These so called mobile phone tower's are Knott for mobile phones , they are silence weapons for Quiet wars they admit radiation waves to give people cancer and are scattered everywhere around the world
AM radio (both on LW and MW) is the only mode of communication suitable for emergencies. All digital radios require some type of signal processing; even FM requires a discriminator. Only AM can be demodulated with a simple diode. I believe that we reached a point where we need the government to legislate to keep a minimum of infrastructure. Anthony
My country, Romania, is one of the biggest MW broadcasters in Europe. I know this trend of switching off AM stations will slowly reach us too, but it will not be as fast as many think, and I am happy for that. Here lots of people are still listening to AM and FM stations, and DAB transmitters are almost inexistent because people do not want to buy DAB radios which are inferior in many aspects and more expensive. The question is, why bother switching everything to DAB when AM/FM is still pretty good? DAB also covers an extremely small area in comparison with the capabilities of an AM radio. In an emergency/blackout situation analogue radio could be crucial. And then there is the case of Internet Radio Stations. To be honest, I do not know a single person who is actively listening to a radio station on the internet. Everyone uses their radio at home or mainly in the car to listen to a specific station.
I listen only to internet radio for maybe a decade now. At home or in car via phone and BT. I do not have classic radio receiver at home (if you do not count my triband handheld Alinco transceiver) and have no idea if my car even have some radio presets saved... But I am pretty sure I am an exception. And I do not know a single person who would have DAB capable radio at home, but some might have a car which have it. But I still think the analog stations should be kept running, at least for possible emergency purposes. But it might be expensive, just recently one of our biggest AM sites was also decommissioned here in CZ.
My understanding is that DAB and DAB+ are attractive to state public broadcasters because these systems were designed so that each transmitter could carry multiple programs and so that the people running the multiplex transmitter could set up each of the "channels" on a multiplex to have what they considered the most appropriate bitrate for the programming. For instance, a classical music service could be allocated a high bitrate for high (subjective) audio quality, while a service carrying news or other speech programming could be allocated a much lower bitrate. Broadcasting multiple programs from a single mediumwave or FM transmitter site is more challenging. In these scenarios, each channel has its own transmitter, and the outputs of the transmitters are combined into one antenna (or in the case of mediumwave, sometimes an array of towers). The RF combiner system often ends up needing to handle tens to hundreds of kilowatts of RF power, so it is large and expensive. In the United States, there is a digital broadcast standard whose VHF variant supports multiplexing. The mediumwave version only carries a single program, since the bitrate is rather low. This technology has been on the air since about 2005, but the public isn't widely aware of it, and the receivers are somewhat hard to come by. As real estate prices continue to climb, there is an increasing use of master antenna systems on FM and consolidation of facilities on mediumwave (often with severe nighttime coverage loss due to broadcasters having to change their night operation from a multi-tower array to a single tower and very low transmitter power).
Radio Romania is my favourite shortwave broadcast station. They are the last of the old guard of European shortwave stations which still retain the old format and the proper interval signal. They do some nice English language programming, some Romanian interest stories and folk music and they even have a half hour on radio and DX and reception reports, which is brilliant!
Talksport was, besides BBC World Service, the only UK radio station that I could hear clearly in Finland with basic Sony portable dual deck cassette radio with its standard telescope antenna in late 1990s. It was especially clear on winter nights.
The beauty of AM radio, especially here in Australia, you could listen to interstate radio stations on the other side of the country. Some of those stations were quite interesting.
@@jasond2333 I picked up a Seattle Station using the am radio in our Chevy pickup truck about two am one night while downloading fuel from a barge where I was living in the Aleutian Islands Of Alaska. Seattle is roughly 1800 miles away from where I got the signal
I must live in a dead area because I can never pick up any AM stations on MW or LW. I don't know why they have to keep cutting all these analogue services. I used to love going through the stations when I was little, and there was quite a lot. Now, it's just a few boring FM stations. Can't even pick up much on SW any more either.
For a distant listener, switching off just four transmitters among a plethora of more-powered ones would mean nothing, it would be unnoticeable. However, some of these sites are/were shared with other stations, and closing any of its services automatically means increase in costs for the rest of the users. So if a certain transmitter site ends up with only one station left, then, well... you can be certain its days are numbered. A good thing at least is that TalkSport wants to retain the highest-powered outlets. Regarding the overall fate of AM broadcasting, I think governments should propose a sort of a minimal network of LW, MW or SW transmitters to carry at least one radio station essential for keeping the citizens informed when all else fails. Or at least keep these transmitters on standby. Remember: we're living in the time of war, and we don't know what future brings!
Not sure if you know, but Absolute radio did the same in 2018, and look what happened now This is just preparation for the shutdown, if ofcom would allow it and not fine them, they would close it all now But because they will receive a fine if they do so, they will do this slowly :(
@@DXingSlovenija It is. There is no doubt to it. Back in 2018, Absolute Radio did put its proposed cuts (which, remember, not only involved closures of some sites but also reducing power on others) to consultation, just like what TalkSport is doing now. But their wording sounded more like a threat - they put it clearly that if Ofcom didn't agree, they would close the entire network altogether. TalkSport's approach is different, but also Ofcom is even more likely to agree than before, as they actually make clear to *all* MW users that they *should* consider migrating to alternative broadcast platforms. As if they accepted the reality of AM becoming dead. I really fear Radio Caroline would become the only station left in entire UK. The country of so many great stations, big and small, on almost every MW frequency 😭
@@ArnieDXer you know, I ask myself why analog, why exacly would analog be so bad Our ears are analog (we cannot make them digital), and its not like crystal sound (or other marketing nonsense) matters to most people anyway (just look at the equipment they use to listen to it (tiny phone speakers, crappy headphones) DAB can be as bad or even worse them AM (low bitrate, low protection level), and when money is involved people wont care for crystal sound, they will just lower the bitrate until possible just to fit another station in And then there is the noise problem, well AM makes noise that leds and swichmode supply produce heard, but instead of actualy fixing the noise we just use it as an excuse that AM is bad (noise is bad, not AM) I just dont know what to do sometimes, how to convince people Even if I show them this recording of how good AM can be to them: ua-cam.com/video/YMAPKTnJtnA/v-deo.html They are confused and forget about it in the next hour anyway People just think that they are doing something good but at the end its the same anyway (old people die, new people that didnt have expirience with AM dont care (because why would they, how could they) So much for progress, instead of making AM sound good (like adding Stereo), adding AMSS to it (yes like rds on am), getting rid of the noise (that AM exposes), and making the transmitters more efficiant, we shut it down
I have to admit to mostly being off DXing now that the internet has pretty much any radio station across the globe with good fidelity and no fading. I still listen to a bit of shortwave to hear number stations occasionally, but that's about it
Personally, I won't miss the closure of Talksport, since I've never used it. However, I am saddened about the loss of Absolute on AM. Maybe this will result in either community stations getting AM licenses, or people setting up their own low power AM transmitters to cover their town/village etc.
This'll never happen in the UK, but reusing these MW frequencies for DRM would be a good option. There's a DRM trial happening in Australia at the moment where the national broadcaster is using one of its old AM frequencies (747kHz). Whilst there's next to no interest being publicly shown for DRM over here (probably because commercial radio backed the DAB+ system, which has proven totally unsuitable for much of Australia), there appears to be fair bit of industry interest behind the scenes. The lack of combined DAB+/DRM receivers and car importers drinking the commercial radio Kool-Aid probably means that DRM won't be mainstream down here any time soon, but I wouldn't be surprised if ABC and SBS eventually offer full-time DRM services to regional areas via repurposed ABC Radio National AM frequencies (with said Radio National services moved to FM).
