Dab/Dab+ Radio In Ireland

The Oort Cloud

I can receive all the RTE music stations on DAB where I am, I hardly ever use FM radio because none of them can be realistically called music stations because of the constant adverts and then news every 30 minutes which ruins it all. My question is this... I notice that from where I am located, the FM radio spectrum is close to full, so how are new radio stations going to advance with a new licence when the FM spectrum is almost full?. DAB radio they say is 8 times cheaper to run than FM, so why are all other radio companies sticking with an out-dated and interference laden radio spectrum band.

Would it not be a better idea for all FM stations to move to DAB+ as DAB+ has an enormously large/narrow spectrum compared to the FM band, so we can all receive a much larger mix of music and many more new stations to tune to, better competition as well. Also the FM band is out-dated and suffers from interference, it's ancient. DAB+ will have to be brought in any-way because the FM spectrum is nearly out of bandwidth and with all the new nationalities now in Ireland, these people will want to open their own new music stations, so how will they manage to fit these in on FM?.

JDxtra

Agree, but the problem is the current operators would protest.

It needs a strong minisiter willing to shake things up in order for any change. Until that happens, the current situation will continue on FM and this market will continue decline as people move to more streaming/connected services at home and in the car.

The Oort Cloud

I see. Yes, it does look like it could be a long time before they all move from FM to DAB from the information you gave. Hopefully they will all be forced to move to DAB and give people more of a choice as well as bringing in some real competition. Time will tell, will just have to wait and see what happens in the next few years I suppose. Thanks for your comment.

Lord Nelson

They won't manage to fit them in. The BAI will simply ignore the demand for new stations and waffle on about setting up working groups and looking into it. Same old s*ite they've been trotting out for years!!

Doblin

Lord Nelson wrote: »

They won't manage to fit them in. The BAI will simply ignore the demand for new stations and waffle on about setting up working groups and looking into it. Same old s*ite they've been trotting out for years!!

What demand for new stations? Didn't TXFM fold because it had a listenership of below 1%? Why didn't enough Dubliners over the age 50 listen to lite FM or the original version of 4fm? Boards posters need to realize that the masses are happy out with radio as it is, for one thing the masses just use radio for a bit of background noise.

JDxtra

There's a demand for niche operators that can operate at low cost with more appropriate BAI restrictions.

For example there have been dance radio pirates in Dublin on FM constantly for over 25 years at this stage.

Del2005

JDxtra wrote: »

There's a demand for niche operators that can operate at low cost with more appropriate BAI restrictions.

For example there have been dance radio pirates in Dublin on FM constantly for over 25 years at this stage.

Pirates don't have to worry about making money though. Big difference between a person playing a few records on an illegal transmitter and a company making money playing the records.

end of the road

Doblin wrote: »

What demand for new stations? Didn't TXFM fold because it had a listenership of below 1%?

it folded more so down to the extremely high cost base which it was expected to run under. stations like the former tx cannot be expected to operate under the same model as legacy full service ILRS.

Doblin wrote: »

Why didn't enough Dubliners over the age 50 listen to lite FM or the original version of 4fm?

enough people didn't listen to make them viable under our high cost high regulatory system. maybe if we didn't have a high cost system, they could have been viable with what listenership they did have, but that cannot be said for definite either way.

Doblin wrote: »

Boards posters need to realize that the masses are happy out with radio as it is, for one thing the masses just use radio for a bit of background noise.

actually, there is no evidence to show that the masses are happy out with radio as it is . in fact, they are, slowly but surely, abandoning it.
yes, some listen for a bit of background noise, but even then, that might not necessarily be by choice.