Absolute Radio to switch off all AM transmitters across the UK - Printable Version
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RE: Absolute Radio to switch off all AM transmitters across the UK - London Lite - 04-06-2023
(04-06-2023, 01:26 PM)WillPS Wrote: I imagine commercial AM stations, other than talkSport perhaps, will be hurriedly culling their transmission contracts now. Listenership must be tiny.
Unless the local MW licenses are tied to FM ones?
Bauer have closed numerous AM transmitters which have had Greatest Hits Radio on them including Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Lancashire and Swansea along with Radio City Talk in Liverpool . (There was also 1161 in Hull that briefly had a relay of Magic Radio UK fed from a DAB receiver). Global have closed Smooth Radio AM relays, but still have a substantial network of them still transmitting along with Gold in London, Manchester, Derby, Norttingham, Cambridge and Peterborough.
RE: Absolute Radio to switch off all AM transmitters across the UK - Stooky Bill - 04-06-2023
I think that most of the Smooth MW transmitters that closed were for licensing or other reasons. For example the old Radio 210 MW transmitters in the Reading both closed because Arqiva were evicted from the site when it was sold for development. Because they were the same license the other also had to close.
IIRC the Smooth transmitter in Exeter, formerly Gemini, closed due to competition licensing issues
Bauer have closed a lot. In the West Midlands, they did format swaps so Free Radio 80s went from MW to FM to launch GHR, and put the rock format previously on FM (Kerrang, then Planet Rock then Absolute) onto MW carrying Absolute Classic Rock. They then turned them off a few years later
RE: Absolute Radio to switch off all AM transmitters across the UK - James2001 - 04-06-2023
I think the Welsh language show on GHR in South Wales was a condition of the AM licence, seeing as they closed down the AM transmitter late last year, I wonder how much longer it will last, it's already tucked away in the 22:00-1:00 slot, I can't imagine it gets many listeners, especially as it's not an area of Wales with a large number of Welsh speakers. I guess they don't want to be seen to be removing it pretty much straight away, like they did with the rest of their Welsh originating content, but I can see it being dropped quietly in the not too distant future.
When I was in Somerset last year and could only pick up the Welsh version, it was a bizarre listen, especially some of the music that was played (Welsh folk music mixed in with the usual Bowie and Abba). Even more so with all the stings and jingles still being in English.
RE: Absolute Radio to switch off all AM transmitters across the UK - London Lite - 04-06-2023
(04-06-2023, 08:57 PM)James2001 Wrote: I think the Welsh language show on GHR in South Wales was a condition of the AM licence, seeing as they closed down the AM transmitter late last year, I wonder how much longer it will last, it's already tucked away in the 22:00-1:00 slot, I can't imagine it gets many listeners, especially as it's not an area of Wales with a large number of Welsh speakers.
When I was in Somerset last year and could only pick up the Welsh version, it was a bizarre listen, especially some of the music that was played (Welsh folk music mixed in with the usual Bowie and Abba). Even more so with all the stings and jingles still being in English.
If you think GHR South Wales is bad for tick box Welsh songs, check out Capital Cymru in Anglesey & Gwynedd. Unlike other Capital stations, it has no networking except for the Big Top 40 with Welsh language presenters and Welsh music mixed in with Top 40 songs.
RE: Absolute Radio to switch off all AM transmitters across the UK - James2001 - 04-06-2023
I guess at least Capital does broadcast to heavily Welsh speaking areas, and being entirely Welsh content it doesn't stick out like the GHR show does against the rest of the schedule.
RE: Absolute Radio to switch off all AM transmitters across the UK - BBI45 - 04-06-2023
It is quite interesting to see how despite the steady decline in AM listening, Bauer and Global have taken very different approaches.
Frequency Finder has a list of all the AM stations from 1978 to today, and you can see how the closures breaks down.
