The future of RTE Radio 1 LW

dxhound2005

dxhound2005 wrote: »

That story about the Northern Ireland ham is fake.

https://www.ukradioscanning.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=172

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-foyle-west-20337368

Update 27 November 2012: Further checks have shown United Airlines does not fly from Dublin to Boston. Irish and US aviation authorities also say they have no record of these events.

This information was put to Mr Young, who did not wish to comment.

Thanks for that, what an idiot he was ffs.

Ger Roe

Way ahead of you Mad Lad. I have seen the disaster movies too and appreciate the value of a ham radio. When this virus situation started, I made this as an emergency radio

Gerry Wicklow

We've already seen it here in the past, an IT glitch taking down a complete mobile network.
How many infill FM or TV TXs are just relaying the main TX rather than having their own direct feeds? So if, for example, the MT Leinster mast went down would that take out the relays in the south east too?

@Ger Roe does that have a spam filter?

Johnboy1951

Ger Roe wrote: »

Way ahead of you Mad Lad. I have seen the disaster movies too and appreciate the value of a ham radio. When this virus situation started, I made this as an emergency radio

I love the bullet holes .... nice shooting

Hotblack Desiato

Deleted User wrote: »

There was even a time where an Northern Irish Ham was able to relay communications to the radio operator of a transatlantic flight because they could not communicate with the Tower.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/how-a-radio-ham-in-a-castlederg-shed-saved-hundreds-of-lives-on-a-us-flight-28922956.html

That's a load of rubbish tbh as 121.5MHz is continually monitored worldwide.
Boston residents shouldn't have been chit-chatting on 121.5 (or any other ATC frequency) about a storm, so what was he actually listening to?
I doubt the facts remotely resemble what was reported there.
Yep - "transponder" - that's radar, nothing to do with WT
No corresponding incident found on the usual aviation websites

Ah - dxhound you only beat me to it by about a week

When The LW252 Mast is torn down and the site bulldozed to the ground along with the old 567 Khz site we better be sure we can rely on FM, Because if one FM transmitter site goes down that will be many thousands in the dark.

You're not wrong there, we should keep one or the other going for national security never mind pensioners in the UK. MW would be better because many radios no longer have LW

IF everyone had a radio capable of SSB reception then there's an Emergency frequency on 3760 Khz on the 80 Meter Ham band as part of .

Does Joe Soap have any idea what USB or LSB is or how to tune to 3760kHz - I think we know the answer to that.

Any Radio Amateur with a proper Antenna for that band should be able to cover most of the Island with just 100 watts of RF power, anyone with a SSB capable portable radio should be able to pick that signal up with just 20-40 feet of wire thrown up in a tree or even thrown over a fence roof of house etc.

Joe Soap turns a dial on his radio and hears stuff. Joe Soap has no idea how to erect any sort of HF aerial. Actually Joe Soap thinks radio aerials are a thing which went out decades ago and it "just works", even the era of putting an aerial up to listen in the car is long gone.

0lddog

marclt wrote: »

How many people on here now have access to a LW receiver and if you do, does it work well? .....

Yup, have a couple, all have LW.

LW works very well

FM comes and goes needs aerial to be twisted around from time to time and no good down in some of the sheds.

MW isnt great

I suspect I live in a different country to some on here

0lddog

Deleted User wrote: »

......We'd have to rely on Cell towers, but will everyone have the means to listen to RTE via apps ? ......

You think all the country has 3G / LTE reception ?


:D:D

Hotblack Desiato

I have a nice little Sony FM/MW/LW which runs for quite a long time off three AA cells. I bought it nearly 25 years ago now :eek: before I took my first motorcycle trip around France, I could pick up 198kHz well enough about "2/3rds down" but not right down in the south even at night. Should've got an SW receiver which could run off 12V, really...

I haven't bothered to listen to LW or MW on it for years because of the lack of what is out there. I'd have to question how many people today have a radio which can receive LW (or even MW in some cases) and have any idea how to tune to it or why they would want to.

marno21

I live in Cork and listen to longwave on a ~10 year old Lidl handheld radio with longwave. I only use it for BBC R4 on 198, however, it's only usable when USB charging isn't being done nearby. There's too much interference from the transformers when charging any devices. 252 works quite well here, but I have no use for it when I have line of sight to three FM RTE Radio 1 transmitters.

