The Government & the DAB industry are lying FM being switched off in 2015

18th June 2009

There’s more chance of President Ahmadinejad becoming Sir Alan’s next Apprentice than there is of any FM stations being switched off by the end of 2015. That date has simply been fabricated by the dishonest DAB industry, and the ~~Backward Britain~~ Digital Britain report simply repeated it without any verification. Not that Stephen Carter has any problems with lying, as he was caught admitting the following to a fellow NTL executive about what he told investors just prior to NTL going bankrupt with £12 billion debts:

“What I tell them is nine-tenths bullshit and one-tenth selected facts.”

The class action court case against Carter and NTL was settled out of court. Nuff said.

Radio's digital switchover date has zero credibility, and they have simply plucked a date out of thin air that sounds like it isn't too far away in the hope that it will lead to an increase in DAB sales now, and it is also to persuade manufacturers that they need to urgently add DAB to existing audio products that currently only include analogue radio.

Ed Richards, the chief exec of Ofcom, made the following quotes just three weeks ago on the subject of setting a date for FM to be switched off:

"I could give you a date now but it is meaningless without a credible plan to get there"

"When people say we must have a date, it is another way of saying we need a credible plan that gives us a date. It is better to get that right and have a sense of determination and urgency to get that right rather than pluck a meaningless date out of the air"

"There is no point in doing something that the audience would regard as a disaster."

(my emphasis added)

For once, I concur with what Ofcom has to say. And remember that Ofcom has always been a massive cheerleader for DAB, so if Ed Richards thought it would be possible to set a date with any degree of accuracy today then he would have said so, no question.

The reason why he knew that it's impossible to set a date today is the extreme lack of progress that DAB has made. Only 8.5 million DAB receivers have been sold since the BBC relaunched DAB in 2002, whereas Ofcom estimates that there are 120 - 150 million FM devices currently in-use.

It is quite simply yet another lie from the desperate DAB industry that has a long track record of lying to consumers. And it's hardly news that the Government lies, unless there are WMD in Iraq and there is no more boom and bust.

Comments

FM sounds better than DAB+.

By Roy Sandgren

22nd June 2009, 21:30

However, analouge audio is better than all kinds of digital audio.FM is enough in quality.
DAB+ perhaps reach FM, but not dab only.
DRM in the 26 MHz of 2 x 20 kHz is even better than dab+.
Let the big boys apply to a licence of nat. or reg. dab+ and release their fm-frequency's to local radio stations.
DRM to regional and local radio in MW.Let us use all spectrum of the broadcasting bnds all all kinds of modulation. Freedom is the rigth even broadcasting.
DRM+ is the best...

obsolete radios

By Russell Hedges

25th June 2009, 21:27

to make at least 20 million good radios obsolete in 6 years time seems to me to be a crime against the listener. By all means put the new services on DAB and then everyone has a choice. It is not as if 88 to 108 Mhz is going to be sold off for some useful purpose, no it is going to be used for very local and community based radio. Very worthy I am sure but not at the cost of losing national radio in nationwide good quality stereo.

obsolete radios

By Russell Hedges

26th June 2009, 12:51

I ment to say 200 million radios in my comment.

DAB is dead long live FM

By Martyn

29th July 2009, 9:29

There are so many reasons FM should not be turned off as it is certainly not for the customers' benefit. When Radio 1 moved from MW the quality was much improved; coverage was excellent; FM radios were readily available at the same/similar cost of MW and could even be made from simple kits and consumed no extra power.

DAB on the other hand is lower quality; consumes 4 times as much power (aren't we supposed to be greeener?) on receive and I'm sure a lot more for transmitting too; has poorer coverage; receivers cost a lot more; are very complex (less green again). As the majority of mobile phones now include FM radios the medium is extremely portable - are the mobile manufacturers going to release DAB phones soon?

By Chris Wyatt

25th August 2009, 2:59

Ha, I guessed this was the case, I'm not surprised at all. Misleading consumers as usual.

