Friday, 8 August 2008
Yes i'm shure all of those Chinese factorys producing car radios by the
million are stopping production of radios with am in favor of net
"radio" just so that the handful of people who listen to Play radio Uk and
their ilk can listen in the car!!!
The future will be for multimode radios. FM, DAB, DRM, Internet, it
has to be that way. AM will still be on many new radios for a while
to come yet, but it will fade in its analogue format. Not brave
enough to say when, but I guess net capable radios will be common in
the home and car in less than 5 years, and be 'standard' in 3G mobiles as well.. Well, I guess portable net capability will need 3G (OR 4G?)
so the phone capabilty will probably be in any portable device.
I really do think that sadly AM has really had its day and while from
a nostalgic point of view a nice strong signal from an offshore
station would be fun. But I doubt that after the novelty wore off it would last, unless there were rich people of the ilk of those who kept BigL's AM on air for so long around.
I could be wrong, but I have the feeling that I sadly may not be.
Geoff
hi
how do i stop all these endless bulletins. Its driving me nuts!
than ks
Elija
Renegade Artists Present
Phone: 0031 621 287 638
In article <974ba79baccbf51c761d477a9dad7a0f@jiglu-wc>, ... (Neil Gates) wrote:
Yes i'm shure all of those Chinese factorys producing car radios by
the million are stopping production of radios with am in favor of
net "radio" just so that the handful of people who listen to Play
radio Uk and their ilk can listen in the car!!!
If the car companies don't buy a type of radio it dies as far as there cars are concerned. Normal people don't bother to change in-car system in new cars – so if AM isn't there it won't be there.
Eric
In article <...>, ... (Geoff) wrote:
I really do think that sadly AM has really had its day and while
from
a nostalgic point of view a nice strong signal from an offshore
station would be fun. But I doubt that after the novelty wore off
it would last, unless there were rich people of the ilk of those
who kept BigL's AM on air for so long around.I could be wrong, but I have the feeling that I sadly may not be.
As they say, you can take the man away from anoraks, but you can't take the anorak out of the man :-)
The above noted I do have the odd AM scan basically to find out how strong WS is on AM and/or Dutch stations – in the evening obviously.
I scan, listen and say Hmmmm and then move on – I don't really listen. Plus, if I have people in the car the chances are they will all complain as we go under the first high-power leccy lines – AM is killed.
The only slightly different thing is that there has been no constructive reason to go digital.
With terrestrial TV, once ITV-D got out of the way, Freeview gave people a reason to buy and it has worked – yes it has look at the figures. Digital satellite gave the same results and even with pay-TV you can see offering consumers a well planned digital service reduces churn, which means people like it.
Then look at the Net increases – the list just goes on.
Then consider that which people call the great music on AM – der, if I was listening to See Emily Play I'd rather hear it in CD quality, not a signal that means potentially I miss have the track. So if I had a choice of AM or nothing, I'd probably spend more time with my MP3 player plugged into the in-car system or damage the environment even more and make more CDs.
My point being, Anoraks love the love of AM – real people don't.
A car with AM on doesn't mean people will push the AM button. Manufacturing radio with AM on doesn't mean the car company will buy them. If they want to sell cars that appeal to 24–45 age group company car drivers the chances are it will have to have an MP3 plug-in, and today an internet connection may well make the difference when the sales-manager says 'Which Car Would You Like Chris?'. He will reply, for a huge range of reasons, that one guv.
SO if you want to encourage the next wave of listeners – Am isn't the way forward and isn't a long-term business strategy UNLESS, as I has said so many times, you are going for an older/talking audience. Then you may have 10+, but that's local and NOT a national station.
I doubt if this debate will ever cease on here until the radio spectrum is digital, then we'll have 'It Didn't Happen Like That In The Good Old Analogue Days'. Actually no it didn't. Signals didn't go away quite so quickly – they remained audible in-car even though the white noise on the signal was greater than the audio you tuned into hear. But Anoraks will carry on listening convincing themselves that above the white noise they can still hear The Crazy Frog, which anyone else around will tell them isn't the case.
Oh well
Eric
Eric Tesug <...> said:
As they say, you can take the man away from anoraks, but you can't take
the anorak out of the man :-)
Your whole comment, is very well constructed and thought out, I only clipped the above sentence because it sums up anoraks, we will listen to any form of signal because to us, radio is a passionate hobby.