No LW in the car so I occasionally listen to R4 on 756 from Redruth in Cornwall. However, it's not a particularly strong signal and prone to interference so not very reliable.

Most people I know my age don't know what AM/MW/LW is, let alone what you can get on it.

When we drove to wales nearly 2 years ago the Outlander has a pretty good LW/MW radio. It was really good to be able to get RTE1 over our entire trip around Wales to Birmingham City and a bit outside Birmingham to Drayton Manor theme park.

The signal was much stronger than most of the MW signals I heard and to think the transmitter is only working at around 100 Kw from it's what 300 - 500 Kw design ?

1 Transmitter with such vast coverage with the ability to get information to many millions of people on a cheap radio point to point with no form of network in between shouldn't in my opinion shouldn't be dismissed just because it's the oldest form of communication, it just works and works well.

Regarding the 567 Khz transmitter, I think it would be a mistake if this was ripped up and the mast torn down, I wonder did RTE ever try to lease this transmitter or ignore anyone who came near them to use it because RTE said no one wants MW and that was their justification for shutting it down so to have it re-open by another commercial company would have made RTE look bad perhaps ?

Ger Roe

Deleted User wrote: »

When we drove to wales nearly 2 years ago the Outlander has a pretty good LW/MW radio. It was really good to be able to get RTE1 over our entire trip around Wales to Birmingham City and a bit outside Birmingham to Drayton Manor theme park.

The signal was much stronger than most of the MW signals I heard and to think the transmitter is only working at around 100 Kw from it's what 300 - 500 Kw design ?

1 Transmitter with such vast coverage with the ability to get information to many millions of people on a cheap radio point to point with no form of network in between shouldn't in my opinion shouldn't be dismissed just because it's the oldest form of communication, it just works and works well.

Regarding the 567 Khz transmitter, I think it would be a mistake if this was ripped up and the mast torn down, I wonder did RTE ever try to lease this transmitter or ignore anyone who came near them to use it because RTE said no one wants MW and that was their justification for shutting it down so to have it re-open by another commercial company would have made RTE look bad perhaps ?

They did try to find uses for the closed MW transmitters and were open to proposals. I f I remember correctly one early proposal was to use the national coverage signal to communicate with smart electricity meters - some sort of pulse to calibrate them, or instruct them to send data back to base (not too clear on the actual application)...... in the end there was basically no interest, or no viable interest in using the service. At the time RTE would have been only too glad to rent out, if someone could find a use.

Hotblack Desiato

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Does Joe Soap have any idea what USB or LSB is or how to tune to 3760kHz - I think we know the answer to that.

Most people probably don't know what SSB is however, this is why we have schools to teach people.

In some countries they have Ham Radio as a subject because in some countries there are more natural disasters and it's crucial they know how to communicate.

In other countries even in Europe they run ham Radio classes from the local schools and there are many Children or teenagers, and many School Kids go to these classes to learn about the hobby and can talk on the radio to other Hams without a licence via the club license. I have talked to a few school Clubs in Europe.

Why would anyone bother ? because it teaches people about radio and without this invention we would not have WiFi or Mobile Phones. It teaches People how to use a radio, about regulations, about antennas and science.

Seriously, I don't know why many more schools in Ireland don't do this to show there is more to life than Raspberry Pis and Games consoles. Most of it costs nothing or very little and there's a lot of Hams who would only be too delighted to teach younger folk about the hobby and will happily volunteer their nights such is the passion most Hams have about the hobby.

In fact, you could teach how a Raspbetty PI and Ham radio can work together to communicate via the various digital modes out there and how just a simple 20 meter long wire can communicate around most of the planet depending on conditions. They could build this antenna themselves, and imagine the look on their faces when they make a contact with an antenna they built themselves!

we don't teach our School Kids much interesting stuff and real science.

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Joe Soap turns a dial on his radio and hears stuff. Joe Soap has no idea how to erect any sort of HF aerial. Actually Joe Soap thinks radio aerials are a thing which went out decades ago and it "just works", even the era of putting an aerial up to listen in the car is long gone.