By steveaitch

25th August 2009, 14:19

Someone should tell the gadjet show 24th August not to promote government DAB plans as workable fact. I've just sold a DAB radio reception is rubbish. When you auto tune it tells you all these stations then when you pick one you get message "no ensemble". With FM analogue tuning you can select the station with no problem. Let those who want to play with their lovely new toy and those who don't can listen to FM which isn't broken and didn't need fixing.

FM Switchoff 2015 ?

By Pete Nadin

29th August 2009, 15:09

If you drive from Llandudno to Cardiff today you can pick up most of the national BBC Radio stations on FM or AM in the case of 5 Live, throughout the entire journey, including the valleys, albeit with weaker hissier and sometimes distorted signals/reception in places.

If FM is switched off, however, in order to provide similar DAB coverage the BBC would go bankrupt with the cost of the additional DAB transmitters needed to cover the same areas. DAB tends only to work by line of sight. It is all or nothing with DAB. Weak signal = NO SIGNAL.

In any case most BBC DAB channels have such a low bit rate these days that switching FM off will result in inferior broadcasts in mono anyway. BBC Radio 4 tends to revert to mono when 5 Live Sports Extra or BBC Parliament Radio is on the air. More radio channels are available through Freeview & Sartellite in better quality then in portable or static DAB mode (BBC Radio 7 has never broadcast in stereo on DAB, but has always been in stereo on Freeview, Freesat & Sky). Why can't the government open up more of the available muliplexes on DAB such that more stations can broadcast in higher quality, without the need for new DAB+ radios, when the DAB radios are not that old. Surely there is spare capacity anyway now that Channel 4 radio stations have been axed?

Why do politicians find it so hard to understand the limitations of digital radio even when told in plain unambiguous english !!

I hope FM is here to stay. It currently broadcasts the BBC World Service overnight on Radio 4 in perfect stereo sound and not lowly 64 kbps in mono on DAB, compared with the least listened to national BBC station Radio 3 with a quality of 192 kbps. Whover planned DAB certainly did not have his full brain in gear.

Peter Nadin, Cheshire

FM

By Glenn

30th August 2009, 16:55

Very relieved to discover that others are concerned enough about the threat to destroy FM/VHF radio, and have taken the trouble to set up sites like www.savefm.org. The plan has no real benefit, unless you're an investor in digital radio broadcasting. In addition to the increase in power requirements for DAB sets, what's going to happen to all the millions of FM/AM radios in good working condition, from all over the country? I have five sets in my own house. The Government/Carter seem to want them all to end up in landfil

The whole thing is a dreadful con. Save FM!

FM channels ARE switched off

By Miriam

3rd September 2009, 20:04

In Norway, they have switched several FM channels off already, forcing people to buy a DAB radio if they want to continue listening to their favorite programs.

Norwegian DAB in trouble

By Norwegian

6th September 2009, 18:50

One should NOT use Norway as a selling point for DAB - that is nonsense.

The public broadcaster in Norway, NRK, has moved ONE minor channel to DAB-only this july. This is a channel for classic music ("Alltid klassisk"), a tiny one. NRK did want to move more popular channels, including the news-channel: "Alltid nyheter", but the government blocked the plan. Our minister, Trond Giske, however, suported moving this particulary channel, as it frees spectrum for local radio (really needed). But he has shown no interest in forcing DAB before the market itself deem it as an good alternative, including the comercial and local stations.

Norway has not set any switchover date, but have said it will take longer than 2016 in any case (new licences given until 2016). There is a new report due for 2010, but basicly nothing is changed since the one published in 2005. Since FM is important as an emergency backup network, it will be extremly hard to get a switch of date. The sale of DAB is down, and is about 2% av total radio sales. The operator company, Norkring, has blocked more coverage, since they do not think the market will pay any more. NRK diagrees, and last friday co-founded another company which aims to operate the DAB-network (Digtialradio Norge AS). They also founded a new company for DMB Mobile-TV trials. However, it is a small trial with only 4 transmitters at low power.

