[cma-l] Community & Local Radio - the Digital Issue

[tlr@gairloch.co.uk]

And apologies for "swatches"; please read "swathes"!

Alex

----- Reply message -----
From: "Two Lochs Radio" <tlr at gairloch.co.uk>
To: "The Community Media Association Discussion List" <cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
Subject: [cma-l] Community &amp; Local Radio - the Digital Issue
Date: Sun, Nov 16, 2014 13:59

Really James? If digital radio had been led by 
the market I doubt very much we would be talking about DAB at all (unless you 
regard the broadcasters rather than the listeners as the market!)

And if it had been technology-led, or even 
commonsense-led, DCMS would have mandated a rapid migration to DAB+ between 
2008 and 2013, before even considering FM switch-offs, rather than 
letting Ofcom and the BBC plough on into the DAB dead-end.

I think also you have quite a different 
experience of DAB in an urban area with multiple multiplexes commercially 
viable. In the vast more remote and rual swatches of the UK, such as here in the 
north-west, the coverage footpriunt of the BBC's DAB transmitters is 
significantly less than their FM counterparts in many cases. Although DAB can 
take advantage of multipath reception, in practice this seems to be outweighed 
by the poorer overall propagation in Band III. Here in Gairloch, with a powerful 
main transmitter just a few miles away DAB in too weak to be received except in 
some favourable patches, not in the main population centres. 

On top of that, being DAB rather than DAB+, the 
BBC multiplex does not have the capacity to carry its own national channels 
(Radio Scotland and Radio nan Gaidheal), so it can never achieve FM equivalence 
on its own, and areas of low population such as this are not attractive to any 
commercial operators. 

The only answer on the horizon at the moment 
seems to be for the BBC to pay for carriage on local DAB multiplexes operated by 
the not-for profit micro-commercials/community stations that are spread across 
the region. Our local population would then be able to get the local station, 
and the BBC Scottish services, but not the UK-wide BBC digital services - maybe 
good for us, but not so good for listener choice!

Alex
Two Lochs Radio

----- Original Message ----- 
From: 
James 
Cridland 
To: The Community Media Association 
Discussion List ; cma-l 
Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2014 9:46 
AM
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community & 
Local Radio - the Digital Issue

When reading this document, remember that the future of digital 
radio is led by the market, not just by the technology. To blindly recommend 
systems based on technology-only isn't credible.
I don't disagree with his technological conclusions. However, 
there's a lot of market conditions that he's ignored, which makes this paper 
worthless.
Its an interesting read, though. Thanks for sharing it.



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