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Old 2nd Feb 2023, 5:09 pm   #130
hamid_1
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Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: High Wycombe, Bucks. UK.
Posts: 811
Default Re: Absolute Radio to end AM transmissions on 23/01/23

London Greek Radio started as a pirate station serving the Greek-speaking community in Wood Green, north London. It gained a community radio licence long ago and is now legal. AFAIK It's only ever been on FM.

There are a couple of South Asian community AM radio stations in London : Panjab Radio (558), Sunrise Radio (963,972) plus LBC News (I think?) and Gold 1548.

Greatest Hits Radio broadcasts on FM in London, therefore it is not allowed to broadcast on AM in the same area. A rule was introduced in the 1990 Broadcasting Act banning 'simulcasting' the same content on FM and AM in the same area. To comply with the rule, broadcasters would have to provide different content on their AM and FM frequencies or surrender one of their frequencies to a competitor.

This actually led to the creation of Absolute Radio (nee Virgin Radio) and Gold. Capital Radio switched their AM frequency to a golden-oldies service instead of surrendering it. The BBC replaced Radio 2 AM with Radio 5, and was forced to give up their Radio 1 and Radio 3 AM frequencies which became Talksport and Absolute. This is also the reason why Gold remains on air on AM in London. Some years back, most of the Gold AM stations around the country were switched to Smooth Radio, but since Smooth also broadcasts on FM in London, that change was not possible. For many years, Absolute Radio did broadcast on FM in London as well as nationally on AM. I guess either the no-simulcast rule didn't apply in that case or they had some London-specific content on FM.

Anyway, I don't think Ofcom will do anything drastic following the closure of Absolute Radio AM. No doubt, Bauer, the station's owner will argue that it was no longer viable to keep the AM network going and Ofcom will consider that Bauer had not acted unreasonably by closing it. The worst thing was that very little notice was given to affected listeners.
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