Pirates Backing DAB Round 5 Applications

[bravedaveyboy]

The applications for small-scale DAB round 5 have been announced by Ofcom, with five pirates supporting three of the eleven applications, as follows:

North London Digital Ltd:
Greekbeat

South London DAB CIC:
On Top Radio
Playback UK
Whoa FM

City West Digital CIC:
Greekbeat
Mega Radio

The South London DAB CIC application is a collaboration involving Select Radio so I guess it's no surprise they've attracted three of the big pirates to the table.

Two of these stations are definitely still on air as pirate stations, namely On Top Radio (95.5) and Playback UK (105.6).

The three others: Greekbeat, Mega Radio, and Whoa FM, I am not sure about as I have never heard Greekbeat or Mega, and used to get Whoa really well here but not heard it on FM in a long time.

I always thought that to be involved in an application for an Ofcom licence you had to be off air as a pirate? Perhaps the rules have changed? Perhaps these stations will disappear from the FM dial soon? Any ideas?

[Ian]

I think it’s because DAB hasn’t kicked off like it was meant to . They are giving pirates licenses, so ultimately they will leave the fm . Slowly but surely London is loosing its pirates to ssdab. The signal is poor they always cut out unless it’s on London2 or London wide or national. FM is still the biggest listener outlet I think

[sproggy]

Didn't Rinse stay on as a pirate right up until the licence was awarded?

[famefm]

Yes quite a few pirates in recent years were still broadcasting while they applied for licences it was only after they won they closed the pirate operation only in the early days did pirates close down before applying for a licence because in those days they would not have been allowed to

[mpx]

The current London trial multiplex does quite well considering the power levels, limited to three sites and the ACI from the commercial multiplexes. It will be interesting to see how the north and south london ssdab multiplexes do in terms of coverage. This will depend on who wins and the sites that are available.

[zoostorm]

The proposed coverage for South London Digital CIC is poor. The better bid for coverage is from South of the River, but has no pirates on it.

Ex pirates who have expressed an interest in being on SSDAB include.

Kool and Rinse: U.DAB. The current Trial London operator for North London which plans to keep the existing coverage of Trial London and then add two rigs in North London proper.
Eruption: NE London and SW Essex which only has one bidder in the form of Phoenix FM in Brentwood.
Flex: South of the River (Flex own 15% of the company) and City West Digital CIC West London.

[reverend]

Some stations argue that they are online only and that the FM outlet has nothing to do with them, it's just somebody relaying their stream without their permission. Switching it off at a crucial juncture would therefore be a clear admission that the FM transmitter was connected to them. Best leave it on and claim ignorance!

[radionortheast]

I can’t get excited over any of these, I don’t live there, I think there might be a problem, usually you have one ssdab muilplex covering a city, if you’ve got different ssdab muilplexes covering one city, might make it difficult for people on the fringe of one area. I don’t think people want to be fiddling about in their cars, people communting or traveling about aren’t going to ditch their in car transmitters, or detune a national dab muliplex they can tune to over a wide area, to one they can’t. I know that dab maybe cheaper, maybe why their been forced down this alleyway, the fact local radio failed when you could drive round and hear them further away, I can’t see them been a commercial success, like a world space for today, likely to go in the same direction..