-The big problem in Norway is the total lack of terminals/radios
-Coverage: Today limited to cities and central areas, the rest sporadic. Total of 80%, but maybe only 50% of the land area. FM has 99,95% (!), apporx 97% land area. Without a switch of date, NRK do not want to pay any more for DAB.
-Coverage range: With high mountains it will be needed something like 600-1000 smaller stations, in addition to about 60 high powered ones. FM today has 1111 transmitters for the main P1 channel! The frequency around 200MHz has other charcteristics, leading to lower signal-levels in forrest-areas, valleys and mountain areas. It will be really expensive to build the needed amount of transmitters. The northern parts of Norway is severly challenging!
-Local radio do not have financial strength to join a multiplex. The 550 transmitters are operated by the stations themselves, not a commercial company. This makes them extremly cheap. A lot of them are also super-local, not having any interest to send into a large area. It is estimated that 40-80% of local stations will shut down if they have to move to DAB. The operator of DAB, Telenor Norkring, agrees. So does the governments report from 2005 and 2007. The only long term solutions might be DRM+, but that require that the majority of the recivers are DRM+
-NRK sometimes raises DRM and DRM+ as an alternative to reach the mandatory 99,95% (!) coverage requirement. However, just a handfull of DRM sets have been sold. DRM+ was out from ETSI 4 days ago. There are no radios for DRM+, they are not included in the WorldDMB profiles. I guess that is an issue in UK as well
-There is no real plan to solve all of the above, so it seems Norway just will wait for X years, like everyone else.

Sweden have setteled for DAB+, maybe DRM+ in addition, but will not should down FM for a long, long time (beyond 2020).

its not looking good chaps

By howard

2nd October 2009, 16:39

A long standing chum of mine who is very well connected as far as the powers that be are concerned told me the other day that our beloved FM radio days ( national )are, in fact, truly numbered.

He has no reason to lie and to my knowledge never has done. More to the point, he doesn't care for radio particularly. He has no axe to grind either way.

I was talking about how well my lovely little collection of old Hacker radio's sound particularly on Radio 4 FM and his quiet but disturbing comment was, 'enjoy it while you still can because without doubt, its going to be local FM stations only within five years or so.

I hope he's wrong but as I have mentioned, he's very well connected if you know what I mean and a man of few words to boot.

I just wish I had not heard the above at all.

Best regards to all Radio 4 fans ( in FM of course! )

Howard
Essex
UK

DAB vs DAB+

By IanT

4th January 2010, 18:03

Would someone be able to tell me if this Government plans to go down the DAB or the DAB+ route. Cos I am wondering that if we buy a DAB receiver will it be out of date as soon as we do?
I would love to know just who is driving this technology? I'll have a penny bet that he has shares in the radio companies.

DAB radio NO thanks

By Morris

23rd March 2010, 17:21

I have tried emailing my MP for years on Broadband matters and DAB coverage here in Wales... You will not be surprised all I get back is how wonderful the amount of money the private companies are spending to "Give us what they tell us we want, which is good for us" Yes it's keep spending and throw away out of date equipment.. Total madness but that's not the point it keeps companies going.... In 1997 I was apart of a BT fibre optic over lye planning group for south Wales to provide optical to all local cabinets and even the all new housing estates. This was a Labour agreed policy with BT, soon as they were in power all bets were off. It was not fare on other companies, so BT was stopped from upgrading their local network. Today we are in a real mess all over UK due to poor government intervention with short sighted advice or as I think backhanders to the party, from a reliable managerial friend in the industry. DAB will go the some way for certain, with no consideration for the millions of FM listeners that don't live in the large cities..........

So this is progress

By Graham

3rd July 2010, 21:15

1. Place a big arial about 20ft in the air and connect.
2. Switch on and wait a few moments until it comes on.
3. If you can, tune in to your favourite station.
4 Sit back and enjoy.

This was radio and TV sixty years ago.

Sounds familiar doesn't it

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