This is why you teach people, if the Government sent around cheap portable radios with instructions, get a long wire, wrap it around the telescopic antenna and get the antenna outside as high as you can, all very very simple basic stuff, better than sending iodine tablets that will have no effect in the event of Nuclear accident or especially a Nuclear War.

Johnboy1951

I would have thought it obvious that schools, for decades, have concentrated on schooling and not education.
Their now primary purpose is to prepare students for examinations and not for life.

Why is not every student taught how to correctly use common tools like hammer, screwdriver etc and how one needs to marry the correct screwdriver head with the slot/socket in the screw head?

The numbers of people reaching adulthood with no clue how to assemble basic pieces is a reflection on our schooling system ...... I refuse to term it education system!

Do you know of people who have to call someone in to hang a picture or some other simple job?
Oh yeah ..... now they use some sticky stuff to hang the pics so that skill is no longer needed.
Same applies to ham radio and a myriad of other things.

Who needs those skills (in the eyes of our schooling system) when more modern methods are employed, and the school is there to prepare students to pass exams and get a job in the modern economy?

Gerry Wicklow

Add to that the ones who need AA to fix a puncture.
How many times have we seen people on here after paying €1000's for some super duper TV and expect it to just have all the channels. Aerial? Dish? Wah?

Johnboy1951

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Add to that the ones who need AA to fix a puncture.
How many times have we seen people on here after paying €1000's for some super duper TV and expect it to just have all the channels. Aerial? Dish? Wah?

Makes me wonder how many are about who fixed punctures at home with rudimentary tools ..... I have memories of doing so and besides my hands being black the air was blue!

The education system in Ireland is just atrocious, severely outdated, the only change they and of course Parents want is to remove religion but not care about the crap they are thought or not thought these days.

This whole build up to big exams is ridiculous an School Children should be continually assessed throughout their time in School and this should account for all the points they need but this points system is another farce, at the end of the day, Students can go to college as mature students at 23 and not have to worry about all this school crap.

Schools could teach building simple electronic circuits, an Amplifier, hook up a speaker and connect the phone and hey presto, you don't have to spend 300 Euro's on a bluetooth speaker!

Or make a simple FM transmitter, connect up phone and play music all around the house! :-) Something exciting and interesting.

I built a Subwoofer at the age of 17 with my Brother, he did the Wood Work, it had a 150 watt MOSFET Amplifier Kit I got from Maplin, made the low pass filter from the circuit diagram I got off a magazine and put it together on stripboard, no printed PCB, I had to think in my head how to put it on stripboard straight from the circuit diagram.

I got the transformer from old stuff I had lying around and built a split rail Power supply for 50-0-50 volts again on strip board, used a bridge rectifier from something else I had lying around and got 2 big filter capacitors from Maplin, my Brother made the Box,again from the magazine and tuned it with the correct length of pvc pipe, I was never good at wood work. Got 2 x 8 inch speakers, it was a vented enclosure and we put it all together in the Box connected it to the stereo and holy crap, it shook the house and the neighbours and it could be herd 15 doors down the road, it rattled the windows even in the neighbours house, it cause a stir around the neighbourhood I can tell you, it was mental. But it was a lot of fun.

Those were the days, sure it's good fun playing with a Raspberry Pi or building a PC and loading all the software but it's just not the same as building something like a Subwoofer from scratch, from nothing and listening to it shake a block of 4 houses building PCs and messing with Raspberry pis is just too easy.

At the age of 15 I was repairing CRT tv's and stereos for People in the Neighbourhood, the house was full of old TV's and Stereos with just a multi meter and service manual for the tv's. I got some TV's from a local repair shop that were wheat they called, uneconomical to repair, I repaired them and sold them!

I think tablets and internet have ruined the potential of so many Young people to achieve more, to do more interesting stuff with their lives because it seems all they want to do now is play computer games and stuff their faces in screens.

It is really sad. And Schools could spark so much more. Programming is fine but we need people with soldering skills, technical engineers.

Colleges might teach some electronics but this should be done at school level. Basic soldering on strip board building stuff and seeing it work. amazing.

