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London pirate radio - news and discussion

On DAB I really recommend Mi Soul, as I say especially on a Sunday, and especially on a Sunday evening/night...good shows in the week too
original KISS FM Crew basically....
 
ska invita said:
Not quite pirate but NTS have secured a DAB license in London I just read. Great station
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Good news, but it's a small-scale DAB trail for initially 9 months (with the possibility of extension upto 2 years). As part of this latest Ofcom endeavour (Rinse are on it too).

I'm not sure where Ofcom are going with this. Their original plan was to get as much of the BBC and commercial operators off of FM onto DAB, in order to free up FM frequencies for lower powered, community and alternative music stations. The worst issue is that the BBC have a historical 'frequency spread' due to poor past FM planning where R1-R4 hog a larger part of the FM dial than they really need to. Meanwhile, we've seen big groups like Bauer and Global buying up the original crop of independent local radio (ILRs) over the last 15 years and rebrand them as bland identikit stations.

Are Ofcom now thinking that more local/lower-power DAB is where some of the community and alternative stations should go rather than FM? They don't seem to still have much of a coherent radio strategy whatsoever, and as said on this thread, Ofcom are so conservative in their thinking despite all of the research they've undertaken in recent years about radio listening especially in major cities/urban centres.

Rinse have proven they can do FM broadcasting and very well, so its time to look at getting them towards a proper Londonwide license. The primary DAB multiplexes are presently replicating most of what's on FM and in a right state, yet, they're putting stations onto a new small-scale DAB trial instead? We've watched lots of independent radio stations up and down the country get turned into bland branded ones with networked output. They're still dilly-dallying around with the FM-DAB switchover. We've still got BBC radio frequency spread. Ofcom: you haven't got a clue!
 
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stethoscope said:
Good news, but it's a small-scale DAB trail for initially 9 months (with the possibility of extension upto 2 years). As part of this latest Ofcom endeavour (Rinse are on it too).

I'm not sure where Ofcom are going with this. Their original plan was to get as much of the BBC and commercial operators off of FM onto DAB, in order to free up FM frequencies for lower powered, community and alternative music stations.
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Yes, that was my understanding, too. :confused:


Ofcom: you haven't got a clue!
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Well on the strength of the above, you might be right.
 
Has mi-soul got a national DAB license then? Cos I can get that where I am (just outside the m25 in Surrey) but annoyingly not Rinse.

Just re scanned after catching up on this thread.
 
Mi-Soul is now London-wide on DAB (London 1 multiplex).

As for NTS, Rinse, etc. I don't know how much of London this 'small scale' DAB trial covers - I presume a few miles radius as per their FM license coverage? Which seems pointless to me really.
 
Dan U said:
Has mi-soul got a national DAB license then? Cos I can get that where I am (just outside the m25 in Surrey) but annoyingly not Rinse.
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No. Mi Soul is on the London 2 mulitplex. Very technical, but basically covers London *and* a few bits outside. Similar coverage to Capital on 95.8 FM or Heart on 106.2. If you can get those two on FM, you will *probably* be able to get Mi Soul on a DAB set.

As Stethscope says above, this Rinse trial appears to be low powered and local. Which isn't really DABs strong suit.

All the techie stuff here, if you are sad http://www.frequencyfinder.org.uk/DAB_Multiplexes.pdf

If you are not, ask me cos I am :D
 
ska invita said:
Yet to pick up rinse or nts on dab in brockley... I'm not sure the dab signal has gone live yet?
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The web site appears to suggest not. Annoyingly I can't post a link from this ancient phone but try googling udab London and I think it's the second result.
 
ska invita said:
Yet to pick up rinse or nts on dab in brockley... I'm not sure the dab signal has gone live yet?
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It's all a bit baffling. Ofcom press release came out about 'small scale DAB' last June announcing the groups/stations that were awarded licenses. This bit is interesting, it places the onus on the applicant to launch their 'small scale' multiplex:
Ofcom said:
The stations are expected to begin broadcasting on DAB digital radio from the summer for a period of nine months. Each successful applicant now has 12 weeks to launch their multiplex. Ofcom will then work with Government to decide on the next steps for the new approach to radio broadcasting.
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This suggests they should have already begun, yet I can't find anything that says for sure that any of these stations/multiplexes have done so?!
 
Stumbled upon a thread on digitalspy that says the U.Dab (operators of the London trial) commenced around Autumn last year - which reading seems to suggest that only a few have been able to pick up particularly well (if at at all). It all seems to have passed by with little real fanfare or anyone knowing it was happening - perhaps the stations were reluctant to really promote it as it was a trial? :confused:
 
stethoscope said:
Stumbled upon a thread on digitalspy that says the U.Dab (operators of the London trial) commenced around Autumn last year - which reading seems to suggest that only a few have been able to pick up particularly well (if at at all). It all seems to have passed by with little real fanfare or anyone knowing it was happening - perhaps the stations were reluctant to really promote it as it was a trial? :confused:
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It still seems to be on, with patchy coverage. UDAB London trial - Page 4 - Radio - Digital Spy Forums
 
I realise it's a trial, but still just seems a missed opportunity. It's like these things seem almost set up to fail, so when no one can get a reliable signal on DAB (or low power FM for that matter), they'll give up on it and go back to listening online again.
 
IMG_20160326_110338~2-480x640.jpg Just dug this out of a cupboard. Last time I got it out was in a vain attempt to convince my kids that I used to be cool, having given up on trying to convince them that I am still cool long ago.

Not sure what will happen to the London music scene now YouTube seems to be the music listening choice of so many teenagers. To begin the Easter holidays both my teenage daughters had friends round. All London natives but with families from Honduras, Somalia, Nigeria, India, China, as well as white and mixed race. Some Atheist, along with Christian and Muslim and all listening to and fans of K-Pop. I retreated to the kitchen with some headphones.IMG_20160326_110338~2-480x640.jpg
 
Maybe my kids a right as I can't upload a photo without getting it wrong and putting it my post twice.
 
Anju said:
Not sure what will happen to the London music scene now YouTube seems to be the music listening choice of so many teenagers.
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I think the idea of local music scenes has been on the wane for a while. Ironically just as the technology comes along to make it easy for someone in the Welsh valleys or the remote coast of Northumbria to 'tune in' to pirates from London, or Manchester, so those local scenes have waned in significance.
 
LeslieB said:
I think the idea of local music scenes has been on the wane for a while. Ironically just as the technology comes along to make it easy for someone in the Welsh valleys or the remote coast of Northumbria to 'tune in' to pirates from London, or Manchester, so those local scenes have waned in significance.
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Yes, just like many things there are positive and negative aspects to changes but I am not sure whether the end result will be more diverse and inventive music or the exact opposite.
 
First up your tshirt is really cool and I think you're cool too ;P
(i still havent managed to upload a photo from phone)

About the globalisation of pop and killing of local scenes, yes that is a trend but humans are clever and whenever a pendulum swings too far people notice and try and correct it and swing it back the other way... especially in the arts I think....like third generation Muslim girls reembracing head scarves etc...

As to kids music tastes I think pre teens are resilient to anything too good, same way they like sweets. Sounds like k pop is a social thing as much as anything to them.
 
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