[cma-l] Local radio stations frozen out.

Thu Jan 14 09:34:25 GMT 2010

Dear all

Alex has hit all the nails on the head!  What we really need is a 
commitment to a "roadmap" for community radio (and prob small commercial 
stations too) for the future of FM (including increased power/range for 
stations currently on AM) and for those of you who would like to go 
digital.

We are a long way off from migration even for the national stations (DAB 
coverage, multiplex capacity etc).  The CMA wants to campaign for the 
migration to go ahead SO LONG AS there is overt commitment to the future 
of our sector, whatever the platform.

Best wishes

Jaqui

Two Lochs Radio wrote:
>> Subject: [cma-l] Local radio stations frozen out of digital switchover debate, says MP
>>
>> Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/13/local-radio-digital-switchover
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Ian Hickling, transplan UK 
> 
>   This is yet another example of the uninformed misleading the unaware.
>   There is no "Digital Switchover" for radio.
>   There is no need for "Digital Switchover" for radio.
>   There is little demand from smaller operators for "Digital Switchover" for radio.
>    
>   Why don't these people talk to those in the know before they sound off?
> 
> Well, that strikes me as a remarkably simplistic and complacent stance. I for one think Mr Carmichael was right on the ball, and that as typical newspaper reporting goes, the Guardian piece was a pretty fair and reasonably accurate summing up of the situation.
> 
> All MPs have been bombarded by radio groups and the RadioCentre with communications about the Digital Economy Bill's provisions for radio, and the voice of community radio and small independent commercial licencees (such as ourselves) are in danger of going completely unheard. But it is no good ignoring it - if the 'players' get their way, it will have a long term impact on small stations, and not necessarily a positive one. As one of the unique band of Highlands & Islands stations with a foot in each camp (community and commercial), we have protested vigorously to RadioCentre about aspects of the lobbying of MPs that they have been doing ostensibly on our behalf as members, and the impression they have sought to give that a majority of RadioCentre members support a rapid migration to DAB.
> 
> There may be no current switchover date or timetable set, but make no mistake, a key purpose of the Bill's provisions is to put in place the framework for just such a switchover timetable  by the issue of regulations and orders, and to allow significant deregulation of local radio for commercial benefit, with no further primary legislation being required.
> 
> The largest radio groups would still like to see the process start in 2015, but even if they don't have it their way (it seems unlikely), there is still a very strong drive to a phased changeover as soon as possible based on minimal criteria for digital listening and penetration of DAB radios that will leave hundreds of thousands of listeners and small radio stations disenfranchised.
> 
> About the only positive aspects of this are that there should be more spectrum and power available for the stations remaining on Band II (though this will be trimmed back), and Ofcom will have the power to award longer licences.
> 
> The huge negative possibility, which could creep up on you much faster than you think, is that there will be highly publicized and promoted digital switchover, and the listening public will rapidly come to regard FM as an inconvenient 'uncool' backwater not worth the bother of tuning in. We have the lesson of AM history in this: first with short-wave and then with long-wave and now pretty much with medium wave. AM is already perceived by many (at least many of those who are aware of it!) as a second-class service to be avoided when possible. By and large only those with no alternative, and willing to tolerate poorer quality reception/awkward tuning, to get the service they want will use AM. (And please don't base an argument against this on the few exception cases - it's manifestly true in general terms). 
> 
> When digital switchover comes, as it will for the larger stations and most populated areas, FM will be on the same slippery slope, putting up yet another barrier for community and small-scale FM stations. Ask Celtic Music Radio in Glasgow what it means to them to be on AM, or Forest of Dean Radio what it meant to them.
> 
> A lot will depend on how the criteria for digital switchover are set and measured. Simply measuring the number of DAB sets sold is not a very useful guide, nor even the fact that they are being used for, say, 50% of listening by time. To achieve a switchover even in heavily DAB covered areas with a high level of DAB listening within the next decade there will still have to be a mass disenfranchising of owners of millions of small cheap radios and embedded tuners (in hi-fis, cars, radio alarm clocks, mobile phones, MP3 players...). 
> 
> If Ofcom and the industry had been serious about a smooth migration to a mixed digital/analogue radio future, as they profess, then they should have mandated DAB/FM radio chipsets that gave the same main facilties to FM reception as to DAB - eg tuning by name, track names and Internet links, live pause and rewind as a minimum. There is no technical difficulty in doing this, the RDS system already provides the bulk of the support needed for the tuning information, and the chipset needs only a simple encoder included to allow live pause and replay. Indeed several cheapy old MP3 players and the latest iPod already offer live pause and rewind on FM.
> 
> To release real digital benefit for the UK economy the should also have set up a common carrier, not-for-profit transmission network, rather than allowing very profit-driven corporations to become monopoly digital gatekeepers. Or, if that were unpalatable in the modern 'market knows best' climate, we could at least have introduced a regulatory requirement as per the USA's SHVA regulations for satellite TV networks, which require the big carriers to relay any local services existing in the areas to which they are bring shining new, potentially exclusive, broadcasting technology. Not the sort of state intervention you would expect of the USA unless it was seen as vital to facilitating a healthy market, and it's not too late for this to go into the Digital Economy Bill, but I doubt any influential group has written to MPs suggesting it!
> 
> DAB was not designed for local broadcasting, and will never be optimal for it. Indeed in the early days of its development some in the BBC referred to it as their 'ILR killer'. DAB+ has the potential to be much more appropriate to our geographical and radio landscape, but only if the economics of entry and carriage are sorted out. Ofcom and the 'industry' seem desperately keen to avoid DAB+ until the investment in DAB has been milked for all it can be. The Highlands & Islands of Scotland would of course be a strong candidate for phased UK introduction of DAB+ as there is zero installed base of old DAB accross a huge geographical area.
> 
> Of course the national and big local players are mostly in favour of DAB - it is technically far better suited to their coverage aspirations, and it raises higher barriers against entry and participation by pesky and independent-minded and non-profit-driven small players. They are even more in favour of the local radio deregulation promised by the bill, which will allow Ofcom to give commercial radio stations the freedom to move in directions that are mostly an anathema to the objectives of community and non-profit local stations.
> 
> <hobbyhorse:mount> 
> I'd be quite happy to have a DAB receiver or two if there were any service in this region (there isn't) but I would not want to lose the flexibility and convenience of the array of current receivers in use by the family either. A quick count round the house and phones found 15 FM tuners in my house, 13 of which are in at least weekly, mostly daily, use. I'm not too keen to have external dongle tuners plugged into the hi-fis, nor, irony of ironies, little FM transmitters plugged into DAB receivers' earphone sockets to relay them onto old FM receivers, as I have seen suggested! Does Apple plan to include DAB as well as FM in the next iPod? I doubt it. 
> <hobbyhorse:dismount>
> 
> Better stop there. I made my main point in the first few paragraphs!
> 
> Alex
> Two Lochs Radio
> Gairloch, Wester Ross
> 
> (The UK's smallest commercial radio station!)
> 
> cc Highlands & Islands MPs/MSPs
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 
> cma-l mailing list - cma-l at commedia.org.uk
> 
> Community Media Association - www.commedia.org.uk
> _______________________________________________
> 
> To manage your mailing list subscription please visit:
> http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l

-- 
Jaqui Devereux

Director
Community Media Association

15 Paternoster Row
Sheffield
S1 2BX

+44 114 279 5219

See our 2010 photo blog:

http://photo365.commedia.org.uk/

Join the CMA now for discounts, networking,
workshops, streaming, information, support
and a voice for community media

www.commedia.org.uk

Access to the media for people and communities