Over the last few years I've been enjoying DAB/+ in my car, it really is convenient and definitely the future, but there are certain situations when I drive rurally where the AM radio performs better. Also in a doomsday scenario, a trusty AM radio consumes a tiny amount of power compared to these power hungry DAB chipsets that don't really perform great on batteries. Hopefully FM radio sticks around for alot longer.
In a doomsday scenario, cobbling together an AM transmitter is not that hard, sourcing etc. high tech silicon for a DAB transmitter is a definite show stopper.
I'll switch to digital radio when they put signals out with a decent bandwidth. Which the UK won't as for some reason the folks in charge want to squeeze as many stations on each transmitter as possible, even if it sounds like junk.
I fear this will become common in Australia as well, especially with the lower powered private AM radio stations. Hopefully our national broadcaster (ABC) will continue to transmit on AM for some time to come. During times of emergency when power fails and internet access becomes unreliable, there is is comforting to listen to AM radio for news on the situation knowing that it only needs the ionosphere to reach your radio.
Maybe, or another government funding cut will see AM go the way of Radio Australia, RIP It would be good if AM was promoted as the go to thing for emergencies - bush fires, floods etc, way easier to keep running than piles of mobile phone base stations.
Yes, Shortwave, AM, FM and TV too. I read that Switzerland has ended most Over The Air TV, and Norway has done that with FM We have real problem with the FCC in the US reducing the number of UHF channels available meaning stations must combine compressed transmissions on a channel, for which they were paid millions of dollars, to make frequency spectrum available for wireless services, who benefit at the expense of Over The Air viewers. Ray W2CH NH
ATSC 3.0 would help alleviate the lack of UHF channels, but the FCC has not mandated its rollout so adoption is very low. TV manufacturers have pushed back against putting ATSC 3.0 receivers in their 4K TV models.
did you notice that electric cars dont have AM RADIO ? The reason is that the battery system creates RF noise. This makes it hard for CB & HAM RADIO operators also.
How about taking some of the unused AM band and create a low cost license and let the pirates have at it ? They seem to have a lot better music and other programs than most of the big dollar conglomerates .
In my country AM had also a downsize but we are a small country (Portugal)... But we have a long story on SW, LW and AM coming back from the first Europe Free Radio back in the late 40's run by the Americans. The Portuguese state had proper SW for all the Portuguese ex colonies in Africa and Asia but since the 90's everything went down with new technologies we still have AM on one public and one private frequencies but maybe not for long... BTW thanks for your great work... 73 from CT1CVE (retired...)
Hello Lewis. I am having trouble receiving my Irish radio station, rte radio 1. It is the premier radio station, and for the last 8 weeks or so, it sounds like there is some kind of jamming going on... . I live almost in the centre of Ireland. Can you give me any idea what might be going on?
Realistically it's probably interference from a whole host of things such as Powerline network plug, LED light bulbs, noisy switchmode power supplies etc.
AM radio is very close to reaching a tipping point for a bunch of reasons. Sound quality has always been the bane of AM radio. Even with people talking, listen on FM is much more enjoyable than AM. Listening online is another alternative, and that is also at a high audio quality. AM loses out a all along the line. The real tipping point has started with companies like Tesla, who just are not putting AM receivers in the car anymore. Cars are one of the last bastions of radio listening, as it is free to listen when compared to using data for online services and such. When the AM stops being a standard feature in cars (and it won't be long), perhaps replaced by DAB or what have you, then you will see AM rapidly fall off a cliff. All it will take is a couple of the largest car companies to drop AM and the party is over. Honestly, considering the size of the transmitter sites and the amount of power required to run them, it really is a no brainer. AM has been a good friend, but like the rotary dial phone or coal chutes, they have had their day and it's pretty much over.
The Am radio can be a life saver in emergencies. Look at Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria all power lost through-out the island. No cell-phones internet and FM stations. But they used the Miami,FL stations to transmit at night emergency information needed by populace. Digital radios require allot more power to receive , and most families don't have a portable digital reception radio. Pairing down to four or less AM stations could make it very hard to keep the people informed in event of a National crisis, costing people their lives. So I believe AM radio will be viable for many years to come. Until someone can make a self generating battery....:).
I hope BBC Wales keep their AM service from Washford. The line of sight nature of FM and DAB doesn't provide full coverage in my area due to topography.
Plus one! I live not too far from Washford. In my village: no DAB, dreadful FM signal plus frequent internet interruptions. Old fashioned AM bedside radio always does the job though. And please, please, BBC 🙏 - do not turn off 198kHz AM on LW!!
So if there is no commercial interest in these AM frequencies then the authorities will allow ham radio and "pirate" stations to use these frequencies , right? Right??
Losing AM has been a sticky subject for years. For those who remember there were two dots or marks on the AM dial in cars up till the early 80’s. That indicated where emergency stations were located in a SHTF situation. Also an AM radio can be fabricated that has little or no power. The old schoolers in government know this and have kept AM. The new generation sees people wagging along their phones and assume they will always be available. In the US they have repeatedly proved this is folly because after a hurricane the cell towers fail when the power grid goes down and the cell tower generator runs out of fuel. In tornado prone area they are dropping tornado sirens right and left because they don’t want to keep them up and “everyone has a phone so let’s use them for warning” as they say. Another point for keeping AM is the fact almost everyone still uses radio. A good size part of the population does not use TV any more. A fact that shocks most people, me including.
Shutting UK AM stations will allow the DXing of AM from other countries. I note from the proposal made to OFCOM that online is included as coverage, which is acceptable for the younger streaming generation but platforms such as twitch fall out of the control of OFCOM, I'm an occasional broadcaster on that and it has a non fading global reach, the only airwaves employed are those listening via wireless network. This comes onto another point many years ago a broadcaster who had an interest in (radio) astronomy. If we look at SETI and how they are/were trying to listen for alien transmissions to prove life on other worlds, if we presume that alien civilization follows a similar pattern, we're unlikely to be listening for the short lifetime of high power transmissions, 100 years is nothing in astronomical lifetime and if aliens are looking for our transmissions, they have a small window of opportunity. But lets hope that aliens have not succumbed to the (global and bauer) destruction of local radio that OFCOM have allowed.
AM is how I listen to Boxing match commentary while on the road. Now, as others have pointed out in the comments; when will they become available for communities and individuals to use? 👀
Great for football in the Car will miss AM radio. Imagine when frequency modulation FM radio turns off. Alot of oldschool pirate radio stations are on small scale DAB licenses now. DAB was so poor to start with. It's not bad now DAB+
It's weird to see AM being turned off! We can't even get DAB+ reliably in my bit of Australia and the UK is like "yup, dab only" !! It's interesting and sad
Great work Lewis. A lot of AM stations are starting to go silent here too. The ABC is the only station that isn't allowed to switch off due to the emergency backup of them.
Would you be able to do a video on AM Stereo? I remember listening to a few stations in Australia back in the 90s that broadcast in AM stereo and the sound quality though unusual was some of the best i ever heard and far superior to DAB.
