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Child Item

The Future of Longwave 252kHz (RTE Radio 1)

andym1

A friend working in RTE tells me the LW service based in Co Meath will cease this year. With the internet and smartphones its days are numbered plus I hear it is expensive to run power etc.
I usually go to France in the summer and always got a half decent signal on LW

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whisky_galore

The generation that already had radio, witnessed the growth of tv and mass communications, space travel, were there when a man landed on the moon and can't cope at all with t'internet.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Genghis wrote: »

It's old Irish people in Britain, who can only access RTE this way.

Yes, it's on satellite, internet radio and in some places is / was on DAB but older folk don't use these platforms.

You'd be surprised how many of my friends, and we're all 75 or older, have the capacity to listen online, have DAB radios and, like most of the UK, have access to satellite TV & Radio.

[Deleted User]

Srameen wrote: »

I know full well it's pressure from those in the UK. Hence I said 'in this country'.
They pay neither taxes or Licence Fee towards the cost. So, tough. Tune in elsewhere or use other means to get your fix of the old country..

As mentioned above, the licence thing is moot. Nobody needs a licence for a radio.

Basic UK pensions are about 100 euro smaller per week than their Irish equivalent. It's absolutely miserable. It's not that they can't stream, it just often isn't affordable.

dxhound2005

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I think the problem is in the UK Srameen. Lots of lads went over there in the 60s and 70s, as you know, and are living in flats in Croydon and a Kilburn still listening to Céilí House and Liveline.

People like that don't stream podcasts. I'd find it hard to begrudge them a longwave service that connects them to home.

They won't be able to hear it in London. People in Cork are complaining that it is unusable at night due to Algeria on the same frequency.

http://savertelongwaveradio.com/the-rte-longwave-survey-must-be-extended/

RTE’s hastily attempted closure of Radio One LW252, a service to our older UK Diaspora was abandoned after expressions of outrage from emigrant groups, church and media on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Then followed a questionable survey of thousands of listeners who were unaware that the signal was on half power. This cut, a major issue, was not revealed by RTE. This failure to inform would likely have confused participants and was added to by a station ten times more powerful sitting on top of the R.Eireann (LW252) programme and wiping it out across London and S.E.

gctest50

It needs a dose of this :

then bulldoze Montrose

colm_mcm

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Radio doesn't require a licence fee, even in Ireland. They belong to the same community as we do, only they were unlucky enough to be born in the wrong time phase and had to leave.

Frankly I'd rather the (relatively small) investment went into LW than some zany radio project for Abie Philbin Bowman or whoever.

It’s paid for by the licence fee, which these people don’t contribute to.
It’s ridiculous. There are alternatives to LW, and if they’re out of the country 50 years then we owe them nothing.

end of the road

do we really need another rte thread, there are a few already.
this is a complete non-issue.
there are no suitable alternatives to lw for those who use the service as the alternatives require more equipment and cost more compared to a simple lw radio.
while that remains the case then the service will remain open.

colm_mcm

end of the road wrote: »

do we really need another rte thread, there are a few already.
this is a complete non-issue.
there are no suitable alternatives to lw for those who use the service as the alternatives require more equipment and cost more compared to a simple lw radio.
while that remains the case then the service will remain open.

So why did they axe analogue tv in favour of Saorview?

end of the road

colm_mcm wrote: »

So why did they axe analogue tv in favour of Saorview?

better picture quality, allows for more services if there is demand from prospective operators. i believe it is less costly to run also.
i would also imagine the analogue system was near end of life so over all more cost effective to upgrade to dtt then replace the analogue system.

colm_mcm

end of the road wrote: »

better picture quality, allows for more services if there is demand from prospective operators. i believe it is less costly to run also.
i would also imagine the analogue system was near end of life so over all more cost effective to upgrade to dtt then replace the analogue system.

But what about all the poor old dears who couldnt afford to upgrade to digital tv and now can’t watch RTE?

Ursus Horribilis

I hope that this is only a temporary reprieve and that they'll axe this waste of money in the coming years. I find it hard to believe that there are that many "vulnerable" elderly folk in the UK who are incapable of using the internet or satellite to listen to RTE. This is to stop vested interests whinging about 90 year old bachelors living in bedsits in Cricklewood. These people can't live forever and the folk coming up behind them will be much more tech savvy. I also doubt the veracity of the surveys they did in the Irish centres. Do Irish emigrants really fire up crackly old LW radios to listen to RTE when they can hear it in better quality on their smartphones, laptops, ipads or TVs?

ToddyDoody

Why dont they sell uk advertising on it if it needs a revenue stream?

Skylinehead

end of the road wrote: »

better picture quality, allows for more services if there is demand from prospective operators. i believe it is less costly to run also.

You mean exactly the same scenario that should see DAB replace long wave radio?

Capt'n Midnight

whisky_galore wrote: »

The generation that already had radio, witnessed the growth of tv and mass communications, space travel, were there when a man landed on the moon and can't cope at all with t'internet.

“I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”
- Douglas Adams

With Brexit going on and the UK mass media the way it is, it's probably needed more now than for a long time.

Ursus Horribilis

My several smartphone owning/using relatives in their 70s would agree wholeheartedly

nkl12xtw5goz70

I haven't been able to get any DAB stations at all in rural Ireland. Most people still seem to be listening to FM radio.

