RTE Radio 1 on 252!

xMallx wrote: »

RTE Dublin insist on lying to the public. They say once again in their latest press statement that Longwave is an outdated and costly technology, representing poor value for money. This is a disgusting lie. The longwave transmitter is almost brand new, highly efficient and digital ready. I have reason to believe that this agenda to close longwave was pushed at board level by Willie O'Reilly.

The technology and the age of the transmitter are not related. The technology is hugely outdated, something that's not even arguable.

Moving to Digital Radio Mondiale would ensure that absolutely zero of the current handful of listeners would be able to receive it but it would get a few anoraks excited - and yet it keeps being mentioned by people in the same breath as "preserving the service" for the listeners.

total former wrote: »

Digital ready? What difference does that make if no one has the equipment to receive it?

The point is a certain cohort of listeners are actually tuning in to hear the existing Longwave broadcasts on for RTÉ Radio One on LW 252KHz. These are usually those people who choose LW for a particular reason:

Some cannot receive it via DAB as only certain areas are covered.
Some cannot receive it via FM as the signal is not always ok in certain areas of the country.
Some do not feel it makes sense to switch on their TV set just to be able to hear RTÉ Radio One.
Some like to hear the service on the move if driving AND/OR commuting
Some do not have access to broadband internet for the Radio Player
Some are not into latest trends in mobile phones such as useful apps etc;
Many older Irish ex-pats now living in UK would like the current service on LW 252 to continue rather than be forced to fork out for other methods.

At the end of the day, RTÉ had not taken the concerns of certain listeners into account as otherwise; they would not have been forced into extending the closure deadline of LW 252 not once but THREE times (i.e.) Oct 27 2014, Jan 19 2015 and now May 2017.

L1011 wrote: »

The age of the transmitter is utterly irrelevant to the technology being outdated.

its a young transmitter, may as well keep it on until its life expired unless it can be sold,

Once again - read what you're replying to properly.[/QUOTE]

first of all i read it properly. secondly, you don't get to tell me what to do, ever. do it again, i'l be reporting your posts.

L1011 wrote: »

Two tiny audiences none of which are without other options is not a good argument for spending large sums of money.

yes it is when the operator is the public service broadcaster. we don't know whethr the audience is tiny or not. its not large i'd agree. but still its worth keeping it on.

L1011 wrote: »

If it is felt that their PSB requirement over-arches their need to actually not lose money, the state needs to fund them appropriately for it.

the state is doing that.

L1011 wrote: »

This is not relevant to the technology being obsolete in any way, shape or form.




Clearly you don't, as you run away on insane tangents and aggressively claim they are critical to the original point. Either you're not reading them or you're doing this deliberately - I've just taken the nicer assumption.



What level of audience do you not consider worth spending money to cover?

How much do you want to spend per listener?



How? They are unable to afford to do various parts of what was expected of them as a PSB - such as RTE International TV.

Ok, so you have a different viewpoint to the individual who posted his comments on this forum thread but to be fair his arguments are not "insane" or "aggressive" at all. Of course you have genuine concerns and you can often raise some good points but your opinion is as valid as the next person's in all fairness.

The audience levels listening to RTÉ Radio 1 on LW 252KHz are probably not huge but they still needed to be taken seriously if they are going to shut down a vital service - it is in effect Ireland's national public service radio channel not a miscellaneous service. It should be available as widely as possible but if RTÉ originally had their own way their idea is multiple Digital only platforms. In my view, RTÉ eventually had to reconsider their timeline for change as they did not satisfy a certain cohort of their audience with regard to this issue.

You could apply a similar argument to RTÉ when TV moved from analogue to digital - those viewers who were unable to access the Saorview signal via aerial could not be told, well RTÉ tv is either available via UPC (in some mainly urban areas) and/or Sky Digital subscriptions nationwide however; RTÉ still had to set up SaorSat for only 2% of the population unable to pick up Saorview (Irish digital terrestrial tv) because certain areas could not pick up the signal. This must have been expensive but they had to provide the access to viewers.

