Port Tunnel and Radio Nova

expectationlost

interesting this RAdio Nova not broadcst in tunnel and are giving out about it http://radiotoday.ie/2015/12/radio-nova-plans-legal-action-against-tunnel-operator/ port tunnel operators say they can only have 7 stations why would that be?

WHL

A limited amount of channels are available in the Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork. RTE 1 and Red FM are while 4FM is not. Fairly sure that 96FM is there also. Wondered how it was done so thanks for the description above. Not sure of other stations but will take note the next time that I drive through if this thread is still alive or if somebody doesn't beat me to it

L1011

expectationlost wrote: »

interesting this RAdio Nova not broadcst in tunnel and are giving out about it http://radiotoday.ie/2015/12/radio-nova-plans-legal-action-against-tunnel-operator/ port tunnel operators say they can only have 7 stations why would that be?

The combiner they have would be limited and re-engineering it would be complicated/pricey

expectationlost

L1011 wrote: »

The combiner they have would be limited and re-engineering it would be complicated/pricey

how much would they cost? tens of thousands?

Losty Dublin

I did a wee bit of number crunching a while ago. The stations mentioned below are what's mentioned as being on the relay. I've listed their Dublin share from the most recent JNLR. The seven currently relayed make up an impressive 80% of the Dublin share.

• RTE Radio 1, 34% RTE
• Today FM, 5.9% Communicorp
• Newstalk, 10.4% Communicorp
• 98FM, 6.2% Communicorp
• FM104, 11% UTV
• Q102, 6.1% UTV
• Spin, 1038. 7% Communicorp

Kevin’s three stations, namely 4FM, Nova and Sunshine, make up 10.1%. That's a good chunk of the market but it is a long way off 25%. Lyric and 2FM add 7.2%. Currently the Book says that 83% of people listen into a radio station every day. This means that 17% don’t listen, a figure which co-incidentally is the same amount as the main stations not relayed in the Tunnel.

There are also warning signs, alarms, lights, public address and beacons in the tunnel as well as the radio system that can notify you of an emergency should one happen in the 5 minutes that it takes a car to drive through it.

Frankly this is a PR stunt by Brannigan and Co in what is silly season for the media at large.

Fuzzy Clam

Frankly this is a PR stunt by Brannigan and Co in what is silly season for the media at large.

Nail and head

bbability

excuse me lack of knowledge in "Tunnel FM transmission" but surely they can but a bigger modulator for the tunnel?

Avatar MIA

Losty Dublin wrote: »

This means that 17% don’t listen, a figure which co-incidentally is the same amount as the main stations not relayed in the Tunnel.

As statistics go this has to be contender for the most meaningless ever.

And it's harsh (as the Tunnel operators have claimed) to base this on listenership when Nova would be losing listenership because of this. It adds insult to injury. I've switched channel going through the tunnel, and not switched back.

Max Headroom

I'm off to live in the tunnel........:D

Avatar MIA

Max Headroom wrote: »

I'm off to live in the tunnel........:D

Troll?

Max Headroom

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Troll?

No..just hairy.....:p

Trick of the Tail

I don't believe it's simply a stunt, I think Nova has a genuine grievance.

As Kevin Branigan says, thousands of people enter the tunnel potentially listening to Nova every day, and when they emerge, they're listening to something else.

Anything that causes listeners to go elsewhere is a legitimate concern.

The system in use in the tunnel at the moment is basically a set of receivers, which receive the seven stations, then retransmit them on either the same frequencies or other frequencies that are in the stations AF list via a leaky feeder system.

The equipment has the capability to interrupt the audio from any or all stations and replace it with locally-generated safety announcements.

I would imagine that the equipment currently in use only has capacity for 7 stations.

There's no reason why this could not be expanded with the addition of extra modules or even a duplicate system diplexed into the same leaky feeder. The diplexer wouldn't be costly or complicated because it's wideband, and powers are low.

I know that equipment designed for civil engineering projects such as this isn't cheap, in fact much more expensive than if one went out and bought seven low power FM receivers and transmitters and cobbled together the switching and combining arrangement.

But that's the way it is; Nova's action apparently comes at the end of a long process of getting nowhere with the tunnel ops, so it totally understandable.

Max Headroom

As Kevin Branigan says, thousands of people enter the tunnel potentially listening to Nova every day, and when they emerge, they're listening to something else



WOW....its like a wormhole or something........:D

Antenna

WHL wrote: »

A limited amount of channels are available in the Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork. RTE 1 and Red FM are while 4FM is not. Fairly sure that 96FM is there also.

Newstalk (on 107.8) used to be available uninterrupted when driving through but now has disappeared. The other stations it carried , including RnaG (which surely has less listeners than NT) appear to be all still there.

marno21

Antenna wrote: »

Newstalk (on 107.8) used to be available uninterrupted when driving through but now has disappeared. The other stations it carried , including RnaG (which surely has less listeners than NT) appear to be all still there.

There's a blank carrier on 87.5 in the JLT too.

Antenna

marno21 wrote: »

There's a blank carrier on 87.5 in the JLT too.

There's also a 'blank carrier' there on 100.0 too, though not as strong as the 87.5 one.

Newstalk 107.8 has been available OK again in the Cork tunnel for some weeks