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Old 1st Mar 2019, 12:55 pm   #1
gezza123
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Default Are you all ready for single channel radio?

This is what GLOBAL are going to do this year with the help of Ofcom.

Do you want to listen to selected presenters every morning in the uk.

If not then look here at the loss of jobs and radio stations.

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Old 1st Mar 2019, 1:03 pm   #2
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single Chanel radio

Single Chanel ? I should Coco .

Cheers,

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Old 1st Mar 2019, 1:18 pm   #3
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single Chanel radio

gezza123, true what you report but from my listening to various 'local' stations it all seems to be just the same 'playlist' offerings anyway. Where is the musical experimentation on 'Late Night' FM radio that characterized the 1970s?
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 2:10 pm   #4
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single Chanel radio

I seldom listen to Capital, Heart, or other similar stations anyway, preferring Classic FM, LBC, BBC local radio, etc., and will try the new Scala radio when it launches on Monday Morning, but I agree the changes will mean loss of even more local content, and, with that, job losses as already mentioned. This, however, is part of an on-going process which started some ears ago now, and will no doubt continue.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 2:49 pm   #5
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single Chanel radio

I've never listened to the stations effected so don't give a monkey's what they do. In fact I always thought that Capital was a London ILR station that had expanded to broadcast to the whole country; I didn't know until these reports that it had localised content.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 2:58 pm   #6
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single Chanel radio

Quote:
Originally Posted by GrimJosef View Post
Single Chanel ? I should Coco .
Presume it's No. 5

(I'll get me coat.)
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 3:13 pm   #7
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single Chanel radio

We once had a workplace radio and when we got fed up with the adverts on one station we just "changed the adverts" using the tuning dial.
The hard bit was finding a station with a presenter that was a bit less "shouty" than the others.
At one place we had speakers on the computer desk and found that streaming the night time offerings from down under got us presenters that were less "shouty" and less adverts.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 3:22 pm   #8
paulsherwin
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single Chanel radio

This consolidation is the inevitable result of weak Ofcom regulation over the last 30 years. It is difficult to imagine nowadays, but all these Bauer and Global transmitters are supposed to be independent local stations providing distinct tailored programming, with local presenters and accents. That's how they all started out. There is still a licensing requirement to provide local news coverage, but this requirement is so loosely interpreted and inadequately enforced that it might as well not be there.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 3:41 pm   #9
SteveCG
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single channel radio?

Paulsherwin, you mean rather like the regional TV coverage of the ITA of old??

It all makes being interested in DX VHF/FM radio rather a specialist subject as the content is the same...
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 3:46 pm   #10
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single channel radio?

I'm old enough to remember the first ILR stations being rolled out in the 70s - Capital and LBC in London, BRMB in Birmingham, Piccadilly in Manchester, City in Liverpool and so on. These all had very strong local identities, but there has been little or no attempt to preserve this system faced with commercial pressure and corporate lobbying.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 3:47 pm   #11
kellys_eye
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single channel radio?

Is this not the inevitability of the internet?

You can 'tune' to any station/genre you want as competition to radiowaves and this is how the future looks to many.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 3:50 pm   #12
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single channel radio?

I don't particularly listen to local news broadcasts much, usually listening to Radio Caroline on MW. Although it is not radio as such, one observation I will make though is that on the TV I personally find it very irriating when listening to the BBC lunchtime news, to have items repeated almost verbatim by the following Look North local news, taking up a substantial part of the program. It does make me wonder as to the quality of local news coverage in general as some of them, although possibly of national importance, have little consequence to the vast majority of local people.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 4:13 pm   #13
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single channel radio?

The implementation of pseudo-national stations through the steady absorption of local stations backed up by DAB has meant this has been on the cards for years. The advertising cake, though it has enlarged overall, has been thinned by a multiplicity of TV stations, more and more radio stations and last, but by no means least, the internet. This makes local commercial stations less and less viable. Some programming is networked anyway and this pushes it on and consolidates it a bit. Some folk will feel a bit of sadness at the loss of their local presenters but they'll soon get over it and the rest won't care at all. The same records will be rotated with boring regularity. All you need to run a pop radio station is some presenters, some ads and a set of Now That's What I Call Music! CDs. And you can cut down on presenter costs by voice tracking or even dispense with them completely for some output.

