The future of RTE Radio 1 LW

The Cush

Announced this morning - http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2014/0923/645685-rte-radio-1-moves-from-longwave-transmission/

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/static/2014/0821/638554-stay-tuned/
http://static.rasset.ie/documents/radio1/rte-radio-1-staytuned.pdf

Digifriendly

Not good news for car radio buffs here in NI where RTE FM signal fades out and we rely on LW to get decent reception.

Apogee

So will they be using the money saved to finally roll out DAB properly for the rest of the country?

swoofer

that would be nice but isnt dab worse than FM in sound quality so lets hope it never arrives.

The Cush

swoofer wrote: »

that would be nice but isnt dab worse than FM in sound quality

In my opinion no.

The Cush

Apogee wrote: »

So will they be using the money saved to finally roll out DAB properly for the rest of the country?

No, this is their policy on DAB

The RTÉ DAB radio test service is available to in excess of 50% of the population. In the absence of a national policy and licensing framework for commercial DAB services the development of the DAB platform beyond this test is unlikely to proceed to a higher level of penetration at this juncture.

part of the on going cutbacks in RTÉ

JP Coakley continued: “This move to digital platforms is in line with other public service broadcasters such as the BBC in the UK and VGTRK in Russia, who have announced the closure of their longwave services. This service is a very expensive one for RTÉ and is unsustainable in terms of the organisations current financial position. RTÉ reported a break-even in 2013, thanks to rigorous cost-cutting and financial management, and there remains an emphasis on value-for-money across all services and technologies.”

marclt

This is pretty disappointing news. It also shows a lack of regard to Irish listeners in Britain who have valued the service since the shut down of 567MW.

If RTÉ is committed to providing a service to the Irish in Britain they should explore DAB carriage on the Digital1 multiplex.

Yes, of course it is available on Freesat and Sky but the ability of listeningon the move will be lost.

Where will the religious programmes now be broadcast - just on saorview?

Harry Palmr

That's a blow also where does it leave the split service on Sunday morning?

galtee boy

marclt wrote: »

This is pretty disappointing news. It also shows a lack of regard to Irish listeners in Britain who have valued the service since the shut down of 567MW.

If RTÉ is committed to providing a service to the Irish in Britain they should explore DAB carriage on the Digital1 multiplex.

Yes, of course it is available on Freesat and Sky but the ability of listeningon the move will be lost.

Where will the religious programmes now be broadcast - just on saorview?

Explore going on DAB in the UK ? You must be joking, they are not available on DAB in most parts of Ireland, except a few cities.

Apogee

This RTÉNL document puts the total charge for Radio One LW at €859,069 in 2011.

http://www.rtenl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RTE-NL-changes-13-July-2011.pdf

Does anyone have comparable costs for DAB?

The Cush

Apogee wrote: »

Does anyone have comparable costs for DAB?

I've never come across a breakdown of charges for DAB transmission and distribution.

Since the new tariff model was introduced you won't see a breakdown of charges like the one you linked to above

icdg

Harry Palmr wrote: »

That's a blow also where does it leave the split service on Sunday morning?

That's the biggest question. The mainly older people who listen to the religious services are exactly the same people who are least likely to have internet access or DAB. Expect a big fight against this from hospitals in particular.

dxhound2005

icdg wrote: »

That's the biggest question. The mainly older people who listen to the religious services are exactly the same people who are least likely to have internet access or DAB. Expect a big fight against this from hospitals in particular.

According to the person from RTE on the News at One it will only affect about 2,000 people. On the website it says 98% of listeners won't be affected. If the people who tune in for religious services on Sundays are savvy enough to find it while doing their other listening on FM they will probably figure out how to get it on Saorview on their TV.

http://static.rasset.ie/documents/radio1/rte-radio-1-staytuned.pdf

I'm not familiar with the setup in hospitals, fortunately. How would they be affected in particular?

endakenny

Digifriendly wrote: »

Not good news for car radio buffs here in NI where RTE FM signal fades out and we rely on LW to get decent reception.

People in NI already have a regional public service radio station for which they pay the licence fee. It's called "BBC Radio Ulster".

endakenny

marclt wrote: »

This is pretty disappointing news. It also shows a lack of regard to Irish listeners in Britain who have valued the service since the shut down of 567MW.

If RTÉ is committed to providing a service to the Irish in Britain they should explore DAB carriage on the Digital1 multiplex.

Yes, of course it is available on Freesat and Sky but the ability of listeningon the move will be lost.

Where will the religious programmes now be broadcast - just on saorview?

British radio listeners already have a world-class public service broadcaster - the BBC. The only thing that happens in Ireland that expatriates would be concerned about is the odd murder or fatal accident, which the relatives back home can tell them about on the phone. RTÉ should concentrate resources on covering Irish news and also international news from an Irish perspective.

Was listening to Radio 1 for the last half hour and about 3 or 4 people texted in to complain about the closure.

Digifriendly

endakenny wrote: »

People in NI already have a regional public service radio station for which they pay the licence fee. It's called "BBC Radio Ulster".

This is irrelevant to the closure of 252LW. I guess many here in NI like me tune into RTE on their car radios and this makes it more difficult to receive it.

Sam Russell

Some time ago, I bought a second hand car in the UK, not from anyone Irish (AFAIK) and the radio was tuned to 252LW. So people do listen to it in the UK.

galtee boy

Digifriendly wrote: »

This is irrelevant to the closure of 252LW. I guess many here in NI like me tune into RTE on their car radios and this makes it more difficult to receive it.