Unfortunately listening to AM radio becomes more and more difficult indoors as the level of interference from poorly designed switching power supplies, LED lighting, power electronics in home appliances and elevators, PV, etc. steadily increases. This is another reason why many listeners switch to Internet, DAB+ (where available) and of course FM.
Even FM at ~~100MHz is degraded here because of interference. I built TVHeadend server to receive stations off satellite without interference. And the audio quality is much better.
@@PaulMansfield I occasionally listen to the streamed version using a Volumio based box, wow what an improvement. Apart from no interference, the quality is way higher, not sure what's the culprit with the on-air version, my radio, their transmitter???
Sad to see more AM broadcast transmitters going QRT, but with energy costs as high as they are, it makes the business case for closing down. It really is the end of an era. Nice drone footage at the end - would you be interested in putting up some videos with just the drone footage of antenna sites to ambient music? That would be very cool.
I'm Glad they are turning it off, it's sports crap. It was a lot better when it was "Talk Radio", I was listening to Talk Radio since the test transmitions in the early 1990's and when they moved over to being "Talk Sport" I turned off and have never listened since.
I know you dont like, I also dont listen to it But its a station, and nothing will replace it, you wont get anything better Its eather this or nothing.... And more stations will follow, some may even think: talkSport swiched off, and they were fine we should do this as well
Structural engineers use drones now to inspect the condition of the masts instead of climbing up them. I suspect the footage is from one such reconnaisance.
Denmark and Iceland don't have any MW broadcasting. Rúv was testing MW but those test have ended and nothing more has happened. Denmark has no MW transmission. Iceland has LW and Denmark has limited LW broadcasts. Germany still has some MW broadcasts, how long they go on I don't know. This is a trend as services move to digital, either over land, internet, cable or satellite.
in america we still need am radio for alot of reasons like in really rural areas where fm radio cant get out there as easily and also for talk radio since am radio is mostly used for that stuff
Uptake of new modes will depend on the automotive industry. Modern car radios can follow a chosen station across several different transmitters. If ALL cars and trucks get DAB that's where the listeners will go.
Fascinating video, Lewis, thanks! Quite sad as well. Once upon a time, I never would've thought broadcast radio services would be on the decline during my lifetime. It doesn't quite look like 'progress' to me. Oh well.
Sad, and it makes me feel old as like many, I grew up listening to BBC Radio 1 on 1053 and 1089, and also Radio Luxembourg on 1439. I don't miss the multipath distortion that could obliterate the signal 😬
It is the age of digital technology that's what's killing these stations just think of how many people losing their jobs because of this up here in Canada or seen a lot of these stations closing down even shortwave stations like to CBC World Services is also gone to thanks for the video cheers
I know a group who are trying to get these txs back on air with other stations but it's not cheap per year very very expensive to run. Nice thumbnail btw
While I've not listened to much on AM in an age, I do have a great nostalgia for it. I remember winter evenings in my teens in the late 70s/early 80s), listening to Wolfman Jack on AFN Germany on Long Wave, well before I knew about DXing as a hobby of sorts. Being in Scunthorpe, it was quite exotic.
Oh well. In that case: Think I'll fit out a 2,000 tonne Ex-Trawler with 50Kw AM Transmitter, Optimod signal processor, crystals tuned to 819Khz, broadcast studios, Medium Wave aerial (with 2 masts) and start an offshore pirate radio station. Probably 14 miles off Pyongyang.
am radio could be more competitive if it sounded better and if it actualy served What ppl want to hear. Not cookie cutter music. Not non stop sports not non stop news. And not the same play list everyother station has. And something needs done about Electricity Prices across the board!
Its a shame Digital Radio Mondiale never took off, it would still allow MW to be used but with a much better quality delivery system using less power than analogue AM transmission. Omnidirectional DRM SW transmitters could be used for national distribution of national services i.e. Absolute 1215 BBC Radio 5 Live TalkSport etc and using local MW transmitters for locally delivered BBC Local Radio MW services too, at night, the transmissions can be switched to robust skywave mode to reduce digital skywave dropouts caused, due to the night-time propagation which increases the AM reach beyond the transmission area.
In the US, by the late eighties AM radio looked to be on the way out. Until one radio talk show host came on the air. Rush Limbaugh, he singlehandedly saved the AM band. After a time others followed, talk radio was huge in the 1990's beating FM handily. Since Rush had passed away in 2020, I expect AM to hang on for a while in the US. But eventually fad away. Since UA-cam and others are serving the same purpose as talk radio did in the 1990's.
I had to rewind & play part of your video again when you mentioned that Boston Lincs had a AM transmitter. I’m a Boston person born & bred ( I still live in the town) & I’m interested to know where because I never knew there was 1 in my hometown area. I always assumed all radio & TV transmissions in my area where from Belmont in the Lincolnshire wolds
I'm surprised that AM has hung on for as long as it has. I don't think I've listened to it since the 90s since pretty much everything was available on FM in higher quality (or more recently, DAB or streaming).
This does not surprise me at all. Currently I live in Wales where Radio waves do not work properly at all. I think it is something to do with the effect time dilation has on radio waves. Where I live DAB is very sketchy at best. No MW or LW reception to speak of and the Internet, well if you are lucky you have a good connection. This makes me a little sad as a lot of Wales relys upon Valve radio's for entertainment. I am not aware of any DAB radios that are valve based. The worst part is since moving to Wales I now have no choice but to talk to my children.
I live in the north of Spain and AM ready radio seems to be pretty much dead - I can only pick up one national station. Plenty of decent stations on FM though. Radio Nacional España (RNE - basically Spanish BBC) has a lot of good content, inc metal most nights on Radio 3!, and there are good private stations too. I listen a lot for news, sport (Spanish football commentary is pretty crazy!) and musiс, as FM radio forces me to listen in Spanish)) Re Talk Sport - I am a fan and listen to both stations online and it helps to keep me in touch with British sport especially football, cricket and boxing and unlike the beeb the vast majority of their commentaries are available to overseas listeners. Plus the latenight show with Jason Cundy on it helped keep me sane during the initial months of the pandemic, they had no sport to talk about and just focused on keeping people's spirits up! And if anyone's interested, I can just about pick up Talk Sport and 5-Live on AM in the evenings on my late 90s Panasonic boombox!
As it's only going to get grimmer and grimmer for AM and analogue radio in general, with gleeful digital radio listeners rushing in to gloat about this super-costly, already outdated and admittedly inferior medium that has been rammed down our throats since the nineties by the large media corporations that just view radio as just business, would it be possible to have a couple of episodes on what could be done possibly to preserve analogue radio and at least save some of it? I think it would be great to have scientific or engineering views from scientists and engineers that are actually love analogue radio and care about the medium - not the folks that don't care one way or another and simply see the whole subject through cost and efficiency terms. I would like to know what could be done to rescue at least a backbone of core radio stations to cover all bands. For example, have there been any reputable studies on how to bring the cost of analogue radio down and enhance its competitiveness? on alternative licensing schemes of the same radio infrastructure? on what the role of incentives offered to switch to digital or wired media to its looming demise are? I would love to hear a different view on why analogue radio has come to this predicament but not a regurgitation of the same old accounting reports and the same old "digital broadcasting is more efficient" reports that have been around for ages. I would like someone to come out and say, and back this up with some solid science, why analogue radio actually still matters, why it is fundamentally worth preserving and why it is still a sound medium despite technological progress and finally why all this is simply very reminiscent of the downfall of analogue media in the music industry which, as we all know very well, led to the collapse of the whole of the music industry, including the new fangled digital media, and has now led to a come-back of those "antiquated" analogue media. Why is no-one making the point that a switch to digital radio in no way is analogous to the switch to digital television--the promised benefits of the former simply are not even in the same league. Why is no-one reminding us the old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" which so applicable in this situation?
