The future of RTE Radio 1 LW

Cork_chick_94 wrote: »

head of rte radio Jim
Jennings on the today show

I listened to the interview.

Mr Jennings said "The BBC are also moving away from it" (LW) - the BBC have said it will close at some point in the future - but no date has been set, it could be over 10 years time. BBC Radio 4 on 198kHz is staying put for the foreseeable future.

He asserted RTE is available on DAB in parts of NI with no RTE FM coverage - FALSE.

regarding FM coverage - he says even UK broadcasters have issues in parts of Antrim - which is probably one of the reasons why BBC R. Ulster still has 1341kHz MW/AM in addition to FM.

Its also worth noting that numerous lightning strike damage last week left many people in the south of this country without broadband service for an extended period (over a day+), it just goes to show how online is more 'fragile' than traditional radio.

formerly scottish paddy wrote: »

The Longwave service should be turned into an "international" programme with no advertising and with a selection from across all Irish radio. The costs should be met by the Dept. Foreign Affairs and the service available on the net and on satellite in countries with a large Irish expat community.

Actually why couldn't it take UK advertising? It wouldn't cover the cost but might get more listeners if people knew it was there.

At the end of the day if people choose to live in a foreign country and no longer pay taxes to the old country they cannot expect the old country to provide them services such as radio. RTE are under no obligation to provide radio to Britain or even NI. (The good Friday agreement did not include radio).

winston_1 wrote: »

At the end of the day if people choose to live in a foreign country and no longer pay taxes to the old country they cannot expect the old country to provide them services such as radio. RTE are under no obligation to provide radio to Britain or even NI. (The good Friday agreement did not include radio).

RTÉ are under an obligation to the irish abroad by law.

The Broadcasting Act 2009 requires that RTÉ entertain, inform and educate and have the character of a public service.
RTÉ’s broadcasting services must be offered free-to-air to the whole community and to Irish communities abroad, in so far as is reasonably practical.

http://www.rte.ie/documents/about/rte-pss-2010v1.pdf
and the law itself:
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/pdf/2009/en.act.2009.0018.pdf
the oblogation to Northern ireland is contained within their public service obligation to the island of Ireland, beyond that theres an obligation "to Irish communities outside the island of Ireland". A distinct difference in the 2.

you can argue whats "reasonably practical", but you are plain wrong in saying RTÉ have no obligation to the irish abroad.

In the absence of an international service like the BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle etc. RTÉ Radio 1 is about the closest Irish ex-pats have to a "voice from home". Most European countries have some sort of radio or television service aimed at either their ex-pats or to a common nation of peoples in a neighbouring country.

Also RTÉ, and Radio Éireann before it, have always by virtue sought to cover all 32 counties of Ireland with its domestic services where practical. The location of the Clermont Carn & Holywell Hill transmitter sites are not a coincidence.

I note that from the Herald yesterday that RTE state that even though they postponed the closure, they are going to close it, and that they will use the extra few months to tell people who use the service to use other services.
They closed Medium wave 6 years ago telling people to use FM, and if you were outside this coverage, sure use LW252. Now they are telling people who avail of the long wave service, in the north of ireland and britain to listen to it on the internet etc., ignoring the fact that the group who use it are not the internet generation and unlikely to be, and not users of DAB even if there was such a service in the North East of Ireland, or indeed in the UK.
They are saying if your in the UK and listen to RTE on long wave, and dont have the internet or satellite the tough luck!

petronius wrote: »

I note that from the Herald yesterday that RTE state that even though they postponed the closure, they are going to close it, !

They have already taken it off the list of frequencies that RTE broadcast on that is listed on their website

RTE management have proven they do not listen, they care nothing for PSB mandate or consumer, they like BBC are enamoured with Twitter, DAB, Web streaming etc.

DAB and Celebrity Presenters are a waste of money. The MW should never have been scrapped.

It was inevitable that when Digital Radio Mondail failed to take off they would kill LW as they did MW as a cost saving.

Internet and especially Mobile internet can't ever replace National Broadcast. Nor can Satellite or Cable.

FM can't do full coverage. AM (MW or LW) can. DAB in UK would need x6 as many masts as at present to give FM coverage.

I'm not going to even engage with RTE anymore. They are wreckers. As are Comreg and DCNER.

Digital TV makes sense, Digital Radio doesn't. Mobile can only support about 10,000 listeners, if NO OTHER traffic and phone calls. MORONS.

Full DAB coverage would cost MORE than FM and AM together. If it was real full coverage.

Celeb overpriced presenters must be costing nearly as much as LW TX.

Also DAB is NOT green for receivers, using x6 to x20 (headphones) power consumption per receiver. There never ever will be the DAB coverage that FM has. FM isn't enough coverage.

A PSB has to attempt 100% coverage. That's why UK has freesat, to cover the 1.5% that Freeview doesn't cover. BBC admitted they need LW & MW as FM coverage isn't enough and DAB (which is FAR better in UK) is 5% to 6% less. To fill in "black spots" in Digital Radio (of ANY kind) turns out to take hugely more low power repeaters than envisaged.

Also SFN DAB (or any other Digital system) is NO USE at all for Local and Community Radio. It favours a National Broadcaster and inherently more expensive than local FM.

Despite what mis-informed bean counters in Germany, Ireland and UK say, properly planned AM is still the cheapest way to give 100% national coverage. Receiver power consumption is such that a 4 x D cell radio would last a year in an emergency situation, or 30 days at 12 hours a day on AM. A AM/FM radio of equivalent quality to a €60 DAB set is under €15. It's easier to tune and operate. Many DAB sets are impossible without manual.
Also easiest for portable / mobile use is a scale and manual tuning knob (this can be simulated with LCD). A preset only radio never has enough presets and becomes awkward to reprogram. People DO listen to Radio away from Car or TV set/Living room.


What works for TV in terms of a User interface (or even a car Radio) is USELESS for a general purpose portable radio.

In any national disaster scenario even ONE AM transmitter on a generator can communicate with everyone.

Digital TV can give over 500:1 compression compared to Analogue Video, Widescreen, HD etc. Digital radio at FM or CD quality only gives a 5:1 compression! Other countries to provide more stations are extending FM band. The FM Band is no use for Mobile. It has no value to sell off.

The AM bands have even less spectrum value than FM.

Comreg's agenda is to sell ALL TV band and have only Cable/ Internet/fibre /Satellite. They care nothing about AM and FM bands as they make no money from them.

Streaming one TV channel on Internet to Everyone would cost more than LW or a three transmitter MW network. You'll notice that any RTE or BBC streaming falls over on popular events, even with a fraction of Broadcast numbers. The more people you stream to, the more it costs. Broadcast is a fixed cost no matter how many listen.

Internet is very fragile. First to go in a problem. Also DOES NOT SCALE. It's only cheap for provider when a minority use it. Nor is it portable/mobile (Capacity of Mobile Internet only allows about 0.1% of listeners or less!)