Free DAB radio

Young Entrepreneur? Thats a bit of a stretch! Its just another pirate radio set up!

The British DAB signal for BBC Radio either coms from Brougher Mountain or from Enniskillen. Brougher would be a bit further away than the Enniskillen transmitter, but the stronger one. I'd say in Collooney it'll be hard to figure out which signal you're getting your British DAB signal for BBC radio reception.

However it surprises me that you're getting DAB from the UK in your area without any additional antennas? Either the signal travels further than I expected, or you're using some excellent antenna to boost the reception?

I would have guessed the signal drops out completely west of Manorhamilton?

For my daily office work (still from home) I have long given up on Irish FM and nearly all my listening is on DAB with content from across the border.

Just done a san and picking up 89 channels

Yes, a lot of these are crap, but most are a hell of a lot better than the BAI regulated tripe we get on FM

There will never be DAB in the south while the BAI mull over consultations et al and indeed while they can refer to that narrative from the JNLR's that radio listenership is growing on FM

Most of them don't even know what it is, thinking it's something to do with the Internet or indeed Apps.

Likewise, I may add this forum - there is a very very negative preception towards the medium. With all that in mind, I've reserved myself to the fact that we will not be seeing entrepreneurial Irish stations with no 20% crap on DAB anytime soon.

They have one local mux (and several unlicensed ones)

I think it's the isle of man, and the poster had a typo, perhaps meaning manland

I don't think it's too late at all. As said, Germany's DAB+ rollout is pretty recent, only recently all new cars are to have DAB+ mandatory by EU law, plus the idea of 5G as an alternative to DAB+ is technically not an ideal option.

Also choice is rather limited, if it's only down to FM Radio, unless you're in Dublin. Also don't expect for TalkSport or BBC Radio 4 or Radio 4 on LW to be there forever as well. I'd expect that all commercial AM stations in the UK will not be seeing any profit anymore from their AM broadcast beyond 2025 and onwards, so they'd be switched off completely.

In the car in most of Ireland

I want to listen to an 80s station - I can't

A 90's or a 70s station - Nope

A dance station - No again

A pure country and westen station - No again

A real classic rock station - Nah

A soul station - No

A Gay station - No

A Jazz station - are you for real

Sports stations - Nope

Indie stations - No

Religious stations - kinda, we have spirit on AM and some FM

What do I have?

If in Dublin, 5 to 6 stations trying to do the same thing

If in the rest of the country - the local station for your county with the endless amount of talkshows and egos

Dont start me about fiddeling with my phone - not happening

That's why I like driving in and around Ulster

Thant's exactly my point as well.

freedab run a mostly software based system i believe so infrastructure costs don't have to be in the millions unless a completely hardware based solution was being used.

realistically any of the dab setups around the world will probably go software eventually anyway.

stations on freedab vary in quality of course but that is no different to the over-regulated BAI stations on fm.

The problem with this kind of opinion is that Irish radio will slowly and gradually lose market share. It's no longer reaching all audiences, while DAB+ can do that with ease. Once the ILR's on FM will lose advertising revenue, they may change their minds. However judging by previous negative DAB+ posts, it may be a long and difficult learning curve.

The choice on DAB+ in countries like the UK, Switzerland, Norway or Germany is the answer to what people expect to have via the likes of internet these days.