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Sunday, 21 September 2014
M
michel
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:25 PM

Are there any listener statistics for DAB+ yet?

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michel's 869 posts GB flag
Monday, 22 September 2014
R
Roger M
9:22 PM

Come on statistics for one station that has only been on air a week. I don't think so.

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Roger M's 16 posts GB flag
Thursday, 13 November 2014
N
Nedbod
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:31 PM

Finally bought a car with DAB in it. One think I have noticed is when you switch to FM how poor the quality of FM is on the DAB radio compared with the FM/AM radio in my previous car. Are DAB manufacturers lowering the FM quality to make DAB sound better. This was also true of my PURE EVOKE radio before it collapsed after just five years use. My FM / DAB Technics tuner on the other hand purchased in 1999 is still going strong and if anything FM sounds better especially when DAB is less than 160 kbps or less. Only one station broadcasts abbove 160kbps and that is BBC RADIO 3 DAB, which has a relatively small listernership compared to the other national stations on FM & DAB with the exception of BBC Radio 1 Xtra (128kbps) and BBC Asian Network (which only broadcasts with a very low 64kbps anyway).

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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag
N
Nedbod
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:33 PM

Make that "thing" not "thinK" apologies, I must proof read my messages in future.

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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag
N
Nedbod
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:46 PM

I'LL TRY AGAIN WITH AN EXTRA BIT ABOUT THE DEALER :

I finally bought a car last month with a DAB radio in it. One thing I have noticed is that when you switch the DAB radio to FM, how poor the quality of FM is on the DAB radio compared with the FM / AM radio in my previous Toyota. Are DAB manufacturers lowering the FM quality to make DAB sound better, it would seem so. This was also true of my PURE EVOKE radio before it collapsed after just five years use. It's FM mode was pathetic even just 1 mile away from the East of England transmitter in Elton.

My FM / DAB Technics tuner, on the other hand, purchased in 1999, is still going strong and if anything FM sounds better on it, especially when DAB is 160 kbps or less. Only one station broadcasts above 160kbps and that is BBC RADIO 3 DAB, which has a relatively small listernership compared to the other national stations on FM & DAB, with the exception of BBC Radio 1 Xtra (128kbps) and BBC Asian Network (which only broadcasts with a very low 64kbps anyway). Absolute (formerly Virgin Radio) used to broadcast with 160kbps but now its down to 112kbps and has given bits to sister stations such as Absolute 70s and 80s all in VERY poor quality and some in mono. Useless for a music station.

The Toyota dealer had already swapped my brand new car DAB aerial for an FM aerial before I had even started the engine and was amazed that I spotted this immediately. The big clue was I can actallly see the DAB Winter Hill transmitter from my estate but initially my car radio couldn't pick up one single DAB station. This cost Toyota a full tank of petrol, so as not to get an unfavourable survey result on their performance.

No wonder we don't trust car dealers who always quote prices excluding VAT unlike everyone else !!

All the above is not helping DAB sales in the slighhtest.

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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag
Thursday, 8 January 2015
N
Nedbod
sentiment_satisfiedGold

3:27 PM

Catch-up 7-day BBC Radio is now slowly being withdrawn from YOUVIEW (from TalkTalk). It was terminated on most Smart TVs and Humax boxes in July 2014.

At the moment we are in the bizarre position on YOUVIEW where BBC Radios 1, 1 Xtra, 2 & 5 Live have already gone (displaying the NOT AVAILABLE message), but Radios 3, 4 and 4 Extra are still providing the 7 day catch up.

On a more positive front BBC Live radio online is significantly increasing its bitrate on most channels to 320 kbps from this week also available on some aps and tablets. The BBC have greater control over this than other broadcast platform capacity.

BBC World Service is now in stereo overnight on Radio 4 FM and Radio 4 DAB, but not on its own DAB channel and Radio 4 DAB is in mono from 7pm until at least 10pm most evenings, so it broadcasts the World Service in better quality than its own station on DAB in the evenings.


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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
P
Paul
9:10 PM

I Have office since the BBC National DAB was removed from the site at St Johns Beacon in Liverpool the signal in the city centre for BBC suffers from terrible interference and is more or less no existent in some areas like it use to be (and before anyone says just listen to it on FM I'm afraid BBC 6Music is NOT on FM as Digital-Only Station)

I'd love to know why it happened in the first place? Was it ordered to be removed? Did it's site licence expire? Would just like to know where it's good when the BBC is trying its hardest to get more people on the Digital Radio bandwagon?

Hoping this new site mentioned in Knowsley (a suburb of Liverpool) will improve the signal in the area down into Liverpool (Great news for my house as I live about 2 miles from where in Knowsley they are basing the transmitters location!

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Paul's 1 post GB flag
Wednesday, 14 January 2015
M
Mark
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

7:41 PM

Paul: As far as I know BBC national DAB has never broadcast from St Johns Beacon, only Digital One, MuxCo WCL & Bauer Liverpool.

BBC national DAB will launch from this site by the end of 2015.

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Mark's 181 posts GB flag
Friday, 16 January 2015
N
Nedbod
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:34 PM

I drove to Cornwall and Wales last year and the BBC National stations were with me for the entire journey, Sadly BBC RADIO 4 is in MONO now in the evenings on DAB, so I had to switch to FM at 7:02 and 40 seconds pm to hear THE ARCHERS in ((( STEREO))). Isn't it odd that BBC RADIO 4 DAB can broadcast the WORLD SERVICE in ((( STEREO))) overnight from 1am to 5:20am, even the World Service DAB with the correct programme listings on smart TV and DAB is itself in MONO, but Radio 4 DAB can't broadcast its own channel in ((( STEREO))) most evenings.

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Nedbod's 619 posts GB flag
Thursday, 5 February 2015
R
Roger M
11:19 AM

Wohnort.org reports

The UK regulator Ofcom has received two applications to operate the second national commercial ensemble:-

Listen2Digital: A joint application from Babcock's Media Services business and Orion Media, a commercial radio group. Listen2Digital proposes to broadcast 18 national DAB services.
Sound Digital: A consortium of Arqiva, a transmission company, and commercial radio broadcasters Bauer and UTV Media GB. Sound Digital proposes to broadcast 15 national DAB services.
Ofcom hopes to award the licence "by summer 2015" and the new ensemble is expected to begin broadcasting in 2016.


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Roger M's 1 post GB flag
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