Radio Caroline Closes Sky Satellite Service

Radio caroline Closure of satellite service

After much thought and negotiation we regret that we have decided to end our satellite broadcasts on 30th September 2013.

For a long time there have been reception problems that sadly cannot be remedied and this has led to a further decline in our audience on this platform, with those who listen exclusively via satellite falling to a tiny percentage.

Our service provider, whilst not responsible for the reception difficulties, has agreed to release us early from our long-term contract as a goodwill gesture. We have mutually agreed that this course of action is in the best interests of the both of us.

Our first project following closure of the satellite service will be to launch a brand new on-line radio station to be called Caroline Extra. Radio Caroline's existing on-line service will continue unaffected.

Click the banner below for more details about this new service which will launch before the end of the year. Otherwise we will be pre-occupied preparing and relocating our ship before considering how we may further expand our broadcasting activities.


Why It Had To Go

The sequence was that we once used a satellite signal with manual tuning and, while the various values had to be put in via the remote, the box then recognised Caroline any time the listener selected us thereafter and we had reception on every sort of set.

Then we decided to take an Sky EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) but this did not give the expected increase in either listeners or advertisers and it was costing a fortune so we gave that up.

All we wanted to do was to revert to manual tuning as before. It was not known by us, nor our provider, that Sky had hardened their attitude to non EPG signals. We found that no Sky SD boxes would get our signal at all. Sky had nil interest in sending a software signal to make the boxes hear us. Then we found that each time they sent a general update to the HD boxes, this wiped the stored memory so that the listener had to go through the tuning process all over again and again.

From day one we have been pursuing our signal provider but it took a long time to finally conclude that there was no remedy (aside from going back to an EPG situation). It also took time to get out of our contract which ends next June. I am sure we would not have renewed at that time anyway, so by quitting now we save about £16,000 to put to better use.

If the Sky radio guide is examined, there are many gaps where there used to be radio stations, so we are not alone in thinking that satellite radio is now old technology.

Peter Moore 4th September 2013
[url]

http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#home.html[/url]

Satellite radio never took off over here. Freeview, DAB and WIFI internet radio are the dominant platforms for audio in this country.

Caroline are currently pursuing an AM broadcast license through their Fair's Fair campaign, so perhaps their energies will be focussed on that rather than flogging an unused platform.

And this should really be in Birdsong.

I'd imagine FM is ahead of all of those. I assume you meant digital listening?

It's just a bit sad, isn't it? What was once a (literally) massive anti-establishment monument, broadcasting a voice almost completely free of regulatory intervertion in a time where such mass communication was impossible, from the middle of the North Sea.... now it's a few blokes broadcasting from what I gather is another bloke's bedroom in the same name. No wonder O'Rahilly has nothing to do with it any more.

Ronan is sadly suffering from Vascular Dementia.

That's very sad news indeed. A great man, and a terrible way to go.

Yes of course, that went without saying, which is why I didn't say it.

Nothing in this modern world can ever replicate the pre-1989 Caroline era, so Ronan or no Ronan, the station wouldn't have been the same.

However, they do still have a boat, they are still pressing for AM broadcast space, and a show is presented by Tom Lodge Jr. Plus they still do their Easter AM RSLs... the belief / ethos is still there, even if it may not manifest itself overtly...

Isn't satellite radio popular in homes with Freesat and Sky, and Freeview radio popular in homes with Freeview? There are just more Freeview homes? (How can three platforms be the dominant ones, when FM presumably is the most dominant? FM, Freeview, DAB and Wifi pretty much covers everything APART from satellite and cable doesn't it?)

We have Sky in our main viewing room, feeding a Freeview equipped TV, and if we want to listen to the radio, we go to the Radio bit of the EPG on Sky. (Mainly Radio 4 and 5Live)

Our amp has an FM tuner in it - but we don't have a rooftop FM aerial and haven't bothered with the supplied strip one. Sky delivers pretty much what we want.

In the kitchen we have an FM/DAB/WiFi model - which switches between BBC DAB and more esoteric Internet stations. (I love languages so usually listen to something foreign)

It might be nice if the up and coming local Freeview muxes, carried the area's local radio stations as a 'must carry'
requirement. Local radio (if you're not a Londoner) is one thing under served by the digital TV platforms.

I think the main reason why London radio stations appear to be well served on Sky is due to the London stations being the network feeds for the quasi national commercial stations such as Capital, Heart and Smooth. However the BBC put the local radio station on 0152 if you have a London postcode.

The main reason that BBC London is on Sky is because the likes of Capital, Magic, Smooth, Heart were all on there too, it was seen to be unfair competition for it. The actual slot was used for some sort of temporary World Service service during the Iraq war I seem to remember. When that ended, it was replaced by BBC London. Of course the other reason it would have been chosen was that it is based in London where the other stations come from so it was easy to uplink.

London doesn't really have that much local radio any more, most of the London-wide stations are pseudo-national networks with little local content. A few have only local ads and breakfast/drivetime... just like the rest of the country.

Indeed, you could argue the only two Londonwide stations that have any pretence to be 'local' are
LBC and BBC London, one fewer than the situation near enough 40 years ago !