[cma-l] Raspberries, Steroids and Low Cost DAB

[Eddie Stuart]

Richard - I agree. That is my position.

DAB in cars and radios in Tesco etc have dropped to the lowest level very quickly..... The proportion of listeners with access to DAB is rising fast, and most won't keep retuning beyond a single button press.

KCR has just gone live on our own frequency - we have been a Community opt-out from IRL Moray Firth, until last October using their frequency & transmitter weekday evenings. That meant that your car would switch from KCR to MFR and back again as you drove around the western part of our broadcast area in the evenings.

Right up to our go-live we got phone calls, emails, in-the-street comment asking how to stop car radios switching back & forth (thankfully most wanted to stay on KCR!!).

Radios have been doing that for a mere 17 years, but try and explain about turning off the RDS and peoples eyes glazed over.

That's why I would like KCR on DAB (+,-,%,# whatever... - I don't care!!!!) - otherwise our audience *will* disappear and probably quite quickly......

Having only just gone live, there's no way we could handle this test physically, mentally, financially etc - but as we have a large broadcast area we are desperately interested in it, as we have the danger of falling neatly between the small scale & large scale stools!!

Regards,

Eddie Stuart

On 03/12/14 11:34, Richard Berry wrote:
>
> We could argue about the benefits of DAB all day, and we’re all up against it when it comes to forking out more cash. But, let’s put it this way: Do you stream your stations? When we first started streaming in (About 1997) the audience wasn’t huge and the costs climbed – and continue to do so. But we do it, because listeners expect it. There may come a time when our listeners also expect us to be on DAB. What happens when your listeners buy a new car, or a new radio that has DAB. They can get the BBC in digital, but need to push a few buttons to get your station. Think of it as future-proofing. This is not me saying “FM is dead” far from it, but we all should consider where our listeners might be. For our listeners we know the online is the preferred platform, but we are still thinking about DAB. Having a clear run at the whole FM band for community radio would be great, but in 10 years time is that like asking someone to listen to long wave? It’s a perfectly fine 
> technology, but less people will have access to it and it might feel a bit old fashioned. Just a thought
>
> Richard
>
> *Richard Berry
> Spark FM Station Manager
> Room 101B, David Puttnam Media Centre,
> University of Sunderland, SR6 0DD
> (+44) 0191 515 2239***
>
> cid:image001.png at 01CF83D7.DCFA9250 <https://www.facebook.com/sunderlanduniversityFADM>cid:image002.png at 01CF83D7.DCFA9250 <http://www.twitter.com/richardberryuk>cid:image003.jpg at 01CF83D7.DCFA9250 <http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/faculties/adm/>spark_logo_masterbrand <http://www.sparksunderland.com/>
>
>


---
KCR is the operating name of Keith Community Radio Ltd
KCR broadcasts across Moray & beyond on 107.7 FM
and to the World at http://kcr.fm

---
Keith Community Radio Ltd - Moray's Friendly Sound
Registered in Scotland No.SC173805
Registered Office: 59a Land Street, Keith, Banffshire, AB55 5AN
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