Younger folk today don't know how important radio communication still is today and will be in the future and worst of all is that most of them don't know that their mobiles are smart radios, without the radio the phone would be useless. a

Gerry Wicklow

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

Add to that the ones who need AA to fix a puncture.
How many times have we seen people on here after paying €1000's for some super duper TV and expect it to just have all the channels. Aerial? Dish? Wah?

They aren't interested, they would have to google how to change a tyre.

Gerry Wicklow

It's impossible to explain to someone today the excitement and reward you get from throwing a load of junk bits together and it actually does something. OK quite often it was just releasing the magic smoke but hey that's how we learned. We were recycling long before the word was invented

These days if you suggested that chances are the answer you get is "why? I can get on one Amazon or Ebay."
/rant

dxhound2005

It is better to keep money circulating in the economy. Those who can afford it give employment to people who know how to change tyres, hang pictures and put up satellite dishes. In fact the vast amounts of waste which goes on in rich countries like Ireland, is a source of much emplyoment. If everyone bought only the food which they intend to eat, there would be a lot less production and employment. And if everyone bought a small car and kept it for 15 years, that would have a serious impact on the motor trade.

Back to the radio topic. 198 carries a radio teleswitch service. And 162 is still on the air in France with a massive signal just for time regulation.

http://www.radioteleswitch.org.uk/tech_aspects.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TDF_time_signal

Indeed, I wish I had more time these days to set up a nice workshop kitted out with tools to work on repairing old radios and stuff.

I repaired an old hacker radio a few years ago, was a great feeling to get something dead back to life again but sadly just don't have the time do get more into it.

I did have some magic smoke in my day too of course, even got a good bite of a TV, DC hurts like hell.

That kind of activity is sadly missing in young People's lives today, it stimulates the brain in positive ways, tablets don't and are a big cause of depression these days especially those on social media. Best thing I ever did was delete my Facebook account.

dxhound2005

dxhound2005 wrote: »

It is better to keep money circulating in the economy. Those who can afford it give employment to people who know how to change tyres, hang pictures and put up satellite dishes. In fact the vast amounts of waste which goes on in rich countries like Ireland, is a source of much emplyoment. If everyone bought only the food which they intend to eat, there would be a lot less production and employment. And if everyone bought a small car and kept it for 15 years, that would have a serious impact on the motor trade.

Back to the radio topic. 198 carries a radio teleswitch service. And 162 is still on the air in France with a massive signal just for time regulation.

http://www.radioteleswitch.org.uk/tech_aspects.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TDF_time_signal

It's better to learn how to do things yourself, basic stuff like changing a tyre and not have to wait God knows how long for someone to come and do it.

People should be saving more and not buying new cars, that goes for me too.

There is no gain really to the Irish economy because we don't make cars, keeping 2nd hand cars longer is better to our economy because we have mechanics. Sure there are car dealers but they can make money from 2nd hand cars.

Gerry Wicklow

Just wondering how many "the internet is the future of broadcasting" crowd are Virgin broadband customers? :P

Johnboy1951

Deleted User wrote: »

It's better to learn how to do things yourself, basic stuff like changing a tyre and not have to wait God knows how long for someone to come and do it.

People should be saving more and not buying new cars, that goes for me too.

There is no gain really to the Irish economy because we don't make cars, keeping 2nd hand cars longer is better to our economy because we have mechanics. Sure there are car dealers but they can make money from 2nd hand cars.

I do not consider changing a car tyre as 'basic stuff'.
It is a difficult operation, fraught with danger, without the use of specific machinery.
It can be done, but its not for the frail or unadventurous.

Of course if you mean changing the wheel of a car, then that is a different matter entirely!

Gerry Wicklow

I was referring to the basic task of swapping a flat wheel at the roadside. I would still use a professional with appropriate equipment to repair the actual puncture.

0lddog

Only on Boards can a thread about " The future of RTE Radio 1 LW" contain a discussion on changing a punctured tyre

Deleted User wrote: »

It's better to learn how to do things yourself, basic stuff like changing a tyre and not have to wait God knows how long for someone to come and do it........

I'm totally with ML on this

Though betimes I wonder if lifting a wheel from an SUV is really a job for two people - just how heavy is a wheel off a Disco / Q7 / similar ?

