Absolute Radio to end AM transmissions on 23/01/23

[factory]

Not heard anything mentioned on the radio , looks like I will have nothing to listen to in the shed, or while driving now, all the local stations I listened to have gone, XFM Manchester on FM went a few years ago & I didn't like the replacement.

David

[Richard_FM]

Gold on 1458KHz is my usual local station to listen to on MW, mostly as it's an oldies station.

[draenog]

Found an interesting blog post on the shutdown:

https://www.adambowie.com/blog/2023/...-the-end-of-am

According to this, Absolute Radio tried to end AM transmission before, but got a very good deal from the network provider Arqiva. It also quotes the DCMS that "AM radio accounts for around 2% of listening – but 35% of radio transmission's energy costs."

Given all the current fuss around energy I can see this being used in the future to justify closing down what's left on AM

[Radio Wrangler]

Bleak, or maybe good?

There is no longer big money in AM MF/LF broadcasting. That's why they're moving out. There are large forces (££££) at work and we haven't a hope in hell of stopping them.

But the spectrum will still be there.

So what moves in?

Ofcom will have to realise that what they have to sell no longer attracts the licence fees they were used to. They will have to accept whatever they can get as it becomes a buyer's market. Maybe it becomes free for public or charitable broadcasters? It's of no use for mobile phone/internet services. Big transmitter sites are expensive to maintain just from the point of tall masts not falling on people, so they have to come down.

With what power-crazed dictators have done to energy prices, upland sites with strong electricity connections/wayleaves already in place have become too valuable for new windfarms to hold out for long.

There is a big infrastructure of broadcast receivers already out there, already largely not used.

We can't stop what we once had going away, but we do have influence on what replaces it.

So, what do you want in its place?

Assume smaller transmitter sites, higher levels of QRM and therefore shorter range. Assume that a lot of stuff to homes and other fixed points come over internet fibre etc. Assume the big boys use 5G.

David

[Cruisin Marine]

Wrangler is quite right. There are more than enough capable people that could provide great service's on the AM/MW band at little cost.
There is nothing more magical than a decent AM signal properly done.
Perhaps there should be a group formed to lobby Ofcom to make it reality?

[Rich Woods]

Sounds good and I hope you are right, but with government’s desire to control and regulate everything sadly I doubt it.

[Rich Woods]

Looks like it’s pantry transmitters from now on.

[Rich Woods]

LW could & probably should be used for national DRM digital broadcasts, didn’t they do experiments on the Hilversum transmitter a few years ago? Got to be cheaper than multiple transmitters surely? The main issue (of many) with DAB is that the coverage in rural areas is very limited. I get far better results on the move here in West Wales using the phone & connecting to the car radio. 648khz is generally good at night.

[Rich Woods]

Mind you, it’s notoriously difficult to get get national governments to change direction on infrastructure decisions, for example it would have made perfect sense to use band 1 and 3 for 625 line broadcasts in rural areas when 405 line was all but finished and would have saved a fortune on power, (lower ERP than UHF & better signal travel), but they committed to UHF only & that was that. I recon that we will end up with DAB only and then it will be quietly switched off as by then most folks will be using the internet for the equivalent of radio.

[Rich Woods]

Feels like the early 80’s and being a 405 line enthusiast. That experience does show “where there’s a will, there’s a way” to carry on with your hobby. The only issue will be that it will inevitably make vintage radio less accessible to casual hobbyists & more specialist than it is now.

[Hybrid tellies]

I have fond memories of trying to listen to BBC R1 on 247m back in the early 1970's when I lived in west Cornwall. Many radios really struggled as we were not only in a mush zone between between the Redruth and Plymouth transmitters but both signals were weak as well. The best reception was using my old HMV 1124 valved radio with a mains earth and a long wire aerial. For some reason it coped with the fading mush signal very well. With a decent portable transistor radio you could improve reception on 247m by nulling out either the Redruth or Plymouth transmitters. Of course this didn't work at night with co channel interference from more distant UK transmitters and stations from across Europe.

More recently living near Bristol with Absolute/Virgin on 247m using a decent portable radio the best daytime reception was achieved by nulling out the Droitwich signal eliminating the mush or co channel interference to the Washford signal.

[Junk Box Nick]

I listen to a couple of programmes from community station Carillon Well-being Radio on 1476 from Coalville. The presentation, though knowledgeable, is not slick but they air music once very popular but now heard little if at all on commercial/BBC stations. (It also relays Radio Seagull from Holland at night.) A development of the Carillon Hospital Radio service, the transmitter power is a couple of hundred watts into a short self supporting helical antenna. It is receivable at my QTH 40 miles or so away so must be strong within its service area.