In reality I don't know any "normal" person who listens to AM any more, my family can't even be in the same room if I am listening to an AM station, why should they? they have MP3 players, CD players, good quality speakers for their TV's etc. etc. Even my 75yr old mother, (who believe me has her own scanner!) and used to listen to me playing the offshore stations on radios at home, will now not consider listening to anything less than FM quality signals through good speakers.
My young nieces and nephews (12 to 25) don't even know what AM is! when explained to them they consider it "History" "the past" just like valve radios and gas lighting in the house....ie: it is what you HAD to have then....but now you don't. Things have moved on.
The sooner we accept this "revelation" the better, let's embrace the technology we have now and take the creativity that was once on AM into new realms. I am not saying EVERYTHING new is better, but move forward, not backwards.
Terry
PS. DON'T bring SW into the equation, SW is only acceptable when NOTHING else is available ie: times of disaster or war, when "anything" is better than nothing.
I will now duck down behind the parapet for safety :)
In article <81254890f629bf09458b460a47f89757@jiglu-wc>, ... (Terry Williams) wrote:
The sooner we accept this "revelation" the better, let's embrace
the technology we have now and take the creativity that was once on
AM into new realms. I am not saying EVERYTHING new is better, but
move forward, not backwards.
I've just had to sit down Terry, this coupled with all the other news I've received to is making 8 a great number!!!!
Eric
Terry Williams <...> said:
In reality I don't know any "normal" person who listens to AM any more,
my family can't even be in the same room if I am listening to an AM
station, why should they? they have MP3 players, CD players, good
quality speakers for their TV's etc. etc.
I'm not sure I agree with you that AM is dead, but AM music radio has no chance of surviving. I do listen to AM mainly TalkSport and Five Live for their content, given the choice between a clear AM signal and a DAB one I found I choose the later. I see from this report http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/grootnieuwsradio-will-probably-leave-mediumwave-on-1-september that another Dutch AM transmission is closing. My question is who do you think will be next to close their AM transmissions in the UK. Perhaps this should be a poll who will close AM first
BBC Local
Gold
Five Live
TalkSport
Radio Four
Virgin (TIML)
Other (BBC Asian Network, Spectrum, Sunrise etc...)
Steve
SRE & Britain Radio now testing on stream
Stephen Sullivan <...> said:
I'm not sure I agree with you that AM is dead, but AM music radio has no
chance of surviving. I do listen to AM mainly TalkSport and Five Live
for their content, given the choice between a clear AM signal and a DAB
one I found I choose the later.
Agreed Steve, I had not considered just speech stations, although I prefer FM and think LBC is a better sound quality on FM than listening to its sister news station on AM. The ear can accept speech on its own in quite a poor quality as long as the content is interesting (Think of some news reports from war torn lands) Music on the other hand is a different matter altogether
Alan Milewczyk <...> said:
Swinging Radio EnglandURL?Alan
Hi Alan. The URL is http://www.nowthatsradio.co.uk/ The webstreams can you find if you scroll down to under on the website. Greetings of Nico from Gouda, the Netherlands.
In article <78AB41BFFFA74EE0A969CFB96A6C8A91@video2>, ... (Alan Milewczyk) wrote:
SRE & Britain Radio
http://www.nowthatsradio.co.uk/
Enjoy Mr Soulman
Dave Martin <...> said:
For 5 days starting on the 11th of August, W.N.K.R. will be remembering the 41st anniversary of the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act.
Programmes will be streamed over the internet and Thursdays shows will be in real time, It will be like you were tuning around the band on the day it's self!
You can find the schedule here.
I'll remind you all closer to the time, in the mean time don't forget to tune in at the weekend.
Dave
Just a little reminder about next week, I told you I would!
Also this weekend programs are on the stream now and we will be on 1395 from tomorrow afternoon.(might be before, you'll have to check.)
Dave
Eric Tesug <...> said:
In article <974ba79baccbf51c761d477a9dad7a0f@jiglu-wc>,
... (Neil Gates) wrote:
Yes i'm shure all of those Chinese factorys producing car radios by
the million are stopping production of radios with am in favor of
net "radio" just so that the handful of people who listen to Play
radio Uk and their ilk can listen in the car!!!If the car companies don't buy a type of radio it dies as far as there
cars are concerned. Normal people don't bother to change in-car system in
new cars – so if AM isn't there it won't be there.Eric
The point is Eric it IS there and it will still be there in ten years time.....I will remind you of this post then when I am proved right!
