Sad day. End of Gold Radio.

[Focus Diode]

Sad news indeed. I've been enjoying the MW transmissions for the Sussex area on 1323kHz in the car which is well received here in North East England in the hours of darkness with some fading.

Brian

[timewave]

Off topic but a brief answer to questions raised within.

Regarding the BBC trial shutdowns I think as a result of the feedback received the transmitters were switched back on. There will be some re-engineering of program feeds and telemetry on the BBC MF sites soon. At present the main program feeds are usually over BT Kilostream with a BT Musicline unit outputting audio to the transmitters. Secondary feed is off air from the local VHF FM transmitter. Support for the Musicline is coming to an end so primary feed will be going to satellite.
There's still a bit of life in the old dogs yet!

John G4IJD

[ianj]

To be honest I haven't listened to Gold for years now, here in Cheltenham I can get Sunshine, much better, there's Absolute, BBC Hereford and Worcester, BBC Wales, BBC West, and a couple of others on MW including Gold and BBC Radio 5 both of which I never bother with. Add to that Radio 4 on LW and I'm fine for an hours listening on the radio.
My aeriel is in my conservatory and reception is first class, clear and no interference unless next door have their lawn mower on.

[hamid_1]

I will miss Gold on medium wave - it's pretty much the only MW station I listen to these days. In fact I was listening to the "70s Saturday" show this evening on 828KHz from Luton and didn't hear anything about the impending closure. This is the first I've heard of it.

I knew the MW transmissions wouldn't go on forever, but I hoped that Gold would continue to be available on DAB after the MW shutdown. Oddly, Gold used to be on DAB here until a few years ago when it was moved to a different multiplex which I can't receive, so that's now the end of Gold on radio for me. A Freesat box + a micro transmitter might now be the only solution, but it's just not quite the same.

Farewell Gold MW, and thankyou for the entertainment over the years.

[Tazman1966]

There is quite a detailed article HERE that explains what is happening.

[Alan Stepney]

The article tells what is happening, but doesn't give reasons for doing so.
It also lists alternatives to the MW transmitters, but as I don't have a DAB radio, digital (or any) TV, or a phone capable of using "apps"
I obviously won't be one of their listeners in the future.

[arjoll]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Advertisers have little interest in people over 60 as they spend little on consumer products and are resistant to marketing spin.

Interestingly enough there are at least two networks targeting that audience in New Zealand!

In 1997 Rhema Media started two new networks - Life FM targeting an under-30 demographic and Southern Star targeting the oldies, moving the demographic of the flagship Rhema network down in age slightly and moving to more talk/teaching. Results were better than expected for Southern Star, so The Radio Network started Coast aimed at the same demographic. I think The Sound is MediaWorks' response (it is a rebranding of Solid Gold), but I'm not even remotely into that kind of music so I wouldn't know

Personally I tend to flick between Life FM, ZM and Radio Hauraki. Nothing of interest on AM here (just 558 Radio Sport, 720 RNZ National, 864 Newstalk ZB, 1026 The Word, 1224 Bsport, 1314 Southern Star and 1404 Rhema).

[ianj]

774 khz here in the Cotswolds will be Smooth radio later this month then. I'll give it a try out

[Radio Wrangler]

It's not something I listen to, but due to this thread I've seen all the upset this change is causing.

No doubt a bunch management theoreticians in suits carried out a study which said they could save X-much pounds by only making one oldies program instead of two, and they could just shift people from one programme to the others. Hmmm simple.

People writing complaints on the web are easily ignored, as are arriving letters at galactic HQ. The writers can just be dismissed as a grumpy minority, not enough to bother with.

So write complaints not to the station, but to the advertisers.

The advertisers will certainly use complaints as tools with which to beat down the advertising prices station executives try to charge. An advertising minute isn't worth a bean if no-one from the target audience is listening. If a radio station won't listen to you, give some ammo to the people they have to listen to.

If a radio station doesn't care if a significant proportion of its listeners go away, it will certainly care if a significant proportion of its advertisers go to follow the audience. It may be too late by then.