Tunein App on your phone, Bluetooth it to your car radio and you have crystal clear reception. Bar you are driving in remote rural areas where broadband is poor, it works very well. I use it all the time here in ROI to listen to Five Live and Talksport, beats the hell out of crappy medium wave reception. I've added on a VPN and can get online access to all the sports commentaries, which are geo blocked outside UK.

Antenna

Are there any guarantees that the current FM coverage of RTE Radio 1 into Northern Ireland will not be degraded in the future? What protection does it have? A the moment the 87.5 to 88 area is completely disused within northern Ireland but if that changed in the future it could badly degrade coverage of RTE Radio 1 on 87.8 MHz to Belfast etc and listeners then lamenting that LW is not there as an alternative!

PukkaStukka

Apogee wrote: »

This RTÉNL document puts the total charge for Radio One LW at €859,069 in 2011.

It would be interesting to see what the current figures are, not from 3 years ago. Plus I'd like to see how the LW transmission costs sits as a proportion of RTENL's total transmission budget.
The decision is nothing more than a crude cost saving initiative. Could you imagine the outcry if the Beeb decided to pull the plug on Radio 4 LW198 from Droitwich? This is a decision made by a few who clearly know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Fuzzy Clam

PukkaStukka wrote: »

It would be interesting to see what the current figures are, not from 3 years ago. Plus I'd like to see how the LW transmission costs sits as a proportion of RTENL's total transmission budget.
The decision is nothing more than a crude cost saving initiative. Could you imagine the outcry if the Beeb decided to pull the plug on Radio 4 LW198 from Droitwich? This is a decision made by a few who clearly know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

As 252 has been running on reduced power for a while now, I would expect the ESB bill would not have increased.

Fuzzy Clam

Sam Russell wrote: »

Some time ago, I bought a second hand car in the UK, not from anyone Irish (AFAIK) and the radio was tuned to 252LW. So people do listen to it in the UK.

Was it just a preset?
Both my car radios have factory presets for 252. Station names included, although in my case they read Atlantic, Shows how old my cars are:eek:

SPDUB

They overrode the start of Morning Ireland to broadcast a closedown message ,

I presume they will do similar broadcasts during the day

phonypony

Just another perspective, 252 KHz from the Clarkstown mast also provides a useful, unofficial navigation aid for light aircraft. I'd say there will be a few student pilots and instructors in the area sorry to see it go!

RED L4 0TH

PukkaStukka wrote: »

Could you imagine the outcry if the Beeb decided to pull the plug on Radio 4 LW198 from Droitwich?

Will go eventually.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/oct/09/bbc-radio4-long-wave-goodbye

Georgina Taylor

I am really disappointed that LW 252 is going to cease I live in the North East of England and spend a lot of time driving as part of my job. I listen to 252 every day to catch up on news from home. I will really miss this service

EndaOKane

This is beyond belief. The system has a new solid state Tx. Has been successfully tested delivering an FM like digital signal across the UK to Germany. We know that today it covers from the coast of Norway down as far as the Bay of Biscay. Just imagine how the long distance hauliers would miss the link with home across two channels.
Solid state AM transmitters today are very efficient as opposed to the old valve type. LW252 is about 70% efficient.
This is and attempt to "manage" listeners on the the failed DAB system while ignoring DRM now being launched across India and under test in Brazil. N.Ireland will loose out and this pull back of service is against the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.

PukkaStukka

EndaOKane wrote: »

This is beyond belief. The system has a new solid state Tx. Has been successfully tested delivering an FM like digital signal across the UK to Germany. We know that today it covers from the coast of Norway down as far as the Bay of Biscay. Just imagine how the long distance hauliers would miss the link with home across two channels.
Solid state AM transmitters today are very efficient as opposed to the old valve type. LW252 is about 70% efficient.
This is and attempt to "manage" listeners on the the failed DAB system while ignoring DRM now being launched across India and under test in Brazil. N.Ireland will loose out and this pull back of service is against the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.

When was the new solid state transmitter bought and commissioned?

PukkaStukka

The big problem with DRM is lack of receivers.

I may have heard wrong, but in the announcement they tried to promote DAB and online as an alternative to those with little or no FM signal; are they mad? I'd be pretty sure that anyone who can't get FM will definitely not be able to get DAB either. These same areas probably don't have broadband either.

PukkaStukka wrote: »

When was the new solid state transmitter bought and commissioned?

Mid 2007. http://www.transradio.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99%3Airland2007&catid=1%3Aaktuelle-nachrichten&Itemid=79&lang=en

dxhound2005

EndaOKane wrote: »

This is beyond belief. The system has a new solid state Tx. Has been successfully tested delivering an FM like digital signal across the UK to Germany. We know that today it covers from the coast of Norway down as far as the Bay of Biscay. Just imagine how the long distance hauliers would miss the link with home across two channels.
Solid state AM transmitters today are very efficient as opposed to the old valve type. LW252 is about 70% efficient.
This is and attempt to "manage" listeners on the the failed DAB system while ignoring DRM now being launched across India and under test in Brazil. N.Ireland will loose out and this pull back of service is against the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.

As far as I know the Good Friday Agreement covered TV services only, could be wrong. I doubt anyway whether it specified that either administration had to maintain a medium wave or long wave service. 252 is up against the 750/1500 KW transmitter in Algeria. If you listen to the receiver in Holland RTE is much stronger, with Algeria in the background but I think you exaggerate its coverage beyond that, certainly during the day.

http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/