situation in Wales regarding Radio 3/Radio Wales excluded) will almost certainly be kept going until at least the early 2030's with two possible caveats - one being the possible closure of some low-powered relay stations carrying the four services on FM where DAB coverage is deemed to equal or exceed that of the FM service area of the relay, and the other being that at least some of the higher powered transmitters might be subject to 3db power reductions, as has already happened at Sutton Coldfield in the English midlands as well as Divis outside Belfast - but to be honest until I found this out I never really noticed it, and I live on the fringe of its main service area. And it is worth remembering that DAB listening has now overtaken FM listening in the UK as a whole.

Given that unlike the BBC, RTÉ has no planned path to DAB then the chances of their FM national networks going beyond the lifetime of the Beeb's is very likely. In fact, I'd be very confident that they'll still be going in 10 years time bar any critical financial crises and/or political meddling. It will eventually happen that it will shut down for good one day, but that day is quite far away.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120479747#Comment_120479747

These days, O'Donnell Abu sounds so dated and odd that it may as well be the interval on a numbers station.

(the specific tones version of it RTE use, that is - an actual performance of it sounds fine; but doesn't really work for the purpose its used for)

Closing LW is sensible cost cutting, I just hope RTE don't spend the saved cash on something foolish. Closing DAB was also very sensible but it's highly questionable to be paying contractors to broadcast on RTE Gold

boardsuser1000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120482983#Comment_120482983

Unfortunately it's looking like RTE Gold is the place to put ex 2FM presenters where they can continue to receive an income that most people can only dream of in relation to the work involved.

When did O'Donnell Abu stop being prominent on Radio 1? I'm pretty sure it used to be heard more often than the start of Rising Time as recently as the 00s but maybe I'm imagining it.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120482999#Comment_120482999

I can only remember it as the morning startup tones for my entire life. I'm not particularly young.