Why isn't Classic Hits 4fm available nationwide?

zeebre12

Why isn't this radio station available to all the country? It seems to only be available in population centres like Limerick, Dublin etc. Why is this?

The Cush

Multi-city licence only, insufficient spectrum for a nationwide licence. Newstalk operate on a quasi-national licence for this reason.

mackersdublin

4FM = 4 cities - Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway

lertsnim

mackersdublin wrote: »

4FM = 4 cities - Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway

And Clare while Waterford for some reason isn't included even though there is plenty of room on the FM band for it.

political analyst

The Cush wrote: »

Multi-city licence only, insufficient spectrum for a nationwide licence. Newstalk operate on a quasi-national licence for this reason.

Couldn't Classic Hits and Newstalk pay for places on Saorview if they wanted to be on it?

The Cush

political analyst wrote: »

Couldn't Classic Hits and Newstalk pay for places on Saorview if they wanted to be on it?

Yes but no independent has done so.

dirty old anorak

The original thinking behind the licence was that there wasn't any radio stations catering for the 50s market in Dublin, Cork, Limerick & Galway.

rogue-entity

dirty old anorak wrote: »

The original thinking behind the licence was that there wasn't any radio stations catering for the 50s  market in Dublin, Cork, Limerick & Galway.

There's bugger all radio in the South East when you exclude the nationals, let alone a station that targets the 50s market.

lertsnim wrote: »

mackersdublin wrote: »

4FM = 4 cities - Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway

And Clare while Waterford for some reason isn't included even though there is plenty of room on the FM band for it.

Clare because residents would get overspill from Limerick and Cork regardless so I suppose they were pencilled in to make it official. The South East on the other hand seems to be carefully avoided.

rogue-entity

rogue-entity wrote: »

There's bugger all radio in the South East when you exclude the nationals, let alone a station that targets the 50s market.

Clare because residents would get overspill from Limerick and Cork regardless so I suppose they were pencilled in to make it official. The South East on the other hand seems to be carefully avoided.

The northwest is always missing out as well!

Digifriendly

Why isn't Newstalk available from Clermont Carn the way Today FM is? It's almost impossible to pick up a decent Newstalk FM signal in NE.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

I pick up 4 fm loud and clear from overspill even though I'm living just outside the franchise area which is Limerick City. I do feel sorry for areas such as the Southeast and Southwest of the country as the choice of raido to listen to is very limited. Co. Kerry is a typical example as I've been down there recently and apart from Radio Kerry, Spin Southwest and the national stations the number of stations are limited.

lertsnim

lertsnim wrote: »

And Clare while Waterford for some reason isn't included even though there is plenty of room on the FM band for it.

Their most powerful transmitter by far is the one on Maghera at 50kW. Covers Galway, Clare, Limerick and some of north Kerry.

lgs 4

The other option is radio app and sync with the Bluetooth in the car. The good apps have 128 kbps stereo sound.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48

Karsini wrote: »

Their most powerful transmitter by far is the one on Maghera at 50kW. Covers Galway, Clare, Limerick and some of north Kerry.

That's where I get my reception from.

DublinCDT

lgs 4 wrote: »

The other option is radio app and sync with the Bluetooth in the car. The good apps have 128 kbps stereo sound.

Car only has call audio bluetooth .... sob sob

lgs 4

DublinCDT wrote: »

Car only has call audio bluetooth .... sob sob

This will help: T11 Car Bluetooth FM Transmitter

https://youtu.be/0tEMkXp_3xs

One of the best on market, I have one.

mackersdublin

Digifriendly wrote: »

Why isn't Newstalk available from Clermont Carn the way Today FM is? It's almost impossible to pick up a decent Newstalk FM signal in NE.

NT is on 107.9 from there

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clermont_Carn#Analogue_FM_radio

Capt'n Midnight

dirty old anorak wrote: »

The original thinking behind the licence was that there wasn't any radio stations catering for the 50s market in Dublin, Cork, Limerick & Galway.

Nova isn't the only station playing a lot of 80's music.


In theory DAB would have allowed lots of stations, mainly because
A - it has been allocated a lot more spectrum than FM and
B - many channels use lower quality bitrates

But the takeup by commercial stations is meh.

or if you have the internets
http://www.classichits.ie/listen-live/

STB.

Karsini wrote: »

Their most powerful transmitter by far is the one on Maghera at 50kW. Covers Galway, Clare, Limerick and some of north Kerry.

And I presume that the power restriction is part of the licence conditions.

Today FM & RTE are whacking out 160KW from the same site whilst Spin & Newtalk do 20KW. Clare FM TX is 5kw.

I think Branigans plan was to get Nova on the same basis as 4. He was using Trial licences for a multicity rock station under The Rock branding he's used originally to convince the BAI the market was there for the Dublin version. Likewise for the multicity.

When the BAI asked for expressions of interest back in June Branigan was proposing a rock station (Nova) that served Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway and Kilkenny, as well as the Midlands and the North East of Ireland

STB.

STB. wrote: »

And I presume that the power restriction is part of the licence conditions.

Today FM & RTE are whacking out 160KW from the same site whilst Spin & Newtalk do 20KW. Clare FM TX is 5kw.

I think Branigans plan was to get Nova on the same basis as 4. He was using Trial licences for a multicity rock station under The Rock branding he's used originally to convince the BAI the market was there for the Dublin version. Likewise for the multicity.

When the BAI asked for expressions of interest back in June Branigan was proposing a rock station (Nova) that served Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway and Kilkenny, as well as the Midlands and the North East of Ireland

That covers most of the country, why wouldn't he go the whole hog and broadcast to the rest of it?

STB.

zorro2566 wrote: »

That covers most of the country, why wouldn't he go the whole hog and broadcast to the rest of it?

Realities of cost vs return Zorro.

RTE have to do it, a commercial station does not have those PSB requirements. It is afterall a commercial venture.