Yeah I meant replacing the "wheel" seriously, if anyone can't do that or can't be bothered then there's some issues there that need seeing to.

OF course there are some People genuinely not able due to age or medical conditions, no other reason someone can't change the wheel of a car, being Female is no excuse either.

Gerry Wicklow

0lddog wrote: »

Only on Boards can a thread about " The future of RTE Radio 1 LW" contain a discussion on changing a punctured tyre
....

At least we're not as bad as DS where they never heard of "playing the ball not the player"
Still waiting to hear from the large number of Virgin users whose BB was taken down by equipment failure. Good job there wasn't a national emergency like a pandemic or something

Hotblack Desiato

Deleted User wrote: »

we don't teach our School Kids much interesting stuff and real science.

As someone who got into electronics at a young age, I agree, what I was teaching myself was far more interesting than anything the school was doing.

The canonical thing to do when getting started was to build your own MW radio and you could learn a lot by doing so, but there's no point now because there's nothing to listen to.

Anyone can chat with anyone else on the internet these days, can listen to any licensed or unlicensed broadcaster in the world. The idea of radio opening up horizons otherwise denied to you is gone. Dead I'm afraid.

Not sure why you are down on Raspberry Pis, they were not invented to play Scratch or run Kodi media centre (guilty as charged, m'lud) but for doing simple sensing and control through the GPIO pins, kids can learn a hell of a lot from attaching simple circuits to the Pi and then writing programs to monitor and control pretty much anything.

The secondary we were hoping to get our eldest into has a Technology senior cycle class and they showed us on the open day what the kids were doing, some impressive stuff, just not the discrete electronics of old. (I remember reading a book written about 1970, ten-ish years before I read it, which maintained that using discrete transistors was 'cheating' and electronics beginners should start with valves! No doubt someone once said the same about valves, and a crystal and catswhisker was the way to go...)

This is why you teach people, if the Government sent around cheap portable radios with instructions, get a long wire, wrap it around the telescopic antenna and get the antenna outside as high as you can, all very very simple basic stuff, better than sending iodine tablets that will have no effect in the event of Nuclear accident or especially a Nuclear War.

Why on earth would we do that? We're not prone to natural disasters here, or have vast swathes of sparsely populated outback to cover. MW does everything we could ever need.

Also iodine tablets are not useless, after a nuclear detonation or reactor accident one of the most important short-lived fallout isotopes is iodine-131. The body concentrates ingested iodine in the thyroid, if you saturate the thyroid with stable iodine then it can absorb no more and any radioiodine ingested is excreted. It has a half-life of only 8 days so short-term protection from tablets removes a great deal of the risk of thyroid cancer. It's a simple salt, the packet might have an expiry date on it but it doesn't expire any more than the salt in your salt cellar does. Just keep 'em dry...

Johnboy1951

Hotblack Desiato wrote:

(I remember reading a book written about 1970, ten-ish years before I read it, which maintained that using discrete transistors was 'cheating' and electronics beginners should start with valves! No doubt someone once said the same about valves, and a crystal and catswhisker was the way to go...)

Some of us started out on Valves

I recall a ship's emergency transmitter I had to fault-find as part of an exam ....... it was built solely with individual wires, electro-mechanical relays and valves, in a large metal frame.
Not a discreet component in site!

Of course valves remain the preferred option for those audiophiles who still have the capacity to hear properly!

Mickey Mike

The Tullamore 567 khz Radio mast is to come down, it stands 290 meters, it will be replaced by a 48 meter communications tower. RTE was given permission to remove the old mast by Offley Co Council in October 2020. Not sure but more than likely for mobile coverage and the like. No more medium wave radio I'm afraid.

Mickey Mike

Mickey Mike wrote: »

The Tullamore 567 khz Radio mast is to come down, it stands 290 meters, it will be replaced by a 48 meter communications tower. RTE was given permission to remove the old mast by Offley Co Council in October 2020. Not sure but more than likely for mobile coverage and the like. No more medium wave radio I'm afraid.

No more MW, they're hell bent on digitising us, they'd bend over backwards for that.

I think 567 should be used to free up FM, the likes of Joe Duffy on MW and talk and covid talk all should be on MW.

