RTE radio1 LW

Just my €0.02...

* The amount of listeners in the Republic of Ireland to 252 kHz I'd say are very small, given the proliferation of FM, 3G/4G/5G mobile access and other methods for reception indoors (satellite, voice command devices e.g. Alexa, Google Assistant) I'd say the amount of land area where 252 kHz is the only practical option is tiny.

* Given that RTÉ does have a mission to serve the 32 counties on a best effort basis, this does raise some questions concerning reception in parts of Northern Ireland where FM reception is inadequate - in particular, Belfast city centre as well as significant areas of the north & east Antrim coasts where the local glens do work as an effective barrier to FM reception. I presume that unlike when 567 kHz when a solution to improving reception in Belfast was to swap Radio 1 & Lyric FM placing the former on to 87.8 MHz, listeners will be told this time to use IP delivery where practical, or alternative broadcast methods like satellite or cable in homes etc. The same goes for 252 kHz listeners in Britain.

* Regular maintenance to high powered AM broadcast sites aren't unusual - before 24 hour broadcasting they often took place outside broadcasting hours and presumably 2RN weren't going to give their workers any additional unsociable hours money to work on a TX site that wasn't used much by station listeners. Although I'd be very surprised if they didn't schedule some of these closedowns to make a check as to see how many might complain about losing reception, they certainly aren't the only ones (Europe 1 had an "unscheduled" transmitter switch off a few weeks before they shut down 183 kHz permanently as a test to see how many of their listeners were using it).

* The chances of anyone else taking over broadcasting on 252 kHz from Clarkestown are effectively zero. FTR GHR in the UK have been shutting down their MW transmitters where they have overlapping FM transmissions. Even the likes of China Radio International whom as if money was no object were renting airtime on high-powered MW facilities that were no longer being used by local broadcasters gave up on that strategy several years ago. The abject failure of TeamTalk 252 over 20 years ago shown the lack of any real commercial potential in the frequency - and that was back then!

* IMO a two week warning has been given by RTÉ to give enough time for the few listeners of 252 kHz to seek alternative ways to listen while also cock-blocking attempts by certain interests to astroturf reasons as to why it should stay on the air (again, a strategy being used by many broadcasters across Europe in shutting down their LW & MW transmissions).

* Finally, WRT BBC Radio 4's LW service, the LW transmission network is essentially guaranteed for the time being with the GB power companies needing to maintain the Teleswitch service on 198 kHz at least in the short term. However I do wonder how much longer the low power MW fillers (though Lisnagarvey could get away with being called "mid" powered) of BBC R4 LW service will remain on air especially as the BBC have planned to end split FM/LW broadcasts and keep Radio 4 to a single schedule, for example I very much doubt the 774 kHz TX from Enniskillen has even a negligible but notable amount of listeners - in over 30 years I've never seen anyone tune into it to listen to the station on that frequency in the Fermanagh/West Tyrone area except for one time someone had it on their car radio that I seen around 20 years ago.

I am pretty certain there won't be a commercial radio station interested, also no public broadcaster as well.

Taking the mast down costs money, maybe they find somebody in a 3rd world country willing to buy a used transmitter. These things do happen every now and then. I recall the AFN transmitter of 873 from Frankfurt Germany was sold to somewhere in the Baltics back in the days when they closed down.

I recall, even back in the 80ies not every radio had LW. One had to specifically look for a LW radio. However reception was pretty easy but even that wasn't a plus. In the late 90ies Atlantic 252 had problems with listening figures etc... but was still widely known.

Fact is, any kind of AM radio is going to be phased out and closed down all across Europe. I wonder how long Poland and Romania will be on LW on air ? It's quite possible that they will be next, even before BBC Radio 4 on LW.

I suppose Morocco and Algeria will stay on air the longest? At least in Algeria I would see the necessity to cover the desert in some way.

I've once visited the site of Atlantic 252 with a friend of mine. We were outside of the house but we didn't go in. The house looked like a typical older country house in Ireland of somebody of a better social standing back when it was built. The place was difficult to find, at at time when sat-nav wasn't in use and even the exactness of maps wasn't even enough. The transmitter was visible from a distance, however hedges on the side of the road and narrow winding roads made it difficult to get there. This was back in the late 90ies.

and:

I think the initial idea of Atlantic 252 was to service the UK market not the Irish market. In the beginning there were probably still a lot of LW radios around, people still had them back when BBC Radio 2 was on LW and the Light Programme before that.

MW radio will stay a bit longer in the US, but in Canada there are also frequent closures of MW transmitters and transfers from AM to an FM license.

Radio was also different back then. In many European countries the future of radio seems to be something like webstreams which are transmitted on DAB and the expectation of the listener is simply choice. Choice is only either on the web or on DAB. The UK is very much like that on the commercial side of radio and Germany is doing similar things.

Back in the days I've often read about MusicMan 279 but that was about it. Don't know if there was anything I could call hype but those interested in radio knew about MusicMan. There were articles of diesel generators making too much noise or possibly too much noise to power the transmitter and all sorts of other excuses. And even back then, one had to specifically look for a LW radio. Why MusicMan 279 never went on air, I never knew. Most likely it was financial and expectation of low listenership.

Its in the absolute middle of nowhere, so there won't be any value for housing.

The Beaumont MW site has been built on, though.

