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Bauer rebranding 53 stations to The Hits/Greatest Hits

The majority of its acquisitions last year (May 2020)

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EM
Emily Moore
It's often a CD these days. For fire alarms there's an emergency playlist that the studio puts to air before heading for the exits rather than letting the silence detector kick in.


We used to have a CD with music from the playlist interspersed with jingles and idents to put on in the event of a building evacuation or fire alarm.

As for Signal, their building is now just too big. I understand that it contains seven studios - it used to be a network centre for the various Wireless Group local stations, and before that it contained two well-resourced radio stations with 24/7 programming and a news team etc. Now that it consists of just a single breakfast show, is there any need for such a large premises? Couldn't they run the Signal operation out of Birmingham or Manchester?
RA
radiolistener
Wait for Global/Bauer to merge....
EM
Emily Moore
Does the modern "emergency tape" still exist as a tape? Or is it a more modern digital solution these days, since I dare say most radio station playouts use digital files. Understand of course the backup solution at the transmitter is probably a fail-safe as there is a difference between going off air because (for example) the fire alarm's gone off at the studio and going off because the link to the transmitter has failed.


Not quite the same situation, but for the recent BBC local AM radio transmitter closures Arqiva deployed mp3 players at the transmitter sites for the 'We've gone from this frequency now......' messages.


Surprisingly, those were individually tailored with "you're listening to BBC Radio Somewhere on 1234 mediumwave" messages for each individual transmitter site/frequency. Some of them were amusing - Radio Newcastle had something along the lines of "you can re-tune, or stay tuned and listen to us say this all over again".
HT
HTV Best
Radio Plymouth snapped up by Bauer now!
MA
Markymark
Does the modern "emergency tape" still exist as a tape? Or is it a more modern digital solution these days, since I dare say most radio station playouts use digital files. Understand of course the backup solution at the transmitter is probably a fail-safe as there is a difference between going off air because (for example) the fire alarm's gone off at the studio and going off because the link to the transmitter has failed.


Not quite the same situation, but for the recent BBC local AM radio transmitter closures Arqiva deployed mp3 players at the transmitter sites for the 'We've gone from this frequency now......' messages.


Surprisingly, those were individually tailored with "you're listening to BBC Radio Somewhere on 1234 mediumwave" messages for each individual transmitter site/frequency. Some of them were amusing - Radio Newcastle had something along the lines of "you can re-tune, or stay tuned and listen to us say this all over again".


Ha ! Having tuned in to Radio Solent on Sept 2nd 1972 to hear the launch of their AM service, I sat for two hours back in April (well, it was deep lockdown then Very Happy ) to hear the transmitter switched off. I had almost been sent crazy by the loop.
It went off at 11:52hrs, would have been quite a apt time for a number of other local radio transmitters Cool
MA
Markymark
Radio Plymouth snapped up by Bauer now!


Which means they have two FM footholds in the city now. Pirate FM and Radio Plymouth
GL
globaltraffic24
Radio Plymouth snapped up by Bauer now!


Which means they have two FM footholds in the city now. Pirate FM and Radio Plymouth


How well received is Pirate FM in Plymouth? I understand they actually bid for the Radio Plymouth license with 'Pirate Plymouth' as they officially don't cover the area. The Ofcom MCA map suggests you can only hear the station in a small part of the city.
MA
Markymark
Radio Plymouth snapped up by Bauer now!


Which means they have two FM footholds in the city now. Pirate FM and Radio Plymouth


How well received is Pirate FM in Plymouth? I understand they actually bid for the Radio Plymouth license with 'Pirate Plymouth' as they officially don't cover the area. The Ofcom MCA map suggests you can only hear the station in a small part of the city.


No, that's nonsense. They use Caradon Hill at several kWs, and the signal is beamed towards the city. It's easily receivable over most of the city, and the mast is actually visible in some parts (It's the main TV mast for the area). In the early days of Pirate they had a sales office in Plymouth
CI
cityprod
Radio Plymouth snapped up by Bauer now!