When you hear RTÉ make the case about scarce resources and shortage of funds due to high debt levels and then you consider the wasted taxpayers money on some of their poor quality programmes, excessive salaries and so on. Ray D'Arcy's transfer fee was hardly low given his presence on Today fm but look at the tv shows he will present and it is ghastly as it is not something someone like the ability of Ray D'Arcy really needed to be involved in for a start. This is not good value for money from our national public service broadcaster.

As for RTE International TV, I'll believe it when it is up and running properly as this has been hinted at several times ever since TARA TV channel closed around 2001/2002! There has been no genuine timescale about RTÉ International TV ever announced apart from occasional rough deadlines that have always come and gone in relation to this project. TARA is gone around 13 years and we are as close now to it's replacement as we were when it first closed down.

end of the road wrote: »

clearly i do, as i've read the points and responded accordingly. however you continuously twist and turn, make accusations about me doing this and that, while it is infact you doing exactly what you accuse me of. its getting boaring now. you seriously need to grow up.

You still don't understand what you're doing at all.

Tangents, refusal to admit you've grasped the wrong end of the stick, insistence that your opinions have become inalienable fact by virtue of writing then down. All in this thread alone!

L1011 wrote: »

You still don't understand what you're doing at all.

Tangents, refusal to admit you've grasped the wrong end of the stick, insistence that your opinions have become inalienable fact by virtue of writing then down. All in this thread alone!

This is starting to look like you have a personal vendetta against another fellow poster. Maybe you should agree to disagree as each person is entitled to hold and express their own opinion as we are still meant to be living in a democracy last time I checked

Originally Posted by L1011

"I have nothing of the sort.
Challenging someone who states such fallacies as "its a young transmitter hence the technology is not obsolete", or "X is entitled to something" without providing any basis for the "entitlement" other their say-so does not equate to a vendetta. That's what has happened in this thread.
There is a vast difference between holding/stating an opinion and stating your opinion as cold hard fact that you refuse to even debate the validity of - and in this case we have someone who does the latter.
There's a complete lack of an attempt to debate beyond "you're wrong"/"wrong again" etc etc from one party here too."


I am not calling into question your right to challenge the viewpoint that was expressed but you also seem to go further by attacking the person it would seem. People from all backgrounds and experience submit their views freely - such views may be factually correct or perhaps inaccurate from time to time however; this does not make it acceptable or ok for any individual to belittle or try to humiliate the other person even if they happen to be wrong on (e.g.) a technical matter or any other such issue.

If someone was so personally rude and impolite towards me on a public forum (even if their point was factually correct), I would probably not show them a whole lot of respect either as manners and common courtesy should cost nothing.

L1011 wrote: »

I have nothing of the sort.

no, just continuously making accusations in an effort to try bate.

L1011 wrote: »

Challenging someone who states such fallacies as "its a young transmitter hence the technology is not obsolete", or "X is entitled to something" without providing any basis for the "entitlement" other their say-so does not equate to a vendetta. That's what has happened in this thread.

nothing of the sort has happened in this thread. RTE is the public broadcasting service and should be receivable via as many methods as possible. you have been the one making out i said the age of the transmitter was relevant to the technology, i said no such thing. i stated that as it was still young and there are no realistic alternatives for those listening to LW it should be kept until expirey. when it expires chances are the alternatives will be realistic and ready.

L1011 wrote: »

There is a vast difference between holding/stating an opinion and stating your opinion as cold hard fact that you refuse to even debate the validity of - and in this case we have someone who does the latter.

we don't. you have been the one stating your opinion as fact while trying to bate those who don't agree with you

L1011 wrote: »

There's a complete lack of an attempt to debate beyond "you're wrong"/"wrong again" etc etc from one party here too.

no, just to you with the continuous spouting and accusations which aren't even relevant to the topic. all you have more or less done is make all sorts of accusations against those who don't agree with you with a few actual points on the topic thrown in.