Hotblack Desiato

We already have more FM stations than are commercially viable. Phantom / TX shut down and wasn't replaced. Christmas FM's frequency is silent most of the year and 2FM operates at a loss. So even in Dublin there is unused space on the FM band. One of the reasons there was no need for DAB in this country, the content and the advertising to fund that content just isn't there.

Hotblack Desiato

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

We already have more FM stations than are commercially viable. Phantom / TX shut down and wasn't replaced. Christmas FM's frequency is silent most of the year and 2FM operates at a loss. So even in Dublin there is unused space on the FM band. One of the reasons there was no need for DAB in this country, the content and the advertising to fund that content just isn't there.

One of the real issues is that the content of commercial stations is too restricted and controlled by the state, the state as usual deems itself to be the one who "should" decide that it's in the best interests of the People to decide what we listen to and at what times, this is wrong, the state should not interfere.

Next issue is that DJ's don't/can't play their own choice of music as they are forced by the Managers to play what they think we want to hear, i.e mostly pop junk.

Another thing will happen in the near future is that cars will no longer come with radios or at least FM will be gone, Tesla won't install a radio in a car as they deem it to be too old tech to put in their fancy modern cars. A lot of people listen to radio in the car and without FM in the car radio stations are in big trouble. Tesla is there, very few cars today come with LW/MW. Next you know you will have to subscribe to watch and listen to anything even for basic radio in a car it will be internet streamed only. That's where we're heading. Before you know it Tune in radio will be subscription only service.

Now that I'm back on the road at 6am or before I do like Rising time, still I enjoy some of the music thought they do slip in a lot more crap these days, it was a lot better when Maxi was on, but no doubt the playlist is controlled solely by RTE.

Then the rest of RTE R1 is just crap, Ruan Tubridy, Joe Duffy, it's just bad stuff, unappealing to me anyway. 2FM is utter crap, should be Gold permanently. Most of the good DJs are gone and no one to replace them because they lack the skills and most of all the personality and worst of all is RTE doesn't care.

RTE used to be a good public broadcaster but since Dee Forbes took over it's got worse, it had well slipped before she took over but it's a lot worse now and she's allowed to continue making decisions and it's just wrong, it's time for fresh blood.

The Children's programming is also crap compared to the 80's 90s when there was a right buzz in the schools about what was on the Den or the Saturday roadshow and other shows. Now no one cares and we can blame the internet all we want, if the content is there in general People will watch and listen.

Mickey Mike

I was hoping the Tullamore radio mast would be retained and carry RTE Radio1 extra, and as Mad-Lad says "it can carry speech, talk and news programming". I'm almost sure there is better technology today to run high power transmitters, even a wind turbine can be used and it will pay for itself in the long run, but no one is going to bother, I guess we just have to move on. Long Wave 252 is for the chop again next January 2022, see how that goes.

Hotblack Desiato

I agree that it's ridiculous that what are in reality music stations are forced to pretend not to be - mandatory news, "current affairs" (usually complete waffle) and Irish - when there are already specialist stations catering for these.

Mickey Mike

Mickey Mike wrote: »

I was hoping the Tullamore radio mast would be retained and carry RTE Radio1 extra, and as Mad-Lad says "it can carry speech, talk and news programming". I'm almost sure there is better technology today to run high power transmitters, even a wind turbine can be used and it will pay for itself in the long run, but no one is going to bother, I guess we just have to move on. Long Wave 252 is for the chop again next January 2022, see how that goes.

Nope, no one wants to bother with radio any more in general, it's streaming now, in the next decade I can see cars come with no radio at all, that will damage any FM stations that are still around then.

252 will go soon and that mast torn down as RTE celebrate their move to the modern digital era as they hope to attract loads of listeners via apps but this still might cause upset in the U.K as all foreign radio stations have been blocked in the U.K on tune in due to court ruling and this means you'll need separate apps for each station, a right pain in the arse but you can use a VPN of course which shows how stupid the ruling is. But you can't block radio. But this is beyond the means for a lot of People.

But no matter what, if the content is poor you're not going to attract a lot of People and needing apps is a turn off for a lot of People too who just want to listen to radio and not have to use their phone eating battery and data.