As this process has gone on I find can't keep up with the swapping about. I gave my RA117 a run out the other day and I found that on the two frequencies on Medium Wave originally allocated to two of the earliest ILR stations and which subsequently became their alternative channels, then Gold, then Smooth, then 'Smooth something or other subset' is now some version of Absolute Rock or something similar.

My hope would be that through these amalgamations and the cost savings they might spend something on more interesting and in-depth content but I know that this is a forlorn one. My expectation is that they will bring in big name presenters in an effort to compete with Radio 1 and Radio 2 - the latter of which is has become Radio 1 of twenty years ago revisited.

The sad (for me at least) fact is that out of some 40-50 stations at the last count I can receive on AM, FM, DAB and DAB+ there is so little output that appeals to me - especially for any length of time - that I find myself resorting to online more and more.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 4:40 pm   #14
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single Chanel radio

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Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
This consolidation is the inevitable result of weak Ofcom regulation over the last 30 years.
I agree completely.

However, the local commercial model has, in the main, had its day. It will survive in some areas where it serves a particular community but only the BBC has the resources for in-depth local programming. The rest of the 'localness' slack can be taken up by community stations.

For these pseudo-national stations there should be tight licence conditions a la INR1 (Classic FM) to ensure that there is a variety in content and the whole population is served. As it stands too many stations are battling it out for the Radio 1 and Radio 2 territory. The older generation, and those whose taste is for lighter/easier 'non-pop and prattle' output, is now particularly ill-served since Radio 2's determination to join the fray by going 'younger'. Seems to me that since Ofcom has taken over from the BBC Trust the BBC has figured that it can do more or less what it likes.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 4:44 pm   #15
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single channel radio?

Meanwhile, on the BBC, I used to listen to Simon Mayo while driving home. But that was then, and what is now seems a lot less interesting and the music much blander.

It's the ipod for me.

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Old 1st Mar 2019, 5:03 pm   #16
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single channel radio?

I gave up R2 'drive-time' when Johnnie Walker announced he was leaving the slot.* I'd already given up the afternoons and the lunch times. My last morning show was, ironically, the last time Johnnie Walker did his regular sit-in for the long-serving but already departed presenter.

In the car it's been R3, R4 or Classic FM though I now have a vehicle with the luxury of a CD player!

*I retain fond memories of John Dunn on the drive home.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 5:16 pm   #17
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single channel radio?

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Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
It's the ipod for me.
Same here. I am now spoiled by all the choice in the world thanks to Apple music. And no one talking over half of it.

Plus podcasts. Soldersmoke is a good one for me.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 5:33 pm   #18
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single channel radio?

Like others, I view this 'consolidation' as inevitable, commercial sense: the alternative is surely for the media-companies to not-bid when their licenses come up for renewal, as has happened with many MW licenses?

Better to have _something_ occupying the channels, surely, rather than hundreds of Kilohertz of silence? Perhaps the authorities could introduce a really-de-restricted broadcast-operator license: pay £1000 for a frequency, be allowed up to 1Kw carrier-power, no restrictions at all on content....

It's not just the commercial stations that have done this 'consolidation' - an evening tune-across BBC local radio will show their definition of 'local' to include some enormous areas!

I've always been someone who's more interested in hearing radio-stations rather than listening to them [RDS station-display is great for us DX-minded types] - I'd prefer my music to come uninterrupted by presenters or commercials or news; these days I'm happy to be able to carry a few hundred playlists with me on a 64Gb USB-stick.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 5:38 pm   #19
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single channel radio?

Advertisers are primarily interested in reaching females in the 16-30 age group, because they are the people who make most purchasing decisions. They are also more brand aware and easier to manipulate. If most commercial radio sounds as if it's targeting this market, that's because it is. Advertisers have almost no interest in reaching middle aged and elderly men.

The BBC has a particular responsibility here, but they argue that the over 40s are being served by BBC local radio.
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Old 1st Mar 2019, 5:45 pm   #20
MrBungle
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Default Re: Are you all ready for single channel radio?

Over 40 here. Nope. The pirates are doing a better job of local radio here in London
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