There are still certain parts of the world where keeping AM broadcasting at least in the short term makes sense, for example the ABC local radio network which covers vast swathes of regional & outback parts of Australia that a replacement FM network would be prohibitively expensive in terms of matching coverage - I never really understood why the 120/60 metre SW relays of ABC local radio for the Northern Territory was shuttered at the same time as the Radio Australia SW transmissions also ended other than cost from somewhere/one in an urban office in Sydney or Melbourne deciding to do so as nothing was in place that could replace this coverage on a traveling basis, and the service appeared to have its users. But in most of the rest of the world its in terminal decline. Even in Australia the traditional local broadcasters on MW frequencies have been slowly but steadily "converting" to FM (not as politically or commercially risky as most commercial stations outside urban Australia don't usually run much power beyond 2kW, exceptions being 4KZ in Queensland and 2WEB in New South Wales both of whom will likely remain on AM for some time to come). As Tinytobe has mentioned, even in the vastness of Canada MW stations there have been looking to switch to FM where practical or be given permission to lower their ERPs, while in the biggest of them all - Russia - there's hardly any MW radio left (or at least there was until a few mothballed stations were powered up again as a partial psyop operation), over nine years ago the state owned stations essentially left LW & MW quite suddenly with little notice. That sort of leaves the USA, but other than maybe the ten best listened to AM stations in the country, mainly the big metropolis-based stations on clear-channel frequencies, AM listening figures are essentially in freefall and have been for many years now - the stations that used to occupy local "superbowl" frequencies with up to 1kW ERP output are now either networked or operated brokered only with no or very little locally produced output. Even the mighty WINS 1010 New York has bit the bullet and is now available on a high-powered FM frequency in the city.

Meanwhile in Europe, the trend is in most countries for broadcast radio to be delivered via FM and/or DAB. Commercial AM radio is with some very few exceptions dead in the continent - the likes of COPE & SER in Spain have been reducing TX ERPs and are not replacing some transmitters that go faulty (though the state owned RNE is still committed to MW for the foreseeable future AFAIK), Romania is still busy on LW & MW but from what I see all stations are owned by their Radio Romania PSB with all commercial outlets on FM, a few Ukrainian & Russian AM transmitters have been fired up again (though how effective they actually are to get people to tune into them is another thing), you have a couple of high powered AM transmitters in Estonia & Lithuania that are largely aimed towards Russian speaking audiences, you have the BBC & local radio stations in the UK that are in the middle of a decommissioning plan for MW & LW, you have some low-powered semi-hobby broadcasters (notably in Italy & Netherlands) and that's really it. Here in Ireland, you have Spirit Radio whom are supposed to be broadcasting on 549 kHz but have seem to have given up on this (given that they're supposedly on a MW licence with FM "relays", I wonder why the BCI haven't hauled them over the coals yet on this?) while you have two full-time unlicenced radio stations in Radio North & Radio Star Country that although are still going, have in terms of programme output have seen better days - they seem to be largely funded these days by renting airtime to Evangelical Protestant programme makers with a small bit of advertising, outside of these hours the music is mostly automated with the odd show either live or recorded (Radio North don't even bother ID'ing themselves much of the time, and their webstream is no longer working). But as they're on the MW band, aimed at NI audience so aren't trying to attract southern advertising, and as their programming content doesn't seem to cause much fuss to licenced broadcasters on both sides of the border, they're tolerated for now.

I don’t fancy quoting large passages where I am interested in particular sections – hard to edit – so I am copying and pasting

@rathfanhamlad: There was a pirate on 261 kHz which appeared a couple of times in 2016 that hasn't been heard since. 

What was the name of this long wave pirate and where did it operate from? Was it automated or did it have any live broadcasts?

@TAFKAlawhec: Here in Ireland, you have Spirit Radio whom are supposed to be broadcasting on 549 kHz but have seem to have given up on this (given that they're supposedly on a MW licence with FM "relays", I wonder why the BCI haven't hauled them over the coals yet on this?) while you have two full-time unlicenced radio stations in Radio North & Radio Star Country that although are still going, have in terms of programme output have seen better days - they seem to be largely funded these days by renting airtime to Evangelical Protestant programme makers with a small bit of advertising, outside of these hours the music is mostly automated with the odd show either live or recorded (Radio North don't even bother ID'ing themselves much of the time, and their webstream is no longer working). But as they're on the MW band, aimed at NI audience so aren't trying to attract southern advertising, and as their programming content doesn't seem to cause much fuss to licenced broadcasters on both sides of the border, they're tolerated for now.

There are some other MW pirates still around. One of the more notable ones is the Dublin-based weekend oldies pirate Energy Power AM. It is mainly automated but does have some live broadcasts.

I wonder is this the final nail in the coffin for RTE on LW after a number of delays. I suspect that the time has come now. How many people do actually listen to Radio 1 on LW, whether here or in the UK?

I don't think that any religious broadcaster would be interested in the 252.

The problem with the 252 is simply cost and lack of listeners, both a no go for anybody other than a public broadcaster who collects and lives on license fees and the legality behind it.

I suppose the only reason, the mast isn't dismantled is that there seems to be a DRM transmitter there as well? However DRM is not very popular, other than in India, I think.

I think the original transmitter from Texas is gone, they current one is from Germany.

Anybody pls correct me on this.

Athlone is unlikely to go because of its historical significance but one of the masts was demolished about 10 years ago. There were discussions about preserving it as a museum exhibit but nothing has been said about it for a long time.

I remember Charity 252. I listened to it! The presenters were all celebrities. As time went on, members of the public voted out participants. I recall that showband singer Eileen Reid and actress Sorcha Furling (Orla in Fair City) were involved. There was also an ex-member of Irish band Six. Just checking earlier threads now....her name was Emma O'Driscoll. Also: Amanda Brunker, Blathnaid Ni Coffey, Clare McKeown and Fiona McShane. The show was presented by Gerry Ryan. Eileen Reid was the ultimate winner.