L1011 wrote: »

Where, precisely, have I belittled or humiliated anyone on here? If you consider telling someone to read what they are replying to properly due to a reponse that makes zero sense in context, think again - there is nobody that's going to agree with you.

what part of i read your posts do you not understand? i replied, get over it.

L1011 wrote: »

All I've done is point out a constant pattern of aggresive refusal to accept that others do not agree with assertions of "facts" that aren't, and denial that that is the case. There's nothing further for you to find.

where have you pointed this out? can't see it. all i can see from you is how people should read your posts when they have and replied, or that one has done this or that.

L1011 wrote: »

Personally, I consider posting "no, wrong again" and its like constantly as an attempt to avoid answering something to be rather rude and impolite, as it happens.

not as rude as making accusations, continuously suggesting people don't read your posts when they do, and so on.

L1011 wrote: »

This is not relevant to the technology being obsolete in any way, shape or form.




Clearly you don't, as you run away on insane tangents and aggressively claim they are critical to the original point. Either you're not reading them or you're doing this deliberately - I've just taken the nicer assumption.



What level of audience do you not consider worth spending money to cover?

How much do you want to spend per listener?



How? They are unable to afford to do various parts of what was expected of them as a PSB - such as RTE International TV.

Mr. Rabbit wrote: »

If RTE went free to air at 28.2 degrees east (like the BBC, ITV, Channel Four, and Channel Five) that would solve that problem, but that'll never happen due to this obsession with rights issues, as I've been reminded on so many occasions.

Which is a pity.

It is a pity but the main dilemma for RTÉ here is our close proximity to the UK as we use the same language (i.e.) English. The rights issues for buying and broadcasting of many popular TV programmes would result in a significant hike in transmission fees if access is given to UK viewers too. RTÉ would never be able to buy major US/British/Rest of World shows if it was shown that it was not contained on audiences within Republic of Ireland. Already some shows that are broadcast on RTÉ One, RTÉ 2 tv channels have to be blocked out across Northern Ireland as well particularly if the rights have not been paid to broadcast certain programmes such as Sport etc;

The rate differential is probably not much higher in overall terms at the moment for UK channels like BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc; allowing broadcasts to be viewed directly or indirectly via Republic of Ireland digital tv platforms.

I can never see RTÉ voluntarily going Free-To-Air for the reasons outlined earlier as the costs associated with same are likely to be prohibitive which would be passed on to Ireland's TV Licence fee and right now this would not go down very well I suspect.

That said, RTÉ needs to be more and more careful in the way it spends all future funds however; they need to grow more talent and stop overpaying for light weight tv/radio personalities. I'd rather see them retaining certain vital services like Radio 1 on LW252 before they feel the need to poach big stars at the top of their game on other stations to come and present some basic low cost type productions like: The School Around The Corner, Superstars Dogs, or The Saturday Night Show from Autumn 2015.

Ray D'Arcy is no Ant+Dec and it is typical of RTÉ trying to replicate programme ideas from other countries. There is little or no fresh ideas or creativity coming out of RTÉ's Montrose H.Q. these days. RTÉ TV Dept should be sent on a boot camp to channels such as: TG4 as they know how to be original every now and again with scarce financial resources. Yeah, not everything is a major success at TG4 but they sure do try bloody hard and have a lot of respect in the industry I suspect.

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

While I don't agree with your claim about 252 being a vital service (surprise, surprise) , most of the rest of the makes sense. Alas, you could have made the same points 10 or even 20 years ago.

Ah sure I know we respectfully disagree about 252 and this is fine. If it closed tomorrow I will be grand myself - I have had reason to rely on the LW service in the past when FM let me down and I was essentially standing up for those adversely affected by it's closure, that's all. I also have elderly Irish relations who are not of the Internet/Satellite Subscription TV or Mobile apps. generation living in the UK who would be upset if they could not switch on their radio and find RTÉ Radio 1 on LW 252.

But you are right about changes - is it ever an ideal time for people (especially the older generation) to convert to more modern methods?