FáilteDAB: Coverage, Tests and Services

and still not back online, must be something to do with that court case.

Hadn't even considered the DDOS attacks, but I believe the technology of DAB is such that at some point along the line the internet is required so I'd say fewer attacks are likely as opposed to 3G/4G/5G

There's 34 stations on DAB in the UK and a further 53 on the DAB+service for a total of 87. That's before you even look at regional services! Now I accept that most are very specialised or religious, there's even a station dedicated to music and programming for tradespeople, which in fairness would be very popular over here if they wanted to expand

Agreed, the reason for classic linear radios decline is largely due to the choice available. I can open Apple, youtube music, or spotify in my car and have access to almost every song that has ever been played and every podcast I could ever need. If we get 20+ stations on DAB I might not listen to all of them but I might flick between 6 or 7 of them, which would be a better outcome for at least those stations.

Digital radio in the UK is older thus the BBC stations are on DAB, many commercial stations are DAB+.

The other advantage DAB+ would have in Ireland is to provide Irish content more. The RTE would have a good future here, if they didn't spend everyting on the aging and defunct 252 transmitter.

With mobile phone opions there is more and more mobile presence of foreign music and media content and less and less Irish content. DAB+ could provide a cost effective alternative with Irish content and promote Irish culture and music a lot more.

And then overall analogue radio in international choice is in general done. With the shutdown of AM stations any kind of choice is also done with in Ireland. No more Virgin 1215, RTL on 234 or Europe 1 on 183, or Deutschlandfunk and most likely also no Talksport and BBC Radio 5 by 2030. BBC Radio 4 on 198 will go off air in September next year. Shortwave is also more than done by now.

The few FM stations remaining will dwindle in listenership and the younger audience will avoid them at all.

At a guess, they might be trying to gauge the popularity of the DAB system and if they need to make cutbacks in future

….And it went down. How interesting haha

Had a bit of fun earlier trying to get the RadioFeeds Alexa skill to say back "Gee Haitch Orrr"! It kinda works… I feel the orrrrrr could be longer but I've run out of ideas to manipulate her.

"W" has launched as a placeholder. Currently silent with PTY as Current Affairs and 32kb/s

As a result, that's now 29 stations with 8Radio reducing its bitrate from 40 to 32kb/s

Here's a list of everyone's bitrate

64: Newstalk and Q102

48: Spin, Today FM, GHR and Onic Country

40: Onic Movies/R&B/Chill/Hits/80s/Alt/Rock/Gold, Rewind, Sunshine Soul, Eirwave, Freedom, LazerHits, Classic Hits 80s and Nova Classic Rock

32: Onic Kids, Bob FM, Ri Ra, 8Radio, Spirit and W

24: UCB and Radio Maria

It's hard to imagine what else it could be, unless RTE have decided to put Radio 1 on the service (highly unlikely, I'd have thought). What other stations are there in Ireland that could qualify as Current Affairs? Dublin City FM? Raidó na Life? One of the local community stations like NEAR FM or South Dublin FM?

The lower bitrates are really starting to be noticeable - a number of the stations with metallic and swirly sounding audio, although some sound better than others (presumably better audio processing).

GoLoud Radio??

I think most of us do miss RTE Gold on some kind of terrestrial mobile service. Back in the days they should have put it on the 252 rather than radio 1.

Any chance of DAB+ being rolled out across the whole of Ireland?

The number of 80s/Classics stations is nuts when you consider the most popular pirate of recent years was a 90s station.

Freedom sort of covers that market, but not like a dedicated 90s station would. The lack of an actual dance station - again, Freedom sort of covers this - is another surprise. However the mux is now basically as full as it can be.