Global Radio axes all regional/local breakfast shows

I can tolerate 56kbps mono MP2 quite easily, but admittedly the online listening experience for Goldmine is much better, at 192kbps Stereo MP3. The most painful listening experience I ever had was a 20kbps Mono Real Media stream, and that really hurt my ears. Next to that, 56kbps Mono MP2 is almost luxurious.

Pretty much... except the bit the other side of the big hills! Which as you say is why the BBC have relays there. It's still not the same as having two stations like Cornwall does, even though one is a Heart.


It's one of those odd areas that missed out a bit although outside of what is now Signal and Free's TSA I think it's sparcely populated.

Although oddly despite not having much radio it could be an issue as they will both soon be Bauer owned and no competition. There are a lot of areas where they will have multiple stations of varying types and varying overlaps. Its going to be a regulatory tangle

Yes, I can see where you're coming from. Very unusually (perhaps uniquely ?) Pirate is actually a heritage ILR with a licence area that was specified as a whole county. It's often forgotten that ILR licence areas were town or 'twin town' based. Essex Radio was actually 'Southend and Chelmsford' which is a good chunk of the county, but misses out Colchester and Harlow. BBC Essex does cover much more of the county, though the north west is still patchy (and AM only really).

Presumably it was the same round of licensing that gave us Lincs FM and CFM, two other county-wide stations from the early 90s.

I'll drop this excellent video about DAB from Techmoan.

No, they were 'Lincoln' and 'Carlisle'.

Take a look at the first coulum here
http://static.ofcom.org.uk/static/radiolicensing/mcamaps/MCAs.htm

Though interesting that Hallam, that was originally 'Sheffield and Rotherham' in 1974, then had bolted on 'Doncaster' and 'Barnsley' in the 80s/90s, is now called 'South Yorkshire'. And similar for Invicta (Maidstone and Medway, combined with 'East Kent') is now 'Kent'

Not really telling us anything new. We know that they prioritise quantity over quality, because that's what the public wants. 'Buy this new radio and get lots of new stations' is more appealing than 'Buy this new radio and get the same stations in the same quality'.

The problem with DAB is it's a technology that was already years out of date when it started.

It's at the stage now where it's pointless for homes that have a solid [1] internet connection, because of 'internet radio' streams, and we're not that far off the same for mobile use. I listen to the radio via the 4G network when walking about, and once the interface between in car audio systems and mobile phones makes changing and selection different stations easy and safe (it's far from that at present in my car) then that's viable too.

Yes I know not everyone has solid internet, has solid or any 4G reception, but DAB roll out isn't going
increase very much (if at all) beyond present levels. t'internet will continue to.

[1] Internet connection of at least 3 Mb/s and not prone to lots of errors/interuptions.

Yes but I suppose that's the problem when it's the multiplex that's licensed, they're free to do with it what they want and there's no limit on what size bandwidth a station can be.


I'm sure if an FM station could be split up like that or shrunk to make it cheaper someone would have taken advantage.

In light of the recent controversial Micheal Jackson: Leaving Neverland documentary, all of his songs have been banned across a few radio stations around the world.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nme.com/news/music/michael-jackson-songs-banned-from-radio-stations-around-the-world-2457781/amp

Not sure if Heart or Heart 80s has removed "Black or White" or any of his other songs from their playlist cause I've only heard "Black or White" on Heart.

Ironically, his music has re-entered the charts.