[cma-l] DAB Radio

[Peter Symonds]

A few community stations I know of are running on a yearly budget a lot
less than it costs to fund a slot on A regional DAB MUX. Hence you would be
asking them to double (or even more) their budget.

Pete

On 18 May 2015 at 15:26, Associated Broadcast Consultants <info at a-bc.co.uk>
wrote:

> An extra thing I forgot to say is that with Small Scale DAB you'd
> instantly avail of the user-friendly tuning and station awareness
> functionality of DAB on users radio sets - especially if your station is
> called something like !Aardvark FM!   That would be worth quite a lot in
> itself.
>
> Glyn
>
>
>
> On 18 May 2015 at 15:17, Associated Broadcast Consultants <info at a-bc.co.uk
> > wrote:
>
>> Shame - I was all ready to jack-in the day job and take-up a £70-80k a
>> year community radio job ;-)
>>
>> I wouldn't write-off Small Scale DAB so readily.  Yes, the maximum power
>> for the trials is a fraction of what the incumbents use, but it could still
>> provide useful coverage at a "local radio" level.  Take for example the map
>> on this page <http://a-bc.co.uk/dab-coverage-maps/> that shows coverage
>> from a 50w Small Scale DAB transmitter on a tall building in the town
>> centre of Swindon - using standard Ofcom levels.  Other DAB coverage map
>> suppliers are available.
>>
>> Of course the incumbent mux in the area (which uses 3 transmitters,
>> probably all with much higher power) covers a larger area
>> <http://www.localdigitalradio.co.uk/SwindonTX.png>, but I've spoken to
>> many a station manager who is more interested in density of coverage in the
>> populated area than "covering sheep" (their words).
>>
>> An additional consideration for Community radio is that generally (I'm
>> not saying always) it is easier for them to raise funds for "one-off"
>> capital investments (eg: purchase of a transmission chain) than to raise
>> funds for an ongoing (and relatively high) ongoing operational cost like
>> leasing capacity from an incumbent Mux.  It's to do with the way
>> grants-giving bodies typically operate.   Yes yes, maybe they could
>> capitalise on bigger revenue from a bigger coverage area, but that is a
>> risky game to play - if it were that easy all the incumbent Muxes would be
>> full to capacity.
>>
>> Horses for courses I say.  If SSD muxes are licenced it can only be a
>> good thing because it widens choice for smaller stations, which will widen
>> listener choice (Ian will like that quote!)
>>
>> Glyn
>>
>> --
>> Glyn Roylance - Principal Consultant
>> Associated Broadcast Consultants <http://www.a-bc.co.uk/>
>>
>>
>> On 18 May 2015 at 14:52, James Cridland <james at cridland.net> wrote:
>>
>>> For clarification, cost of someone's salary is the cost to the business,
>>> not the equivalent money that person earns. For new employees, I've always
>>> doubled the salary as the total cost to the business for that employee, and
>>> am assuming the same here.
>>>
>>> But yes, DAB's expensive. Small-scale DAB might not be as pricey; but
>>> with the sort of transmission coverage levels being talked about, it also
>>> sounds as if small-scale DAB will be mostly un-listenable anyway,
>>> remembering that DAB doesn't degrade gracefully into hiss but instead
>>> squelches into abrupt silence.
>>>
>>> The question is - could being on DAB earn you enough money as a business
>>> to cover the cost? DAB would give you much more broadcast area, and
>>> wouldn't have any restrictions on advertising (assuming you were to split
>>> your output somehow). Would you think of yourself as an FM station with a
>>> DAB addition, or a DAB station with a cheap FM marketing opportunity? Would
>>> you use FM to do worthy community broadcasting and training, and your DAB
>>> to produce something that is less self-indulgent and more consistent to
>>> listen to, using the same resources and same studios? Great broadcasters
>>> graduate from FM to DAB only when ready?
>>>
>>> There's an opportunity here if you'd like to take it. Depending on why
>>> you're in this game, this glass is half-full from where I see it.
>>>
>>>
>
>
> --
> Glyn Roylance - Principal Consultant
> Associated Broadcast Consultants <http://www.a-bc.co.uk/>
>  <http://www.a-bc.co.uk/index.html>
>
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