Seeing as the MW band is not going to be gobbled up by telephone companies, etc., I have always thought it was worth offering frequencies to low power community stations – especially as FM frequencies are scarce. I really don’t see the harm in this. The stations could have a go and would either be successful and provide a useful service to the community or would not and close, much the same as any other enterprise of this sort.

However, it is my understanding that Ofcom have firmly set their face against licensing MW frequencies. Quite some years ago, when Sunshine 855 in Ludlow took over Classic Gold in Herefordshire (954) and Worcestershire (1530) the previous owners had already allowed the 954 licence to lapse and Ofcom refused to re-licence it to Sunshine so they battled on using just 1530.

The exception to this would appear to be Caroline on 648 but this only went ahead due to strong lobbying on the basis of ‘AM heritage’ and with a lot of help from MP Tracy Crouch – plus there was the good fortune of an existing 648 installation in the right place with owners who were happy to let Caroline use the infrastructure. In this respect Caroline is in some respects the radio equivalent of a heritage steam railway. Despite the fact that the site once transmitted BBC WS using a massive Tx beamed at Europe, and thus interference to co-channel users was hardly an issue, Ofcom would only grant an increase of power from 1kW to 4kW instead of the 10kW Caroline would have preferred. (I think the current Tx is capable of 25kW.) There is a plan to install solar panels at Orfordness to power the Tx.

However, with the removal of many stations, for the average listener, MW and LW are fast becoming forgotten wavebands. Many now listening to 5-Live, etc., will be doing it on DAB (or online). Add to that the interference that plagues AM listening and that modern radios if they still include AM are often poor performers on the bands and its demise is unstoppable.

Regarding the Ofcom attitude to AM, the cynic in me says that governments would prefer bands that allow broadcasts to leak across borders to fall into disuse and the facility to receive them disappear from sets but that takes us into the world of politics and further discussion OT for this forum.

[Phil__G]

How many of us started as a kid building a crystal set? This magical introduction to radio will soon be forgotten

[Paul_RK]

Years must have passed since I last stopped to listen to a MW/LW station that wasn't R4, R5 or Caroline, so I won't much notice further absences until those fall. We did have a fifteen-minute power cut one day last week, just long enough for me to think of turning on the nearest battery-powered sets, a large Soviet-era Integral and a 1957 Magnavox AW-100, for the joy of tuning up and down the bands and hearing Caroline sounding as AM radio used to sound before sources of interference multiplied.

Paul

[Radio Scotland]

Hope this is the right section to post this in (Probably not)

Just heard that from the 20th of January absolute radio are ceasing AM Broadcasts. Soon be nothing left to listen too, For me it leaves a few sports stations, Radio Scotland which is mostly political debates and Clyde 2 and they play the same songs over and over.

Would be inclined to say that most motorists still use AM due to it's large footprint, But maybe not due to the lack of stations

EDIT looks like i'm a bit late to the party

[stitch1]

Originally Posted by Cruisin Marine

Wrangler is quite right. There are more than enough capable people that could provide great service's on the AM/MW band at little cost.
There is nothing more magical than a decent AM signal properly done.
Perhaps there should be a group formed to lobby Ofcom to make it reality?

I really hope that does happen but realistically who (apart from us) now has the ability to listen to AM at home or in the car, my 3 year old car only has DAB and FM.

John

[electronicskip]

Originally Posted by Rich Woods

Looks like it’s pantry transmitters from now on.

Maybe Pirates will move in?

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by stitch1

I really hope that does happen but realistically who (apart from us) now has the ability to listen to AM at home or in the car, my 3 year old car only has DAB and FM.

I know nothing about cars (well, I see them going by...), but there are surely still millions of AM-capable radios in normal homes up and down the country, as well as a multitude of models available for purchase new. I've probably mentioned before the 1972-ish five band Waltham portable I bought from an otherwise radio-free stall on our flea market a few months back, whose seller remarked that she had half hoped nobody would buy it as it was better than their other household sets for listening to Caroline.

Paul

[Radio Scotland]

Maybe if we all chucked a few quid in the pot we could start absolute vintage radio

BTW the announcement says we won't be broadcasting on AM or MW From January the 20th, I Always thought AM and MW were one in the same, Never heard a FM broadcast on MW

[Junk Box Nick]

As an enthusiast I have always found the term ‘AM’ a bit awkward, especially that we have LW, MW (and SW). I’m pretty sure it was an umport from the US where, with only two bands, it became a way to distinguish the bands and on which one a particular station may be found: ie. WBGO-FM.

However, almost all people know what is meant AM these days and by the same token most will be unaware of the particular method of modulation.

It took me a while to realise that the AM setting on my car radio also included LW with LW and MW tuned in one sweep!