Same talk is going on here in the US. Kinda ironic the conservative talk shows are all on AM, also as pointed out, it is a good emergency services channel
I miss Absolute Radio. They said there are a number of good reasons to shut down, and that there are other ways of listening to Absolute. Sadly that's a lie. The only way to listen outside the UK is a webstream (after entering a UK postal code), but there is no way to listen over radio.
Given how small the UK is, why would TalkSport need that many small MW transmitters to begin with? You'd think that 5 high power sites would be more than sufficient to give decent coverage across the UK.
Yeah I didn't realise they had so many sites - guess they got them as a job lot from the BBC. iirc Talksport took over the 275m and 285m wavelengths that used to be radio 1. Random radio jottings youtube channel has the song/extended jingle that launched the new R1 frequencies - musically I could take it or leave it it certanly rams those numbers home by sheer repetition... good to note that some of the DJ's that get namechecked are still working.
What kills everything everywhere is too much state, government, too much legislation, taxes, costs, little rules and big rules. Being left alone, more independent, radio could be way more profitable to publicise itself more often, "expand" to internet radio, have both digital and analog signals and be free to create their own original content. When was the last time anyone ever heard sci fi radio dramas? Poetry or storytelling? Radio gameshows? Live interviews in studio? This is happening in every country, really. There needs to be a pushback to liberalize radio.
BBC R4 Long wave radiates 500KW Talksport radiates 500KW both 24/7 That's a lot of money whatever their tariff/rate! However Long Wave R4 carries the timing that makes Economy 7 electricity tariff meters know the time to change rates.
Recently, the tail end of Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle absolutely slammed along a wide swathe of New Zealand's North Island's, Eastern Coast. Previously, a Summer rain storm some weeks earlier had already left the ground saturated and rivers flowing near maximum. The remnants of Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle dropped "Noah's Ark" quantities of water along with strong winds. Now being called ed a "once in 250 years" event, everything in its path designed to cope with "once in 100 year" events got flooded, smashed and washed away. Roads, many bridges, water and sewer, Electricity and Telecomms/phone/internet cables. A ruggedly mountainous area about one quarter the size of the United Kingdom, but with a widely scattered population of less than a million people. With outages of so many transmitter sites, or the telecomms/electricity cable feeds to them, only a handful of widely separated AM Medium Wave radio was the ONLY system many people had for getting information, in many cases for many days, or a week or so. We can only assume that such storm/flood/other emergency events will continue to happen on a regular basis.
I am in the USA and we are seeing a decline of MW broadcast as well in spots like LA .the cost of power and maintenance are becoming a bid factor . also we have HD radio in the USA .even on MW . witch take less power . a few MW stations no longer transmit AM and went only digital .so far in NY buy me many MW stations can be herd on AM . no digital yet in my area. just HD FM stations. I suspect this trend over the world. some new cars in the US do not have AM radio. and with the push to EV witch makes interference to MW broadcast . I do not see much future in MW radio. during a EMP more MW stations would be able to stay on the air. part of the USA civil defense cold war. sad time for MW radio . 73's
That transmitter location map sure looks interesting... it seems more like a map of nuclear power plants. As AM stations usually are mostly omnidirectional, and license holders are likely more interested in covering inhabitated land rather than sea, why are almost all of them on the coastline???
maybe that's why they're interested in shutting those down first - if half the power is going uselessly out to sea it's bound to make the accountants scowl.
@@andw2638 But such directional antennas are nothing spectacular on AM, they may have a bit of an 8-shaped pattern or a bit oval instead of omni, but putting it on the coastline definately will spill much of the power over the sea.
These so called mobile phone tower's are Knott for mobile phones , they are silence weapons for Quiet wars they admit radiation waves to give people cancer and are scattered everywhere around the world
Don’t be silly
Have you considered a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia Bryan? It could be helpful to move on in life.
*not
*emit
Doesn't seem to keep you quiet.
AM radio (both on LW and MW) is the only mode of communication suitable for emergencies.
All digital radios require some type of signal processing; even FM requires a discriminator.
Only AM can be demodulated with a simple diode.
I believe that we reached a point where we need the government to legislate to keep a minimum of infrastructure.
Anthony
You can be sure they will keep infrastructure available for military and civil emergency use etc..
You have more faith than I do in their forward planning.
My country, Romania, is one of the biggest MW broadcasters in Europe. I know this trend of switching off AM stations will slowly reach us too, but it will not be as fast as many think, and I am happy for that. Here lots of people are still listening to AM and FM stations, and DAB transmitters are almost inexistent because people do not want to buy DAB radios which are inferior in many aspects and more expensive. The question is, why bother switching everything to DAB when AM/FM is still pretty good? DAB also covers an extremely small area in comparison with the capabilities of an AM radio. In an emergency/blackout situation analogue radio could be crucial. And then there is the case of Internet Radio Stations. To be honest, I do not know a single person who is actively listening to a radio station on the internet. Everyone uses their radio at home or mainly in the car to listen to a specific station.
Money...Greedy governments and companies have seen a way to make more money from us
And your Hungarian neighbours have the enviable 2MW Solt transmitter - I receive 540 kHz easily in London from there.
I listen only to internet radio for maybe a decade now. At home or in car via phone and BT. I do not have classic radio receiver at home (if you do not count my triband handheld Alinco transceiver) and have no idea if my car even have some radio presets saved... But I am pretty sure I am an exception. And I do not know a single person who would have DAB capable radio at home, but some might have a car which have it. But I still think the analog stations should be kept running, at least for possible emergency purposes. But it might be expensive, just recently one of our biggest AM sites was also decommissioned here in CZ.
My understanding is that DAB and DAB+ are attractive to state public broadcasters because these systems were designed so that each transmitter could carry multiple programs and so that the people running the multiplex transmitter could set up each of the "channels" on a multiplex to have what they considered the most appropriate bitrate for the programming. For instance, a classical music service could be allocated a high bitrate for high (subjective) audio quality, while a service carrying news or other speech programming could be allocated a much lower bitrate.
Broadcasting multiple programs from a single mediumwave or FM transmitter site is more challenging. In these scenarios, each channel has its own transmitter, and the outputs of the transmitters are combined into one antenna (or in the case of mediumwave, sometimes an array of towers). The RF combiner system often ends up needing to handle tens to hundreds of kilowatts of RF power, so it is large and expensive.
In the United States, there is a digital broadcast standard whose VHF variant supports multiplexing. The mediumwave version only carries a single program, since the bitrate is rather low. This technology has been on the air since about 2005, but the public isn't widely aware of it, and the receivers are somewhat hard to come by. As real estate prices continue to climb, there is an increasing use of master antenna systems on FM and consolidation of facilities on mediumwave (often with severe nighttime coverage loss due to broadcasters having to change their night operation from a multi-tower array to a single tower and very low transmitter power).
