FM Survival

[Ferretfancy]

In an article in today's Guardian, Paul Keenan, who is boss of a couple of commercial radio stations, has warned that the switchover to digital might stall for a decade unless the BBc commits funding to install the technology in all transmitters. He says that lack of clarity over funding decisions could mean the survival of FM well past the current 2015 target.
Keenan is chief executive of Barnet media, which owns 42 stations, and thinks that "a mixed ecology" of FM and DAB could exist, but a decision is needed.

There is also a more general interview with him in the Guardian Media Section.

So, perhaps there's hope for those of us who still enjoy FM, and who like me have relegated the DAB radio to the kitchen where it belongs. After all, many of us can use Freeview for radio if we want to.

[Bryn]

... many of us can use Freeview for radio if we want to.

But not those who rely on Scottish Freeview reception, eh?

[Flosshilde]

Paul Keenan, who is boss of a couple of commercial radio stations, has warned that the switchover to digital might stall for a decade unless the BBc commits funding to install the technology in all transmitters.
Keenan is chief executive of Barnet media, which owns 42 stations, and thinks that "a mixed ecology" of FM and DAB could exist

Unlikely that the BBC will put any money into it, given the squeeze on the licence. & why should they be the only ones? If the chief exec. of a commercial station wants digital radio, why shouldn't he contribute to the cost of the technology?

[Ferretfancy]

Flosshilde

There's no reason as far as I can see why commercial stations should not install their own technology, but I think you will find that the BBC is legally obliged to play a substantial part in the decision, whether it wants to or not. Nobody has yet come up with a convincing explanation of why analogue and digital formats cannot co-exist. Most transmitters are relatively low maintenance these days.

[rauschwerk]

I wonder how many radios were handed in as a result of that ridculously named "amnesty" last year? I think we should be told but I hold out very little hope.

[pastoralguy]

I'm glad this topic has been raised since we had a strange experience at the weekend. We wanted a digital radio for the loo since the analogue is out of synch with the digital radio in the bedroom. We saw a Techniks radio in Tesco for £25 and decided to invest in one. However, because it's kept in the loo it has to run on batteries. We were horrified to find that 6 brand new Duracell AAs lasted about an hour and a half! At first, we thought it had been left on accidently so we replced the dead batteries with another half dozen. The following day the same result! I had gone into the menu to adjust the light setting so it only came on for 10 secs at the commencment of operations but this obviously made no difference.

I phoned the technical help desk and the guy reckoned that this was about right for ' 6 little batteries'! He suggested we could simply put a new set of batteries in every day! The net result is that our old analogue Roberts Radio (found for a fiver in a chartty shop!) is back in pride of place. (I always thought its battery consumption was excessive at a new set every 8 weeks or so!)

Does anyone else have experience of running digital radios from battery power?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's rather silly to have an amnesty when FM radios continue to outsell DAB ones. If they really want to get rid of them, perhaps they should start by getting manufacturers to discontinue FM radios (which, I would NOT be in favour of).

[rauschwerk]

My Roberts Ecologic 1 is kept in the bathroom and runs for, I suppose, 20 minutes/day. It takes 4 AA cells and I reckon they last a couple of months. Clearly the Tesco radio is rubbish and man who advised you is talking through his underpants.

[Don Petter]

I'm glad this topic has been raised since we had a strange experience at the weekend. We wanted a digital radio for the loo since the analogue is out of synch with the digital radio in the bedroom. We saw a Techniks radio in Tesco for £25 and decided to invest in one. However, because it's kept in the loo it has to run on batteries. We were horrified to find that 6 brand new Duracell AAs lasted about an hour and a half! At first, we thought it had been left on accidently so we replced the dead batteries with another half dozen. The following day the same result! I had gone into the menu to adjust the light setting so it only came on for 10 secs at the commencment of operations but this obviously made no difference.

I phoned the technical help desk and the guy reckoned that this was about right for ' 6 little batteries'! He suggested we could simply put a new set of batteries in every day! The net result is that our old analogue Roberts Radio (found for a fiver in a chartty shop!) is back in pride of place. (I always thought its battery consumption was excessive at a new set every 8 weeks or so!)

Does anyone else have experience of running digital radios from battery power?

The only digital radio we have (Pure Highway) is either run from the car battery or with a mains adaptor in the house. We only got it to be able to listen in-car to R5 Sport other than on the Medium Wave which has such bad AM reception. Two bonuses have been the availability of R5 Sports Extra from time to time, and R7, with some good comedy repeats (Hancock, Goons, Round the Horne, etc).

In the house, we do use the unit to listen to these three channels, as the output can be picked up from any of the four FM radios round the house. We can stream the same services on the PC, of course, but we do have a monthly broadband limit, and we tend to reserve streaming for a lot of listening to France Musique, Bayern Musik or several US classical stations, all of which give more music per mile than R3, sadly.

In your brief trial while the batteries lasted, did you not find that the new set was not in sync with the bedroom radio anyway? I thought all digital radios had different time delays, so they are never in sync with analogue or eachother.

[Donnie Essen]

[QUOTE=pastoralguy;22342]I'm glad this topic has been raised since we had a strange experience at the weekend. We wanted a digital radio for the loo since the analogue is out of synch with the digital radio in the bedroom. We saw a Techniks radio in Tesco for £25 and decided to invest in one. However, because it's kept in the loo it has to run on batteries. We were horrified to find that 6 brand new Duracell AAs lasted about an hour and a half! At first, we thought it had been left on accidently so we replced the dead batteries with another half dozen. The following day the same result! I had gone into the menu to adjust the light setting so it only came on for 10 secs at the commencment of operations but this obviously made no difference.
[QUOTE]

An hour and a half? Man, just wipe and get out o' there. It'll save yer battery money.

[Bryn]

Sorry rauchwerk, is you you who has the verbal flatus problem. The Roberts Ecologic uses a much more recent DAB chip set than most. Short battery life was a major problem with DAB portables from the start. It is only fairly recently that some manufacturers have made some of their DAB portables using the less power hungry chip sets. I have several DAB receivers, none of which are of recent enough manufacture to use the low energy chip sets. The clue is in the name Roberts gave to the radio you have, "Ecologic". A few years ago Freeplay brought out their Devo model wind-up radio. Here is the section of the specification relating to power drain:

Continuous Playtime:
- Fully Charged Battery - 6 hours (DAB normal volume)
- Fully Charged Battery - 36 hours (FM normal volume)
- 60 Second Wind - 3-5 minutes (DAB normal volume)
- 60 second wind - 1 hour (FM normal volume)
note play time will vary between volume settings

Unsurprisingly it has since been withdrawn from the market.

[pastoralguy]

In your brief trial while the batteries lasted, did you not find that the new set was not in sync with the bedroom radio anyway? I thought all digital radios had different time delays, so they are never in sync with analogue or eachother.

The bedroom and loo radios were pretty much in synch. A lot better than the 3.5 second delay we have with out current set up.

Back to the drawing board!

[Bryn]

Further re. the very recent changes to DAB power requirements, see this 2007 article and note that it refers to development expected in 2 to 3 years from the time of the article,

[salymap]

Some people have mentioned a solar DAB radio in the bathroom/loo if it has a sunny outlook.Not so good in the present weather obviously.

[Anna]

DAB reception here is dire, so I rely on FM. OK, I can listen via FreeSat or the computer, but neither is convenient due to the rooms they are in, so long may FM continue as I want a radio that will operate in any room and I also need LW (for the cricket!)

Why, on FM, is R3 reception so poor (particularly in the evening) whereas Classic FM is clear as a bell? Is it one of life's mysteries?