I'd pay close attention to where the DJs go. They seem to be popular.

Just comments from a bystander on this one.

David

[Hybrid tellies]

I do listen to Gold occasionally on 1260 but prefer the wider mix that is played on Absolute, JackFM, Radio 2 and Radio Bristol. So when it does go I shall see what Smooth sounds like.
There is still a bit of choice of music available on AM in the Bristol area with BBC locals from Bristol, Wiltshire, Gloucester and Wales plus Absolute 1215 and Gold soon to become Smooth, so I will miss AM radio when it is switched off.

[hannahs radios]

Thankyou al for your interest in this topic i must say i have an ancient marconi signal generator i mite try to feed audio to it from a tablet (computer one not my heart tablet) and get my own gold AM signal thatway. alternatively i could learn to like absolout radio. I really hate the sound of FM so am desperate to find an AM signal to carry on with. DAB is a non starter cos i cant afford one got no money shame innit

[Nickthedentist]

Originally Posted by hannahs radios

DAB is a non starter cos i cant afford one got no money shame innit

I've found several dumped and most have been repairable with minimal financial outlay - the odd electrolytic and a bit of attention to dry joints and so on.

Or use a Freeview box (again, available for nothing from a skip or bin near you) fed into the gram sockets of your favourite valve set.

Nick.

[Hunts smoothing bomb]

Hi Nick,

Gold has never been available on freeview, I wasnt aware it was going to be made available either,

I will certainly be sad to see it go, I've listened to it for nearly 25 years.

Im going to get one of those micro transmitters and hook it up to a spare tablet I have, it can then run 24-7 with a bit of luck.

Cheers

[music-centre]

Hi,

I will miss the gold radio. Where I am in Essex the only decent signal is the old Breeze radio one, 1439 I think, which I have on most of the time on my old sets (apart from Radio 2).
They have a good request show in the evenings where you hear some more unusual 1960's stuff than played through the day, there have been several of the people phoning in for requests and then asking how they are going to hear it and they don't sound as if getting it online or on Sky TV is going to be likely for them.

I am quite lucky here though as the 1548 London one looks as if it will stay on for the moment and you can just about use it, never sounds as good as the other one though ,if I am in the car in an area where they are of equal strength the London one sounds dull/lacking in treble, strange that they are different.

Regards, Steve.

[Nickthedentist]

Hi Lee,

Originally Posted by Hunts smoothing bomb

Gold has never been available on freeview, I wasn't aware it was going to be made available either.

Thanks for the clarification, I didn't know that

Internet streaming maybe?

N.

[Sideband]

Originally Posted by music-centre

the 1548 London one looks as if it will stay on for the moment and you can just about use it, never sounds as good as the other one though ,if I am in the car in an area where they are of equal strength the London one sounds dull/lacking in treble, strange that they are different.

They use a lot of compression with a high modulation level. It doesn't sound very good even on a big radio...lacks bass and sounds too 'middly' (middle tones). It's a disaster on my Philips Superinductance as that uses an anode bend detector.....serious overload.

Rich

[Glowing Bits!]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

Internet streaming maybe?

It sure can be internet streamed, it's also on DAB but is no longer available in our area, it now says 'Service Not Available'.

In a few years time, I wouldn't be surprised if half the stations on DAB/Analogue are online only, it is starting to look this way.

[womer_uk]

In Europe too stations are dying

RTL 1440 goes at the end of the year and Deutschlandfunk does also

[Station X]

The changeover has happened. I'm not impressed with Smooth Radio and I can't receive Gold on any of the medium wave frequencies it's retained.

So my medium wave listening is stuffed until I get a micro transmitter and something to feed it from.

[Glowing Bits!]

Fear not Graham, I recorded the last half hour of Dean Martin's Request Show on the B side of a C90 just for the hell of it!

I fired up a valve set after 11AM only to be met with local ads followed by the station announcing it's new name, I only managed about 10 mins of listening to the torture before going onto Radio Wales, that weren't much better either!

Graham, the future probably is low powered transmitters for in-house use, unfortunately.