Radio Romania is my favourite shortwave broadcast station. They are the last of the old guard of European shortwave stations which still retain the old format and the proper interval signal. They do some nice English language programming, some Romanian interest stories and folk music and they even have a half hour on radio and DX and reception reports, which is brilliant!
Talksport was, besides BBC World Service, the only UK radio station that I could hear clearly in Finland with basic Sony portable dual deck cassette radio with its standard telescope antenna in late 1990s. It was especially clear on winter nights.
Digital is not a good way forward. It isn't robust and will end up in a dead end where basic analog systems have a better chance of longevity.
The beauty of AM radio, especially here in Australia, you could listen to interstate radio stations on the other side of the country. Some of those stations were quite interesting.
Same in the US. Some stations can travel hundreds upon hundreds of miles
As was 'Radio Australia' on shortwave, the government soon killed that one.
@@jasond2333 I picked up a Seattle Station using the am radio in our Chevy pickup truck about two am one night while downloading fuel from a barge where I was living in the Aleutian Islands Of Alaska.
Seattle is roughly 1800 miles away from where I got the signal
and so.....radio caroline will stand alone as a beacon from the uk.....
I must live in a dead area because I can never pick up any AM stations on MW or LW. I don't know why they have to keep cutting all these analogue services. I used to love going through the stations when I was little, and there was quite a lot. Now, it's just a few boring FM stations. Can't even pick up much on SW any more either.
I'm in Leeds and the only clear stations in daytime are Radio 5 Live and Talksport on MW and Radio 4 on LW now that Absolute is off the air on MW.
For a distant listener, switching off just four transmitters among a plethora of more-powered ones would mean nothing, it would be unnoticeable. However, some of these sites are/were shared with other stations, and closing any of its services automatically means increase in costs for the rest of the users. So if a certain transmitter site ends up with only one station left, then, well... you can be certain its days are numbered.
A good thing at least is that TalkSport wants to retain the highest-powered outlets.
Regarding the overall fate of AM broadcasting, I think governments should propose a sort of a minimal network of LW, MW or SW transmitters to carry at least one radio station essential for keeping the citizens informed when all else fails. Or at least keep these transmitters on standby. Remember: we're living in the time of war, and we don't know what future brings!
For sure
Not sure if you know, but Absolute radio did the same in 2018, and look what happened now
This is just preparation for the shutdown, if ofcom would allow it and not fine them, they would close it all now
But because they will receive a fine if they do so, they will do this slowly
:(
@@DXingSlovenija It is. There is no doubt to it.
Back in 2018, Absolute Radio did put its proposed cuts (which, remember, not only involved closures of some sites but also reducing power on others) to consultation, just like what TalkSport is doing now. But their wording sounded more like a threat - they put it clearly that if Ofcom didn't agree, they would close the entire network altogether. TalkSport's approach is different, but also Ofcom is even more likely to agree than before, as they actually make clear to *all* MW users that they *should* consider migrating to alternative broadcast platforms. As if they accepted the reality of AM becoming dead.
I really fear Radio Caroline would become the only station left in entire UK. The country of so many great stations, big and small, on almost every MW frequency 😭
@@ArnieDXer you know, I ask myself why analog, why exacly would analog be so bad
Our ears are analog (we cannot make them digital), and its not like crystal sound (or other marketing nonsense) matters to most people anyway (just look at the equipment they use to listen to it (tiny phone speakers, crappy headphones)
DAB can be as bad or even worse them AM (low bitrate, low protection level), and when money is involved people wont care for crystal sound, they will just lower the bitrate until possible just to fit another station in
And then there is the noise problem, well AM makes noise that leds and swichmode supply produce heard, but instead of actualy fixing the noise we just use it as an excuse that AM is bad (noise is bad, not AM)
I just dont know what to do sometimes, how to convince people
Even if I show them this recording of how good AM can be to them: ua-cam.com/video/YMAPKTnJtnA/v-deo.html
They are confused and forget about it in the next hour anyway
People just think that they are doing something good but at the end its the same anyway (old people die, new people that didnt have expirience with AM dont care (because why would they, how could they)
So much for progress, instead of making AM sound good (like adding Stereo), adding AMSS to it (yes like rds on am), getting rid of the noise (that AM exposes), and making the transmitters more efficiant, we shut it down
Same thing is happening to short wave broadcast stations around the world. Many are going to web pages, others just shutting down.
I have to admit to mostly being off DXing now that the internet has pretty much any radio station across the globe with good fidelity and no fading. I still listen to a bit of shortwave to hear number stations occasionally, but that's about it
Personally, I won't miss the closure of Talksport, since I've never used it. However, I am saddened about the loss of Absolute on AM.
Maybe this will result in either community stations getting AM licenses, or people setting up their own low power AM transmitters to cover their town/village etc.
There's really no other use for the band besides narrowband broadcasting.
This'll never happen in the UK, but reusing these MW frequencies for DRM would be a good option. There's a DRM trial happening in Australia at the moment where the national broadcaster is using one of its old AM frequencies (747kHz).
Whilst there's next to no interest being publicly shown for DRM over here (probably because commercial radio backed the DAB+ system, which has proven totally unsuitable for much of Australia), there appears to be fair bit of industry interest behind the scenes.
The lack of combined DAB+/DRM receivers and car importers drinking the commercial radio Kool-Aid probably means that DRM won't be mainstream down here any time soon, but I wouldn't be surprised if ABC and SBS eventually offer full-time DRM services to regional areas via repurposed ABC Radio National AM frequencies (with said Radio National services moved to FM).
@@TheKnobCalledTone. The BBC did trial DRM a few years back but didn't proceed with a full rollout which is a shame.
Over the last few years I've been enjoying DAB/+ in my car, it really is convenient and definitely the future, but there are certain situations when I drive rurally where the AM radio performs better. Also in a doomsday scenario, a trusty AM radio consumes a tiny amount of power compared to these power hungry DAB chipsets that don't really perform great on batteries. Hopefully FM radio sticks around for alot longer.
In a doomsday scenario, cobbling together an AM transmitter is not that hard, sourcing etc. high tech silicon for a DAB transmitter is a definite show stopper.
@Saaj DAB the future? Ye gods, definitely not.
I'll switch to digital radio when they put signals out with a decent bandwidth. Which the UK won't as for some reason the folks in charge want to squeeze as many stations on each transmitter as possible, even if it sounds like junk.
The satellite streams are often much better quality. I built a TVHeadend server just for that.
I fear this will become common in Australia as well, especially with the lower powered private AM radio stations. Hopefully our national broadcaster (ABC) will continue to transmit on AM for some time to come. During times of emergency when power fails and internet access becomes unreliable, there is is comforting to listen to AM radio for news on the situation knowing that it only needs the ionosphere to reach your radio.
Maybe, or another government funding cut will see AM go the way of Radio Australia, RIP
It would be good if AM was promoted as the go to thing for emergencies - bush fires, floods etc, way easier to keep running than piles of mobile phone base stations.
_"The future isn't what it used to be."_
Maybe time for the return of the AM pirates if the official stations don't want their allocated frequencies!
Beautiful talk-free sequence at the end, thanks!
Yes, Shortwave, AM, FM and TV too. I read
that Switzerland has ended most Over The
Air TV, and Norway has done that with FM
We have real problem with the FCC in the US
reducing the number of UHF channels available meaning stations must combine
compressed transmissions on a channel, for
which they were paid millions of dollars, to
make frequency spectrum available for
wireless services, who benefit at the expense
of Over The Air viewers. Ray W2CH NH
Tv satellite has taken a 50% cut as well .
ATSC 3.0 would help alleviate the lack of UHF channels, but the FCC has not mandated its rollout so adoption is very low. TV manufacturers have pushed back against putting ATSC 3.0 receivers in their 4K TV models.
Bloody hell, Lewis, you do like risking your drone...
It's a shame, but like many things, if you don't use it, you lose it.
did you notice that electric cars dont have AM RADIO ? The reason is that the battery system creates RF noise. This makes it hard for CB & HAM RADIO operators also.
More specifically, the alternator, but usually can be lessened/eliminated with proper grounding and RF chokes...
electric cars have altenators ? The Chevy Bolt and Tesla dont mention it .
If people care, they get rid of the noise
Check Honda for instance, it has AM in their hybrids and it works
Was thinking same thing.may not cause harmful interference?? Why does it not apply to ev manufacturing
How about taking some of the unused AM band and create a low cost license and let the pirates have at it ? They seem to have a lot better music and other programs than most of the big dollar conglomerates .
Not in the UK. Pirate radio is dire!
In my country AM had also a downsize but we are a small country (Portugal)... But we have a long story on SW, LW and AM coming back from the first Europe Free Radio back in the late 40's run by the Americans. The Portuguese state had proper SW for all the Portuguese ex colonies in Africa and Asia but since the 90's everything went down with new technologies we still have AM on one public and one private frequencies but maybe not for long...
BTW thanks for your great work...
73 from CT1CVE (retired...)
Hi Lewis, this is such a shame as there will be no where to visit at weekends, but more band space for the next generation of pirate music stations. 😄
AM radio will be slow to disappear here in Australia, The broadcasters like the ABC will hang onto them like grim death
Not just worse in the Uk. It's going to get worse everywhere.
Hello Lewis. I am having trouble receiving my Irish radio station, rte radio 1. It is the premier radio station, and for the last 8 weeks or so, it sounds like there is some kind of jamming going on... . I live almost in the centre of Ireland. Can you give me any idea what might be going on?
Realistically it's probably interference from a whole host of things such as Powerline network plug, LED light bulbs, noisy switchmode power supplies etc.
I listen to AM LW and MW every day on my vintage radios. I will be upset when it goes.
AM radio is very close to reaching a tipping point for a bunch of reasons. Sound quality has always been the bane of AM radio. Even with people talking, listen on FM is much more enjoyable than AM. Listening online is another alternative, and that is also at a high audio quality. AM loses out a all along the line.
The real tipping point has started with companies like Tesla, who just are not putting AM receivers in the car anymore. Cars are one of the last bastions of radio listening, as it is free to listen when compared to using data for online services and such. When the AM stops being a standard feature in cars (and it won't be long), perhaps replaced by DAB or what have you, then you will see AM rapidly fall off a cliff. All it will take is a couple of the largest car companies to drop AM and the party is over.
Honestly, considering the size of the transmitter sites and the amount of power required to run them, it really is a no brainer. AM has been a good friend, but like the rotary dial phone or coal chutes, they have had their day and it's pretty much over.
End of an era. Heh, at least it's only Talk Sport. 😜
It will be a real shame when AM (MW/LW) is gone though.
i remember when channel 5 tv started, unbelievable 5 tv channels . and we still have coronation street on itv
The Am radio can be a life saver in emergencies. Look at Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria all power lost through-out the island. No cell-phones internet and FM stations. But they used the Miami,FL stations to transmit at night emergency information needed by populace. Digital radios require allot more power to receive , and most families don't have a portable digital reception radio.
Pairing down to four or less AM stations could make it very hard to keep the people informed in event of a National crisis, costing people their lives. So I believe AM radio will be viable for many years to come. Until someone can make a self generating battery....:).
often you find the land is more valuable to sell to property developers than to continue the AM broadcasts
I hope BBC Wales keep their AM service from Washford. The line of sight nature of FM and DAB doesn't provide full coverage in my area due to topography.
Plus one! I live not too far from Washford. In my village: no DAB, dreadful FM signal plus frequent internet interruptions. Old fashioned AM bedside radio always does the job though. And please, please, BBC 🙏 - do not turn off 198kHz AM on LW!!
So if there is no commercial interest in these AM frequencies then the authorities will allow ham radio and "pirate" stations to use these frequencies , right? Right??
Probably the fcc will sell it to the phone company.
Solution: Raise the power limit on unlicensed operation in the MW band to something like 100W.
^ This answer 100%
Great video Lewis. I’m quite near to Duxford. It will be a shame to see it close for good
Losing AM has been a sticky subject for years. For those who remember there were two dots or marks on the AM dial in cars up till the early 80’s. That indicated where emergency stations were located in a SHTF situation. Also an AM radio can be fabricated that has little or no power. The old schoolers in government know this and have kept AM.
The new generation sees people wagging along their phones and assume they will always be available. In the US they have repeatedly proved this is folly because after a hurricane the cell towers fail when the power grid goes down and the cell tower generator runs out of fuel.
In tornado prone area they are dropping tornado sirens right and left because they don’t want to keep them up and “everyone has a phone so let’s use them for warning” as they say.
Another point for keeping AM is the fact almost everyone still uses radio. A good size part of the population does not use TV any more. A fact that shocks most people, me including.
Shutting UK AM stations will allow the DXing of AM from other countries. I note from the proposal made to OFCOM that online is included as coverage, which is acceptable for the younger streaming generation but platforms such as twitch fall out of the control of OFCOM, I'm an occasional broadcaster on that and it has a non fading global reach, the only airwaves employed are those listening via wireless network. This comes onto another point many years ago a broadcaster who had an interest in (radio) astronomy. If we look at SETI and how they are/were trying to listen for alien transmissions to prove life on other worlds, if we presume that alien civilization follows a similar pattern, we're unlikely to be listening for the short lifetime of high power transmissions, 100 years is nothing in astronomical lifetime and if aliens are looking for our transmissions, they have a small window of opportunity. But lets hope that aliens have not succumbed to the (global and bauer) destruction of local radio that OFCOM have allowed.
This is what I was thinking, might make it easier to DX far off stations??
AM is how I listen to Boxing match commentary while on the road.
Now, as others have pointed out in the comments; when will they become available for communities and individuals to use? 👀
Open up the band to the public. Companies don't want it, give it to us.
Great for football in the Car will miss AM radio. Imagine when frequency modulation FM radio turns off. Alot of oldschool pirate radio stations are on small scale DAB licenses now. DAB was so poor to start with. It's not bad now DAB+
It's weird to see AM being turned off! We can't even get DAB+ reliably in my bit of Australia and the UK is like "yup, dab only" !! It's interesting and sad
That was brave piloting, so close to the tower and guys. I couldn't do that, mine is still stuck up a tree on Billinge Hill 🤣
Great work Lewis. A lot of AM stations are starting to go silent here too. The ABC is the only station that isn't allowed to switch off due to the emergency backup of them.
actually one ABC AM transmitter was recently closed - RN Goulburn on 1098 converted to FM 97.9
We're are the dab transmitters? You never hear about them
Stay tuned I’ve a video showing a couple of dab tx this week ;)
Would you be able to do a video on AM Stereo? I remember listening to a few stations in Australia back in the 90s that broadcast in AM stereo and the sound quality though unusual was some of the best i ever heard and far superior to DAB.
Unfortunately listening to AM radio becomes more and more difficult indoors as the level of interference from poorly designed switching power supplies, LED lighting, power electronics in home appliances and elevators, PV, etc. steadily increases. This is another reason why many listeners switch to Internet, DAB+ (where available) and of course FM.
If only we could turn the anti gun people to anti rfi .
@@321CatboxWA but then RFI isn't responsible for massacres
Yes, thank you (not) government regulators.
Even FM at ~~100MHz is degraded here because of interference. I built TVHeadend server to receive stations off satellite without interference. And the audio quality is much better.
@@PaulMansfield I occasionally listen to the streamed version using a Volumio based box, wow what an improvement. Apart from no interference, the quality is way higher, not sure what's the culprit with the on-air version, my radio, their transmitter???
Sad to see more AM broadcast transmitters going QRT, but with energy costs as high as they are, it makes the business case for closing down. It really is the end of an era. Nice drone footage at the end - would you be interested in putting up some videos with just the drone footage of antenna sites to ambient music? That would be very cool.
It is really a sad time for those of us who grew up listening to medium wave, but change is inevitable.
I'm Glad they are turning it off, it's sports crap.
It was a lot better when it was "Talk Radio", I was listening to Talk Radio since the test transmitions in the early 1990's and when they moved over to being "Talk Sport" I turned off and have never listened since.
Not even really sport just endless football jabber!
@@jonathaneastwood2927 yep rubish
I know you dont like, I also dont listen to it
But its a station, and nothing will replace it, you wont get anything better
Its eather this or nothing....
And more stations will follow, some may even think: talkSport swiched off, and they were fine we should do this as well
It’s was Talk Radio before it became Talk Sport , and it’s was 1995 not 94.
"There is nothing permanent except change."
How did you get the end footage from a drone flying through the guy wires without getting arrested or something? Very impressive view though!
Structural engineers use drones now to inspect the condition of the masts instead of climbing up them. I suspect the footage is from one such reconnaisance.
Denmark and Iceland don't have any MW broadcasting. Rúv was testing MW but those test have ended and nothing more has happened. Denmark has no MW transmission. Iceland has LW and Denmark has limited LW broadcasts. Germany still has some MW broadcasts, how long they go on I don't know. This is a trend as services move to digital, either over land, internet, cable or satellite.
in america we still need am radio for alot of reasons like in really rural areas where fm radio cant get out there as easily and also for talk radio since am radio is mostly used for that stuff
I wonder if we will see any further Talk Sport AM transmitter closures after the Euros?
It's a mistake to assume that everyone has a DAB+ radio and can get a DAB+ / DAB signal.
Uptake of new modes will depend on the automotive industry. Modern car radios can follow a chosen station across several different transmitters.
If ALL cars and trucks get DAB that's where the listeners will go.
Fascinating video, Lewis, thanks! Quite sad as well. Once upon a time, I never would've thought broadcast radio services would be on the decline during my lifetime. It doesn't quite look like 'progress' to me. Oh well.
Sad, and it makes me feel old as like many, I grew up listening to BBC Radio 1 on 1053 and 1089, and also Radio Luxembourg on 1439. I don't miss the multipath distortion that could obliterate the signal 😬
It is the age of digital technology that's what's killing these stations just think of how many people losing their jobs because of this up here in Canada or seen a lot of these stations closing down even shortwave stations like to CBC World Services is also gone to thanks for the video cheers
I know a group who are trying to get these txs back on air with other stations but it's not cheap per year very very expensive to run. Nice thumbnail btw
While I've not listened to much on AM in an age, I do have a great nostalgia for it. I remember winter evenings in my teens in the late 70s/early 80s), listening to Wolfman Jack on AFN Germany on Long Wave, well before I knew about DXing as a hobby of sorts. Being in Scunthorpe, it was quite exotic.
Oh well. In that case:
Think I'll fit out a 2,000 tonne Ex-Trawler with 50Kw AM Transmitter, Optimod signal processor, crystals tuned to 819Khz, broadcast studios, Medium Wave aerial (with 2 masts) and start an offshore pirate radio station. Probably 14 miles off Pyongyang.
am radio could be more competitive if it sounded better and if it actualy served What ppl want to hear. Not cookie cutter music. Not non stop sports not non stop news. And not the same play list everyother station has. And something needs done about Electricity Prices across the board!
🤔 seems like a poor choice. FM radio takes up quite a bit more bandwidth. AM with digital would get you more for less.
oh man. id jump on buying them am tx in a heartbeat.
need more info on Wallasey
We're a small island with excellent internet infrastructure and DAB radio. Get these cloud warmers turned off ASAP!
AM is collapsing like a house of cards.
I sure won't miss Talk Shite.
I remember listening to talkSport at night on 1053/1089 here on the Continent back in the 90s.
Its a shame Digital Radio Mondiale never took off, it would still allow MW to be used but with a much better quality delivery system using less power than analogue AM transmission.
Omnidirectional DRM SW transmitters could be used for national distribution of national services i.e. Absolute 1215 BBC Radio 5 Live TalkSport etc and using local MW transmitters for locally delivered BBC Local Radio MW services too, at night, the transmissions can be switched to robust skywave mode to reduce digital skywave dropouts caused, due to the night-time propagation which increases the AM reach beyond the transmission area.
In the US, by the late eighties AM radio looked to be on the way out. Until one radio talk show host came on the air. Rush Limbaugh, he singlehandedly saved the AM band. After a time others followed, talk radio was huge in the 1990's beating FM handily. Since Rush had passed away in 2020, I expect AM to hang on for a while in the US. But eventually fad away. Since UA-cam and others are serving the same purpose as talk radio did in the 1990's.
I had to rewind & play part of your video again when you mentioned that Boston Lincs had a AM transmitter. I’m a Boston person born & bred ( I still live in the town) & I’m interested to know where because I never knew there was 1 in my hometown area. I always assumed all radio & TV transmissions in my area where from Belmont in the Lincolnshire wolds
North of apple tree holiday park
Belmont isn't an AM transmission site - it is only VHF FM and DAB radio and UHF television.
In the USA, Ford is dropping the AM band from its newest auto infotainment systems. ☹️
Will the reduction in band usage provide opportunity for a new golden age of pirate radio? QRP can have amazing reach in a quiet band.
I'm surprised that AM has hung on for as long as it has. I don't think I've listened to it since the 90s since pretty much everything was available on FM in higher quality (or more recently, DAB or streaming).
Great thumbnail pic. Hope you do a location report on this site. It’s my local one
Will do!
Any move by a media group to consolidate will never serve the interests of the user.
This does not surprise me at all. Currently I live in Wales where Radio waves do not work properly at all. I think it is something to do with the effect time dilation has on radio waves. Where I live DAB is very sketchy at best. No MW or LW reception to speak of and the Internet, well if you are lucky you have a good connection. This makes me a little sad as a lot of Wales relys upon Valve radio's for entertainment. I am not aware of any DAB radios that are valve based. The worst part is since moving to Wales I now have no choice but to talk to my children.
I live in the north of Spain and AM ready radio seems to be pretty much dead - I can only pick up one national station. Plenty of decent stations on FM though. Radio Nacional España (RNE - basically Spanish BBC) has a lot of good content, inc metal most nights on Radio 3!, and there are good private stations too. I listen a lot for news, sport (Spanish football commentary is pretty crazy!) and musiс, as FM radio forces me to listen in Spanish))
Re Talk Sport - I am a fan and listen to both stations online and it helps to keep me in touch with British sport especially football, cricket and boxing and unlike the beeb the vast majority of their commentaries are available to overseas listeners. Plus the latenight show with Jason Cundy on it helped keep me sane during the initial months of the pandemic, they had no sport to talk about and just focused on keeping people's spirits up!
And if anyone's interested, I can just about pick up Talk Sport and 5-Live on AM in the evenings on my late 90s Panasonic boombox!
You should do a colab video with Peter C! I would love to say that😂
Who's Peter C?
@@paulsengupta971 He makes videos on mobile phone infrastructure and towers etc
@@cyanade Ah, ok, I'll have to check that out. I work in that field.
As it's only going to get grimmer and grimmer for AM and analogue radio in general, with gleeful digital radio listeners rushing in to gloat about this super-costly, already outdated and admittedly inferior medium that has been rammed down our throats since the nineties by the large media corporations that just view radio as just business, would it be possible to have a couple of episodes on what could be done possibly to preserve analogue radio and at least save some of it?
I think it would be great to have scientific or engineering views from scientists and engineers that are actually love analogue radio and care about the medium - not the folks that don't care one way or another and simply see the whole subject through cost and efficiency terms.
I would like to know what could be done to rescue at least a backbone of core radio stations to cover all bands. For example, have there been any reputable studies on how to bring the cost of analogue radio down and enhance its competitiveness? on alternative licensing schemes of the same radio infrastructure? on what the role of incentives offered to switch to digital or wired media to its looming demise are? I would love to hear a different view on why analogue radio has come to this predicament but not a regurgitation of the same old accounting reports and the same old "digital broadcasting is more efficient" reports that have been around for ages. I would like someone to come out and say, and back this up with some solid science, why analogue radio actually still matters, why it is fundamentally worth preserving and why it is still a sound medium despite technological progress and finally why all this is simply very reminiscent of the downfall of analogue media in the music industry which, as we all know very well, led to the collapse of the whole of the music industry, including the new fangled digital media, and has now led to a come-back of those "antiquated" analogue media. Why is no-one making the point that a switch to digital radio in no way is analogous to the switch to digital television--the promised benefits of the former simply are not even in the same league. Why is no-one reminding us the old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" which so applicable in this situation?
Same talk is going on here in the US. Kinda ironic the conservative talk shows are all on AM, also as pointed out, it is a good emergency services channel
I miss Absolute Radio. They said there are a number of good reasons to shut down, and that there are other ways of listening to Absolute. Sadly that's a lie. The only way to listen outside the UK is a webstream (after entering a UK postal code), but there is no way to listen over radio.
I just wish Talk Radio sound quality was better on DAB.
Could they not have converted these transmitters over to DRM?
Love the outro. What is the music?
Talksport are sending mixed messages, they are looking to run down their AM network but still announce 1053/1089 Medium Wave on the air.
I expect AM broadcast will reduce worldwide, just a matter of time.🤷♂️💰
Given how small the UK is, why would TalkSport need that many small MW transmitters to begin with? You'd think that 5 high power sites would be more than sufficient to give decent coverage across the UK.
Yeah I didn't realise they had so many sites - guess they got them as a job lot from the BBC. iirc Talksport took over the 275m and 285m wavelengths that used to be radio 1. Random radio jottings youtube channel has the song/extended jingle that launched the new R1 frequencies - musically I could take it or leave it it certanly rams those numbers home by sheer repetition... good to note that some of the DJ's that get namechecked are still working.
They need that many during the day. At night probably 5 will suffice.
What kills everything everywhere is too much state, government, too much legislation, taxes, costs, little rules and big rules.
Being left alone, more independent, radio could be way more profitable to publicise itself more often, "expand" to internet radio, have both digital and analog signals and be free to create their own original content. When was the last time anyone ever heard sci fi radio dramas? Poetry or storytelling? Radio gameshows? Live interviews in studio?
This is happening in every country, really. There needs to be a pushback to liberalize radio.
Looking at those wooded transmitter sites, I see a housing estate coming soon.
I wouldn't want to live in that part of Ashton. It's basically a bog.
Funny that that phone mast in the middle is completely bare- Some were abandoned when Orange/T-Mobile merged into EE
Hello Lewis yet another interesting video would be kind enough to give me the kent places again. Thank you
I would not be surprised if the current cost of electricity causes additional closures of power hungry transmitter sites.
BBC R4 Long wave radiates 500KW
Talksport radiates 500KW
both 24/7 That's a lot of money whatever their tariff/rate! However Long Wave R4 carries the timing that makes Economy 7 electricity tariff meters know the time to change rates.
I haven't listened to any AM commercial radio in 30 years in the US.
You mean you missed Lush Windbag, and all those "colon cleansing" and "Buy gold NOW!!" infomercials??? About all there IS on AM in the U.S!!!
@@a2phil I listen to conservative talk radio all the time. It's the best thing about radio now that the music stations all suck.
Recently, the tail end of Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle absolutely slammed along a wide swathe of New Zealand's North Island's, Eastern Coast. Previously, a Summer rain storm some weeks earlier had already left the ground saturated and rivers flowing near maximum. The remnants of Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle dropped "Noah's Ark" quantities of water along with strong winds. Now being called ed a "once in 250 years" event, everything in its path designed to cope with "once in 100 year" events got flooded, smashed and washed away. Roads, many bridges, water and sewer, Electricity and Telecomms/phone/internet cables. A ruggedly mountainous area about one quarter the size of the United Kingdom, but with a widely scattered population of less than a million people. With outages of so many transmitter sites, or the telecomms/electricity cable feeds to them, only a handful of widely separated AM Medium Wave radio was the ONLY system many people had for getting information, in many cases for many days, or a week or so. We can only assume that such storm/flood/other emergency events will continue to happen on a regular basis.
I am in the USA and we are seeing a decline of MW broadcast as well in spots like LA .the cost of power and maintenance are becoming a bid factor . also we have HD radio in the USA .even on MW . witch take less power . a few MW stations no longer transmit AM and went only digital .so far in NY buy me many MW stations can be herd on AM . no digital yet in my area. just HD FM stations. I suspect this trend over the world. some new cars in the US do not have AM radio. and with the push to EV witch makes interference to MW broadcast . I do not see much future in MW radio. during a EMP more MW stations would be able to stay on the air. part of the USA civil defense cold war. sad time for MW radio . 73's
That transmitter location map sure looks interesting... it seems more like a map of nuclear power plants.
As AM stations usually are mostly omnidirectional, and license holders are likely more interested in covering inhabitated land rather than sea, why are almost all of them on the coastline???
maybe that's why they're interested in shutting those down first - if half the power is going uselessly out to sea it's bound to make the accountants scowl.
@@joinedupjon They have directional aerials, one of Lewis's recent videos touched on that.
@@andw2638 But such directional antennas are nothing spectacular on AM, they may have a bit of an 8-shaped pattern or a bit oval instead of omni, but putting it on the coastline definately will spill much of the power over the sea.