Hotblack Desiato

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

I agree that it's ridiculous that what are in reality music stations are forced to pretend not to be - mandatory news, "current affairs" (usually complete waffle) and Irish - when there are already specialist stations catering for these.

The Government control is sickening and damaging radio.

Take my Mother for instance, 73 years old, best thing I got her was a Roberts internet radio, she can listen to Radio Star Country, Irish Country music radio and some U.S stations that play lots of old Country like Dolly Parton, Kenny rogers, Jim reeves etc, there's really nothing on RTE today of interest to her, she's sick of the Covid talk, continuously and all the trump coverage for 4 years was driving her mad too. Whether you like or hate him it was just horrible having to hear about a U.S president daily.

The local stations used to play good music she enjoyed until the Government told them, no, you have to play more modern Irish music which turns her off.

To be honest the Internet radio gave her a lot of escape from the dreary depressing content of Irish radio today and she's not the only one either turned off Irish radio.

Commercial stations should be allowed to transmit whatever content they deem fit whenever they want and not be interfered with by the Government.

Gerry Wicklow

I too was a big radio fan. Mainly Newstalk. But I got so sick and tired of covid, covid, covid, trump, brexit, covid, I now go days without even turning it on. As for RTÉ digital, if Connect box, Aertel and their TV apps are anything to go by, no thanks.

I listened to rising time this morning again and shortly after it started Shay started going on about Covid then reading out the depressing crap from the papers, the news every 30 mins with more covid talk, then adds every few mins with more Covid covid covid.

Why can't Rising Time be less depressing after all, it's the first program many people will hear in the morning FFS!!!

Why can't some programming be kept Covid free and politics free and Newspaper story free ? Jesus Christ almighty.

I'll probably listen to tune in radio in the morning or just fire up Spofy, RTE R 1 is a Joke as is most stations on FM. Rising time is nothing like it was when Maxi was on.

THis is how RTE advertise Rising time now.

Mornings with melody, featuring classic cuts and the best of new music presented by Shay Byrne.

Best of new music is mostly Crap.

Here's what it should say.

Mornings with melody, featuring classic cuts and the best of new "crap" music presented by Shay Byrne.
Plenty of covid 19 talk too with plenty adds to talk about more covid and not forgetting news every 30 mins with more covid

And just in case you're not depressed enough while driving to work we'll read out the latest headlines from the papers[

OK here's from the BAI itself and one of the fundamental flaws in Irish broadcasting is the blatant interference and control by the Government as is pure evident in the below statements, there is no freedom of speech in Ireland, the state declares itself "the" authority.

Notice the word " Enforcement "



Regulate to achieve a responsible and accountable broadcasting sector;

the BAI will give effect to the principles set out in its Compliance and Enforcement policy through measures that are fair and proportionate, that reflect audience needs and are adequate for the purposes of statutory reporting and holding broadcasters to account.


Who are the state to dictate what's in the best interests of what we listen to and hear ?

When the Authority awards a licence for a television or radio service, the successful party must enter into, and sign, a broadcasting contract with the BAI. The terms and conditions attaching to a broadcast contract will be determined by the type of licence applied for, and awarded. The types of contracts include commercial, community / community of interest and content provision for radio and television. The broadcasting contracts are publicly available on request from the BAI’s offices.

The BAI monitors a contractor’s compliance with the terms of its contract through a number of activities including performance reviews and listening and/or watching broadcast content. The reports generated by these activities are considered by the Compliance Committee.

A contractor must seek prior approval of the Authority for any changes to the terms of contract and key contractual areas include the ownership and control and programming commitments schedules.


The compliance activities of the BAI are one of the core elements of its work. They have been developed over many years, principally with the aim of monitoring, encouraging and promoting a culture of compliance within the broadcasting sector in Ireland and providing safeguards for audiences. Compliance also informs key areas of work such as the awarding of licences, the development of codes and rules and provides useful information on overall industry trends.

Compliance & Enforcement

A Compliance and Enforcement Policy has been developed by the BAI to provide a framework for all broadcaster and compliance activities. The Policy sets out the BAI’s general approach to dealing with compliance by, and enforcement against, all broadcasters and contractors licensed in the State. It is a general guide to how the BAI currently operates and is not intended to be exhaustive, but informative.