Eric Tesug said:
My point being, Anoraks love the love of AM – real people don't.
I have two quite separate approaches to the AM debate. Firstly, from a 'non-anorak' perspective, I use AM the most, because for me it is the most practical. I can get dozens of stations, some from near, some from far- I can carry my pocket sized transistor (that cost me a tenner!) anywhere and unlike FM, the signal doesn't disappear as soon as you walk away from the set and I don't need a flamin' 2 foot aerial (which is a bit annoying when on bicycle!). So- if you could replace this neat, low tech set up that meets my needs perfectly, I guess I'd be equally happy- say with a mobile phone that could pick up web stations (if you can find me one for a tenner, even better!)
And yes, sigh.... my second approach is, I have to admit pure, anorak fuelled nostalgia for AM. I'll miss the appearence of Radio Banana every night at 8 CET for example. No future UK based 14 year old will ever get to learn the Tunisian national anthem by heart as the station sharing 963Khz with Caroline in the early 80's shut down each night or will they telephone a bemused Portuguese radio station employee in Lisbon and tell them to leave the frequency they are using immediately as it's interfering with Caroline. There'll be no battle between Algeria and the Irish on long wave, no distant low power Irish pirates, no 'bloody hell it's Radio Somerset' moments as they mysteriously pop up as the sun sets (on 1566 or thereabouts) plus a thousand other little delights.
Sad though it is- I'd miss all of that. I'll be 40 (bloody 40 for feck's sake) in two weeks,and I sincerely hope I'm wrong but I've just got a hunch that radio wise the next 40 years are going to be a lot less interesting than the last. As Jim Royal would have sad, web radio my arse!
Regards to all
Giles.
The point is Eric it IS there and it will still be there in ten years
time.....I will remind you of this post then when I am proved right!
Hmmm, we'll see. I'd agree a few old Ford Cortinas may still have AM radios in 10 years time but the listeners will be long gone.
Maybe you should look at the reasons why Caroline was considered a pioneer in the 1960's. It was doing something new!! Not trying to go backwards to Longwave radio.
The future's bright – the future's digital
Eric
myhosting.com – Premium Microsoft® Windows® and Linux web and application hosting – http://link.myhosting.com/myhosting
Eric Tesug <...> said:
In article <81254890f629bf09458b460a47f89757@jiglu-wc>,
... (Terry Williams) wrote:
The sooner we accept this "revelation" the better, let's embrace
the technology we have now and take the creativity that was once on
AM into new realms. I am not saying EVERYTHING new is better, but
move forward, not backwards.I've just had to sit down Terry, this coupled with all the other news
I've received to is making 8 a great number!!!!Eric
It is ok having new technology Eric but the fact remains that NO-ONE IS LISTENING, there is no incentive for your ordinary Joe public radio listener to switch to digital as there is nothing there that they can't get on am and fm !!!!
Neil Gates <...> said:
It is ok having new technology Eric but the fact remains that NO-ONE IS
LISTENING, there is no incentive for your ordinary Joe public radio
listener to switch to digital as there is nothing there that they can't
get on am and fm !!!!
In the last RAJAR, didn't they report 6.4 million listening via DAB to BBC programming, let alone those listening to commercial brands? Another 4 million were using other digital platforms (I assume that means Sky / Freesat / Freeview / Internet) so I don't think it's correct to say 'nobody' is listening, people clearly are.
As for what you can get on DAB that you can't get on AM or FM, there's one heck of a lot. Then when you include the 'other' digital platforms the choice becomes phenominal.
Out of interest, I can listen to Play Radio in the car, walking down the street, or in my house. To me it is no different to chosing any other 'radio' station. Heck, if I want to punish myself I can listen to Caroline Maidstone or Big L Frinton in exactly the same way!
I'm thinking the anti-digital argument is a bit like the anti-CD argument; 10 years too late!
Noticed the lack of post by Chris lately and also his comments over at England's England http://christopherengland.wordpress.com/
Whats he upto?
Dave.
Dave Martin <...> said:
Noticed the lack of post by Chris lately and also his comments over at England's England http://christopherengland.wordpress.com/
Whats he upto?
Dave.
Bloody hell! He resurfaced as I typed that!!
Dave