Which means they have two FM footholds in the city now. Pirate FM and Radio Plymouth


How well received is Pirate FM in Plymouth? I understand they actually bid for the Radio Plymouth license with 'Pirate Plymouth' as they officially don't cover the area. The Ofcom MCA map suggests you can only hear the station in a small part of the city.


The original licence that Pirate FM won in 1992 was for just Cornwall. The fact that Caradon Hill transmitter is recieved over most of Plymouth, Ivybridge, West Devon area, was just a quirk of the transmitter, and Plymouth and West Devon were not officially regarded as part of the licence area. The Pirate Plymouth application was simply a way of adding a 3rd dedicated transmitter, to officially cover Plymouth and West Devon and into the South Hams.

I feel pretty confident in predicting that Radio Exe will go the same way by the end of the year. It will be bought out and GHR'd.

This is a sad day for local radio. Sad and pathetically predictable. The Global FUBAR (pandemic) has really fouled up everything and has accelerated the decline of independent local radio stations.
BR
Brekkie
As for Signal, their building is now just too big. I understand that it contains seven studios - it used to be a network centre for the various Wireless Group local stations, and before that it contained two well-resourced radio stations with 24/7 programming and a news team etc. Now that it consists of just a single breakfast show, is there any need for such a large premises? Couldn't they run the Signal operation out of Birmingham or Manchester?

Just highlights how destructive recent years have been to lose such an enterprise from a location such as Stoke on Trent, repeated around the country, where in reality their removal means no local route into traditional broadcast media.
MA
Markymark

Which means they have two FM footholds in the city now. Pirate FM and Radio Plymouth


How well received is Pirate FM in Plymouth? I understand they actually bid for the Radio Plymouth license with 'Pirate Plymouth' as they officially don't cover the area. The Ofcom MCA map suggests you can only hear the station in a small part of the city.


The original licence that Pirate FM won in 1992 was for just Cornwall. The fact that Caradon Hill transmitter is recieved over most of Plymouth, Ivybridge, West Devon area, was just a quirk of the transmitter, and Plymouth and West Devon were not officially regarded as part of the licence area. The Pirate Plymouth application was simply a way of adding a 3rd dedicated transmitter, to officially cover Plymouth and West Devon and into the South Hams.

I feel pretty confident in predicting that Radio Exe will go the same way by the end of the year. It will be bought out and GHR'd.

This is a sad day for local radio. Sad and pathetically predictable. The Global FUBAR (pandemic) has really fouled up everything and has accelerated the decline of independent local radio stations.


Actually Bauer will mirror Global's arrangements now, with legacy Atlantic from Caradon Hill, and legacy Plymouth Sound
CI
cityprod

How well received is Pirate FM in Plymouth? I understand they actually bid for the Radio Plymouth license with 'Pirate Plymouth' as they officially don't cover the area. The Ofcom MCA map suggests you can only hear the station in a small part of the city.


The original licence that Pirate FM won in 1992 was for just Cornwall. The fact that Caradon Hill transmitter is recieved over most of Plymouth, Ivybridge, West Devon area, was just a quirk of the transmitter, and Plymouth and West Devon were not officially regarded as part of the licence area. The Pirate Plymouth application was simply a way of adding a 3rd dedicated transmitter, to officially cover Plymouth and West Devon and into the South Hams.

I feel pretty confident in predicting that Radio Exe will go the same way by the end of the year. It will be bought out and GHR'd.

This is a sad day for local radio. Sad and pathetically predictable. The Global FUBAR (pandemic) has really fouled up everything and has accelerated the decline of independent local radio stations.


Actually Bauer will mirror Global's arrangements now, with legacy Atlantic from Caradon Hill, and legacy Plymouth Sound


Yes, I didn't say anything to the contrary.

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