Still no Nationwide DAB Radio

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales benefit from the economy of scale of being part of the UK. We cannot.

In the case of Norway, the switchover was mandated by government.

And that's about the only thing that can bring DAB back to the table here, if either the Irish goverment or the EU decides FM must be phased out, but I don't see it happening. It's a technology that nobody is asking for and is only going to become more obsolete.

the ridiculous amount of regulation and restrictions being removed, radio people rather then unelected civil servants being able to decide how to run their business and what content they think their market would like to listen to would remove costs.

no where did i ever say there would be no costs what soever to operate an terrestrial radio station, in fact i have been clear on a number of occasions that there will be some unavoidable costs.

there is a very simple way to see whether duke box stations will be able to sustain themselves against an FM based station, open up the market and implement the frameworks to allow DAB+ operation and then if it is the case that they, operating on their own business model can't sustain themselves then job done.

but until then, there isn't a shred of evidence to shor or prove what will or won't sustain itself as the current stations operating under the current model prove nothing outside the issues with the current model.

what ever operator would want to open such a station dispite the existence of duke box fm stations would open it, if none so be it, but preventing them from doing so cause reasons has no place in a commercial market in 2023 and i won't be convinced otherwise.

who cares how a station sustains itself as long as it isn't funded by illegal means, it's a private business so whether it sustains itself or not is the problem of the owner, it should most definitely not be the issue or business of unelected civil servants that's for sure.

we don't need to be the UK, but we are not so unique or special that we will be able to continue as we.

AM in an irish context is not comparable as there was no specific and effective bann on using it to my knowledge, stations were able to choose whether they wanted it or not and made their decisions.

in the case of DAB+, the regulator has decided nobody can have or use it because the existing FM based stations that fund it don't want to use it themselves, which is their choice, but that is very, very different to the AM situation.

it gives terrestrial radio listeners choice of content on their radio, rather then the content they are told they are getting by the civil servants.

because whatever about radio kerry and a couple of others, mandates are the only reason that a lot of the speech and minority content exists on many stations and in some cases is just not up to much.

no reason why radio kerry wouldn't survive if their content is good as people will listen and the competition will fail, as it should be in a commercial market.

it is not on a government to be protecting commercial, for profit businesses from competition.

Correct polarisation is vertical for all DAB transmitters (unlike horizontal shown in that Triax illustration). It will also work better on FM when vertically (though not of course designed/directional for the band)

Andy might be able to get, for free, a former Band III aerial for RTE analogue TV in the area, from someone who no longer wants it, provided in good condition, to experiment with DAB reception from NI.

Regarding RDS time signals, not all FM stations transmit this, leave radio tuned to RTE Radio for a few minutes to see if it picks it up? If not check the menus again for choosing a DAB or FM RDS time selection ? I have seen this on some DAB radios.

right wing? definitely not me.

however it's absolutely right to say civil servants should not be interfering in commercial radio.

the actual viability of DAB is unknown due to the prohibition on its use based on the existing stationn's choice rather then all the frameworks being implemented and every other legal thing and nobody taking it up.

the very thing you fear from competition is going to happen eventually, you are naive if you think there won't be attempts by the existing big boys to relax a lot if not all of the requirements currently imposed upon stations, and that they won't get them.

the BAI have rolled over plenty as you already know, so nothing is being protected by not allowing competition.

Sligo and Donegal will miss out as they’re not covered in the extended trial.

Hard to know , Sligo is in a yellow and green area so signal could be hit or miss. I could get dab signals up to Longford from the east coast trial and it is in a fringe signal area.

Donegal doesn't even get an overspill from Northern Ireland, as far as I know. Or even if, it's not much. Sligo gets a bit of overspill but only in certain parts of the city.

It's just fearmongering about DAB+ whilst in reality the radio or mobile market is already dominated by smartphone users. Staying on FM is willingly death to the radio, or a death in slow motion.

In the end, DAB+ won't be the standard unless the RTE is focused on it. And so far there is no sign of the RTE being interested in DAB+.

One can't just simply "order" the RTE to put RTE Gold on some kind of terrestrial network, analog or digital. Ultimately it would have to be some kind of political decision and direction for the RTE to go to DAB+ in general.

Apart from that, I do understand your opinion. RTE Gold is a rather popular station, mostly good music on and focusing on the audience which grew up when radio was the big thing and mobile smartphones didn't exist. Somelthing between Eirwave and Radio Nova. I think the RTE should grab the chance with RTE Gold and do more with this, as it's done now.

FM is simply not a choice for the future, and even less for any kind of growth for radio. Sadly few in Ireland understand that.

That's also the reason, I don't listen to FM radio. Not much on offer, not much choice. DAB+ isn't marketed or advertised and internet offers a whole lot more. So why FM? FM seems to be for an aging and dying audience.

The Bauer and RTE duopoly seems to be comfortable in a shrinking market.

DAB+ is per se not forbidden in Ireland. It's only that the evidence is there that all the major players, Bauer, etc… who are running a trial aren't doing any advertisement. Thus I can only suspect that they aren't really interested in a full and decent DAB+ roll out across Ireland. Also the RTE isn't interested, reasons are possibly financial, even though there would be a stronger case of RTE Gold being a success if it was on DAB+.

Any kind of a roll out in all of the Republic of Ireland would mean, more transmitters and a lot more awareness and advertising. Currently there is none, especially the latter points mentiones.

The majority of the Irish don't even know the difference between an FM radio with a digital display, the internet and streaming on a smartphone and a digital radio the likes of DAB+ as there is no real marketing awareness happening.