[cma-l] DAB Radio

[James Cridland]

Yes. But the question is - does it completely change the business?

If you think of DAB as an ancillary platform, it doesn't. If you think of
it as a fundamental change into a regional commercial station, that's quite
different.

On Mon, 18 May 2015 15:57 Peter Symonds <peter at engineeringradio.co.uk>
wrote:

> 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>
>>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/pipermail/cma-l/attachments/20150518/91b4ab4d/attachment.html>