GarIT

It's an interesting policy if RTE is keeping longwave alive for Irish people in the UK but block Irish people in the US or Australia from watching the news or other RTE made content on the RTE player.

Shefwedfan

Dump 2fm which serves no purpose and keep LW.....better to everyone in long run if Lottie Ryan is on dole queue

end of the road

colm_mcm wrote: »

But what about all the poor old dears who couldnt afford to upgrade to digital tv and now can’t watch RTE?

i think there was help and support for such people around the time.

Ursus Horribilis wrote: »

I hope that this is only a temporary reprieve and that they'll axe this waste of money in the coming years. I find it hard to believe that there are that many "vulnerable" elderly folk in the UK who are incapable of using the internet or satellite to listen to RTE. This is to stop vested interests whinging about 90 year old bachelors living in bedsits in Cricklewood. These people can't live forever and the folk coming up behind them will be much more tech savvy. I also doubt the veracity of the surveys they did in the Irish centres. Do Irish emigrants really fire up crackly old LW radios to listen to RTE when they can hear it in better quality on their smartphones, laptops, ipads or TVs?

it's not necessarily capability that is the issue, but portability and cost effectiveness. satellite listening requires a static environment such as home listening, and to a good extent online listening requires similar for optimal and reliable listening unless there is good coverage with a signal of a decent standard in the area. +then online listening will have data charges i believe, at least if out and about. not sure how such charges are in the uk though, all though i believe they are more expensive then here?

ToddyDoody wrote: »

Why dont they sell uk advertising on it if it needs a revenue stream?

in theory that would be a great idea, but the uk advertisers already have more profitable platforms to advertise on i would imagine.

Skylinehead wrote: »

You mean exactly the same scenario that should see DAB replace long wave radio?

yes.
in fact, carrying rte radio one on dab in the uk would have been the optimal solution, however i believe rte did try and there were some issues meaning they couldn't get on the platform there. i'm unsure of what those issues were though.
i suspect that is why lw is still on air, and if the dab problem does get sorted it will be shut.
if you are talking about dab in an irish context then rte don't have the funding to roll it out country wide unfortunately. even though it would be a game changer for irish radio, allowing for greater choice for listeners. the current commercial sector also don't want it as it means competition so that won't help matters, even though that should have no baring on anything.

Doblin

ToddyDoody wrote: »

Why dont they sell uk advertising on it if it needs a revenue stream?

The campaigners to save RTE longwave have called it's listeners elderly, lonely, impoverished, sick and dying, so not exactly a market that the UK Ad agencies are interested in

Quantum Erasure

bring back Atlantic 252

ToddyDoody

Doblin wrote: »

The campaigners to save RTE longwave have called it's listeners elderly, lonely, impoverished, sick and dying, so not exactly a market that the UK Ad agencies are interested in

I'd say they could get enough to keep it ticking over.

Capt'n Midnight

Ursus Horribilis wrote: »

I hope that this is only a temporary reprieve and that they'll axe this waste of money in the coming years. I find it hard to believe that there are that many "vulnerable" elderly folk in the UK who are incapable of using the internet or satellite to listen to RTE.

Once the dust settles after Brexit and the UK either remains or gets through to a full free trade deal with the EU*.

* after 20 years of negotiating we are one of the countries blocking the EU deal with South America.

0lddog

colm_mcm wrote: »

So why did they axe analogue tv in favour of Saorview?

To free up some frequencies for 3G ( remember that ? )

0lddog

colm_mcm wrote: »

But what about all the poor old dears who couldnt afford to upgrade to digital tv and now can’t watch RTE?

Not an old dear, more an old dog, I have not watched RTE since then

One More Toy

Quantum Erasure wrote: »

bring back Atlantic 252

Or that briefly lived sports station that was on 252

dxhound2005

0lddog wrote: »

To free up some frequencies for 3G ( remember that ? )

The original 088 mobile network used frequencies around 900 MHz, and the digital networks like 3G which followed did not go much below that. Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting operates below that, so no spectrum was lost to phones at the changeover. It is happening now, with the transfer of frequencies in the 700 MHz range, but that is for wireless broadband, which was not a feature at the time of the Digital Switch Over.

https://www.analysysmason.com/About-Us/News/Newsletter/the-700mhz-band-by-2020-Jul18/

0lddog

dxhound2005 wrote: »

The original 088 mobile network used frequencies around 900 MHz, and the digital networks like 3G which followed did not go much below that. Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting operates below that, so no spectrum was lost to phones at the changeover. It is happening now, with the transfer of frequencies in the 700 MHz range, but that is for wireless broadband, which was not a feature at the time of the Digital Switch Over.

https://www.analysysmason.com/About-Us/News/Newsletter/the-700mhz-band-by-2020-Jul18/

Seems that I've been done out of RTE TV reception for the best part of the last 10 years for no good reason so :mad:

dxhound2005

0lddog wrote: »

Seems that I've been done out of RTE TV reception for the best part of the last 10 years for no good reason so :mad:

It will be of no consolation, but Turkey and Kosovo look like being the only two countries in Europe not going to DTT.

0lddog

dxhound2005 wrote: »

It will be of no consolation, but Turkey and Kosovo look like being the only two countries in Europe not going to DTT.

Neither in the EU

The whole lark has the smell of lobbying in Brussels :cool: