Albert H wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2019 2:47 am I have many Kilowatts ready on 89.1MHz for the day that the BBC vacate the frequency!

I look forward to that day Albert

Albert H wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2019 4:13 pm http://radiofreewohlman.blogspot.com/

Sounds like everything I hate about telling people that I collect records and in particular, Record Store Day. I can't believe I just wrote the word "store".

Albert H wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2019 4:13 pm There are hundreds of other examples. Pick a genre, then just do a quick Google for the best streams. You'll be amazed at the stuff that's available online these days.

OK:

I was discussing exactly this thesis with some guys at the EBU tech meeting in Geneva just a few days ago. The British contingent said that commercial radio is finished in the UK - just endless Heart and Capital repeaters throughout the country with the little locals restricted to low power and no significant income. The two BBC guys there agreed that the BBC was just a left-wing PC disaster, with little worthwhile content these days.

It was pretty depressing to realise that they were largely right.

The Italians and French said that it was much the same there.

And smooth and kiss shit across most of the UK also

I drove from Surrey to Cornwall and after the m3 junction 4 i found nothing threw Hampshire Wiltshire Somerset Devon apart from yes you said it albert Heart. When i reached Cornwall deep down on the south i picked up a strange station either a low rsl or pirate doing sone sort of announcements in cornish hard to understand maybe it was for the fisherman not sure but yh thats all I got.

Albert you ain't got a clue 're centreforce are u jealous ....u spout so much Shit....you go on like you have run and played on every station on the dial ...ring up Andy and tell him your views on centrrforce

As an HGV driver travelling all over it is true , pretty atrocious FM listening.
Why has Talk Sport never been introduced to FM ?
MW sound quality is terrible but tbh that’s all I have on ,on my travels.
Or a ‘Gold’ format on FM ? I’m 49 so not looking for Elvis n co just ‘descent’ 70’s/80’s wall to wall bangers.
It’s a case of unlimited data n you plays what you want I guess

Re Centreforce - it’s all good. Each n every day !

I tend to agree with pure94, I suspect Albert is full of it. How comes if he is no longer a resident in the UK he was driving through Edmonton north London just a few weeks ago picking up Radio Nova (check north east London pirate post) I'm pretty sure (although I can't be 100% certain) that I know who Albert is through my one time Radio Free London connections and if it's the same guy then yes he is a fantasist. As for Centreforce it does and still is doing the business.

I heard misoul isn't doing to well I would like to know if centreforce has more listening than misoul?

15% exclusively listen to AM services my arse. AM has no future. DAB seems to work well in the UK for the short time, FM's the same. Online's where it's going.

I wouldn't be to sure a lot of people listen to talksport and 5 live sport as an alternative to all the shit music stations so 15% on AM doesn't sound to far out?

famefm wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 10:00 pm I wouldn't be to sure a lot of people listen to talksport and 5 live sport as an alternative to all the shit music stations so 15% on AM doesn't sound to far out?

I for one can definitely vouch for this. Talksport is my go to station when the FM stations are on a shit one (which, let's all be honest, is most of the time!) & I'm not streaming my own music via the various ways on the net. Talksport is an online thing only for me though (unlimited data) as I live out in the sticks in a part of the world where an old fashioned FM radio is about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike! Also AM audio quality is absolute garbage & I wouldn't have the patience for it.

Ironman wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 2:33 pm I suspect Albert is full of it. How comes if he is no longer a resident in the UK he was driving through Edmonton north London just a few weeks ago

I've moved house back to the Netherlands. I visit London (sometimes for work, sometimes socially) about six times every month. I seem to spend a hell of a lot of the time at City Airport at the moment......

"Ironman" - if you know me (which is highly unlikely), you'd be aware of some of my history. I was doing radio (probably) before you were born, way back in the 60s.

When you get to my age, you've seen most things, and develop a sense of "it was much better in my day". In retrospect, recently listening to some old recordings of London pirates from the early 80s, many of them were pretty dreadful. There were quite a few high points though - C J Carlos (for example) really knew how to broadcast. The guys on the early Invicta also had real ability (Bob was very selective), but much of the rest was a waste of electricity.

Pirate Radio changed the music business forever, giving outlets to new styles and new artists. Not all of it was worthless - some good artists and bands have come to prominence through pirate promotion.

You really can't criticise my taste (or knowledge of music) because I don't listen to Dubstep or UK Garage - it doesn't do anything for me (though there's a couple of the newer electronic bands that are becoming interesting).

Tomorrow's listeners will be on the interweb. Free radiating radio will become a thing of the past in another generation. I won't be here to see its demise, but many of you will. So many stations have made the on-line move now. Streaming services need to up their game, since good quality streaming is still much too expensive. I'd like to set up a truly lossless audio station, with the capacity to serve lots of simultaneous listeners (the right advertising and the right content will get an audience), but it's much too pricey at the moment.....

Now - back to the records......

Fair comment Albert. Yes indeed you was doing radio long before me but just for the the record I did grow up listening to Caroline and Luxembourg back in the late 60s/70s. I met CJ Carlos on numerous occasions when he was on Horizon and Solar, they were great stations along with JFM. I still listen to CJ now when he does his weekly show from his home in Florida. I too never listen to today's form of dance music as it really isn't my bag at all but I can certainly understand why the younger generation do. My musical passion is classic soul from the 70s and 80s. Would love to have seen a legal soul station on FM. I know most of the soul pirates tried and failed when applying for legality although I was heavily involved in campaigning for Kiss FM to obtain a licence which they eventually got after two attempts and sadly look what happened to them...Unlistenable. All I will say is I hope radio is still around for the rest of my life which I suspect it will be. Thanks for your reply Albert, no hard feelings as I do enjoy reading your posts.

Those distant days of listening to the latest thing out of one of the North Sea stations, or listening to Luxembourg bring back many fond memories!

Absolutely Albert and those two points you raise is exactly why I still love radio to this day, even though the golden era has long gone. The thrill of tuning into Luxembourg late at night and hearing that famous fading in and out of their signal and then discovering Caroline and my Dad (god rest his soul) explaining to me that this was a radio station coming from a ship out at sea and were operating without a licence which meant they were completely illegal. That fascinated me and from that day I was bitten by the radio bug. Those memories have never left me and that is why I hope some form of real radio will always be in existence.

Over here on the European mainland, there are a few new things going on at the moment. In the Netherlands, you can just buy a licence for a LPAM ststion. France turned off all their AM stations last year, and there are hundreds of pirates replacing them.....

drumandbasshead010 wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 7:37 pm15% exclusively listen to AM services my arse.

Can you provide evidence that 15% don't exclusively listen to AM services? It will be interesting to see what you come up with.

drumandbasshead010 wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 7:37 pmAM has no future. DAB seems to work well in the UK for the short time, FM's the same. Online's where it's going.

Online is not where it is going for quite a while. That's unfortunate but that is the reality.

The radio market is very fragmented at the moment: - you have Talksport, the dreadful 5Live, a load of religious tosh and the dreadfully modulated Caroline on medium wave. About 15% of listeners go nowhere else - medium wave IS radio to them, despite the paucity of programmes and the obvious lack of audio fidelity.

DAB was promising - about 30 years ago - but the choice of the wrong codec (MP2), and the continual reductions is already under-rated bit-rates make it virtually unlistenable. OFCOM consider that 80kbs mono is "good enough" for a music station..... It's little better than medium wave at that kind of bit rate, and the problems of digital reception outside cities are well-known. The "bubbling mud" effect of signals that OFCOM claim are "receivable" is a common complaint of prospective listeners. Even the "high quality" stations (like BBC Radio 3) have had their bit-rates reduced to cram more stations into each "bouquet", and the already poor quality is hit again.....

VHF Band II is still a mess - there's no need whatsoever for the BBC nationals to be spread halfway across the dial. They don't seem to realise that the days of 1MHz-wide early VHF receivers are long-gone, and the idiots in Westminster and fools at OFCOM simply don't understand what's actually needed. With a bit of intelligent planning and some smart engineering, Band II could be full of stations (actually with many more than are available today) and not suffering from any interference.

As long as UK regulation (and EU regulation, come to that) is as thick-headed as it is, there's little hope for the future of radio broadcasting using free-radiating equipment.

In my opinion dab is rubbish.. I listen to greatest hits radio as there's nothing else that plays 70's or 80's. I listen on medium wave and it sounds OK to me.. It would be better on fm though.. Haven't got a dab radio and don't want one tbh..