Media Plurality is reflected in a key objective of the BAI’s mission, as set out in the BAI Strategy Statement 2017 – 2019, which is “to promote a plurality of voices, viewpoints, outlets and sources in Irish media”. The BAI has developed a Media Plurality Policy and the primary purpose of the policy is to articulate how the BAI understands media plurality and details the ways in which the BAI will foster and support a healthy degree of media plurality in Ireland through our regulatory activities.

Media Plurality

Media pluralism is an important contributing factor to a well-functioning society. It embraces editorial independence, the free flow of ideas, and public access to a wide range of information sources and views. The BAI Media Plurality Policy delivers context for our role in respect of media plurality; provides a definition for media plurality; outlines why media plurality is important; details policy objectives; and outlines the measures the BAI takes – and will continue to take – to promote and support media plurality in Ireland. Key activities undertaken by the BAI that are intended to foster and support media plurality are in the areas of Licensing; Ownership & Control Policy; providing advice on Media Mergers; and Research on media plurality.


That's pretty much the traits of a totalitarian Government, we're getting there.....

We'd want to open our eyes to the above!

0lddog

Wouldnt be the guys biggest fan but he was totally on the ball here

Things have gone downhill in the last 15 years

Hotblack Desiato

But without any regulation you end up with Rush Limbaugh and televangelists.

Bad enough that we have Spirit Radio and Radio Maria...

Hotblack Desiato

0lddog wrote: »

Wouldnt be the guys biggest fan but he was totally on the ball here

Things have gone downhill in the last 15 years

Totally on the ball that investigative journalism is bad and the government should set the media agenda, really..?

Sure makes life easier for politicians when you only have one state broadcaster and can apply pressure on it to hush up any scandal, as happened in the 60s - 80s

Hotblack Desiato

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

But without any regulation you end up with Rush Limbaugh and televangelists.

Bad enough that we have Spirit Radio and Radio Maria...

I've no objection to religious broadcasts but I'm not even sure I'd call Spirit radio religious from what I've heard and it isn't a lot but I wouldn't be into this new age Jesus music I think it's sh1t and they don't even mention Jesus in any of the music I've heard, what's that all about ?

In my opinion if People want religious broadcasting then this shouldn't be an issue.

I've no objection with freedom of speech but it's very worrying to see the text above from the BAI and Government control and they think they have the right to suppress free speech and dictate the news and media we receive, this is just wrong.

This alone is just shocking form of control.

A contractor must seek prior approval of the Authority for any changes to the terms of contract and key contractual areas include the ownership and control and programming commitments schedules.

dulpit

Deleted User wrote: »

This alone is just shocking form of control.

A contractor must seek prior approval of the Authority for any changes to the terms of contract and key contractual areas include the ownership and control and programming commitments schedules.

Why? If say Newstalk (who have a licence for a talk radio format) decided to become a top 40 music station instead, you think that should be allowed?

Sam Russell

dulpit wrote: »

Why? If say Newstalk (who have a licence for a talk radio format) decided to become a top 40 music station instead, you think that should be allowed?

I think it would be more important to question the ownership of radio stations when there is also a question of ownership of other media companies, such as national and multiple regional newspaper titles.

dulpit

dulpit wrote: »

Why? If say Newstalk (who have a licence for a talk radio format) decided to become a top 40 music station instead, you think that should be allowed?

That's my whole point, they should get a license to transmit and it should be just that and the content up to the station owner not the Government to say or control + control the content and enforce it. I know we have no free speech in Ireland but that's taking the p1ss.

dulpit

Deleted User wrote: »

That's my whole point, they should get a license to transmit and it should be just that and the content up to the station owner not the Government to say or control + control the content and enforce it. I know we have no free speech in Ireland but that's taking the p1ss.

Ah, I get what you're saying. Completely disagree with you on your point though.

dulpit

dulpit wrote: »

Ah, I get what you're saying. Completely disagree with you on your point though.

But did you not read my posts showing the control the Government have over what we see and hear, do you not think that it's wrong to have such extensive control ?

Surely if the owners of a radio station are paying through the nose for a license they should be entitled to play whatever music they want when they want or whatever content in general without Government interference ?