Global:
- Gold (Exeter & Torbay) (Gemini) - 2008
- Gold (Surrey) (Mercury) - 2011
- Smooth (Bristol & Bath) (GWR) - 2016
- Smooth (Berkshire & North Hampshire) (Radio 210) - 2015
- Smooth (Beds, Herts & Bucks) (Chiltern) - 2020
- Smooth (South Wales) (Red Dragon) - 2020
Bauer:
- Absolute Classic Rock 990/1017 (Black Country & Shropshire) (Beacon) - 2020
- Absolute Classic Rock 1152 (Birmingham) (BRMB) - 2020
- Greatest Hits Radio (Leeds) (Radio Aire) - 2021
- Greatest Hits Radio (Lancashire) (Red Rose) - 2021
- Greatest Hits Radio (Manchester) - 2021
- Greatest Hits Radio (Teesside) (Radio Tees) - 2023
- Greatest Hits Radio (Staffordshire & Cheshire) (Signal) - 2023
- Greatest Hits Radio (South Wales) (Swansea Sound) - 2022
- Greatest Hits Radio (Bradford) (Pennine) - 2023
- Greatest Hits Radio (Coventry & Warwickshire) (Mercia) - 2020
- Magic (East Yorkshire & Northern Lincolnshire) (Viking) - 2021
- Northsound 2 - 2018
- Radio City Talk - 2020
It is quite interesting to see the contrast between the two companies. Global only seems to be closing transmitters down when they need to, which made for an interesting situation in when transmitters in Peterborough and Northamptonshire switched to Smooth in 2014, only to switch back to Gold in 2019 when Smooth replaced Connect FM in the area.
In comparison, Bauer seems to just switch them off once there is sufficient coverage on either FM or DAB. Although there are a couple of exceptions:
- Greatest Hits Radio (South Wales) - When Swansea Sound was replaced, there was a bit of a stir in the Welsh Parliament because local programming was set to be scrapped. Bauer somewhat back-tracked and agreed to keep local content from 6am-7pm, along with a Welsh language programme as part of their AM licence conditions. Bauer surrendered the AM license in 2022 and shortly after scrapped all local shows except the evening show in Welsh.
- Magic (East Yorkshire & Northern Lincolnshire) - As part of the terms of their buyout of Lincs FM Group, KCFM in Hull was sold to Nation under a licensing agreement. The GHR AM service for the same area was switched to Magic for a few months as KCFM became GHR, before the AM license was again surrendered.
- Northsound 2 - This one was actually prompted by transmitter site redevelopment
- Radio City Talk - Bauer claim that the station was shuttered because it wasn't financially viable. Don't doubt that, but interesting that it took so long for them to do anything.
(Sorry for the long, rambling post. However, I needed to get a bit of geekery out)
Whilst putting this together, I noticed the discussion about Welsh language programming going on above. I actually went on a day trip to Llandudno earlier, and used it as an excuse to check out Capital Cymru. I must say that whilst the content does work IMO, it is a slightly weird mix. I think it would be better if it was part of the Smooth network, given that the English version of Capital is available on DAB in Anglesey & Gwynedd and on FM in other areas. Just a quirk of what happened after GMG was bought out really.
RE: Absolute Radio to switch off all AM transmitters across the UK - Stooky Bill - 04-06-2023
Although in London MW is still very active, apart from Absolute and one of the 5 Premier transmitters there's been no closures as far as I know*. A lot of them have changed hands as stations have gone bust/been bought out/swapped but there always seems to be someone willing to take over a frequency.
* I think 1584 is still going, that was London Turkish Radio for years and then Punjab Radio which swapped with Love Sport which then went under. Not sure what it turned into
RE: Absolute Radio to switch off all AM transmitters across the UK - London Lite - 04-06-2023
(04-06-2023, 11:00 PM)Stooky Bill Wrote: Although in London MW is still very active, apart from Absolute and one of the 5 Premier transmitters there's been no closures as far as I know*. A lot of them have changed hands as stations have gone bust/been bought out/swapped but there always seems to be someone willing to take over a frequency.
* I think 1584 is still going, that was London Turkish Radio for years and then Punjab Radio which swapped with Love Sport which then went under. Not sure what it turned into
1584 was Asian FX when Panjab moved to 558, then Jeo Radio, but that tx has since been turned off.
RE: Absolute Radio to switch off all AM transmitters across the UK - BBI45 - 06-06-2023
(04-06-2023, 11:11 PM)London Lite Wrote: 1584 was Asian FX when Panjab moved to 558, then Jeo Radio, but that tx has since been turned off.
Is it certain that 1584 has gone off air? Jeo Radio was owned by the Avtar Lit, who also has family links to Sunrise Radio. When I first heard about Jeo going off air, I wondered if we were going to see Sunrise Smooth launch in its place.
RE: Absolute Radio to switch off all AM transmitters across the UK - Steve in Pudsey - 07-06-2023
The way Bauer handled the AM services in West Yorkshire is quite interesting, they ended up with Pulse (Bradford) becoming Hits but keeping its brand but moving to Leeds, and Aire (Leeds) as GHR.
With both FM services covering most of the patch (Ridings FM in Wakefield as a filler) on FM and all of it on DAB, the AM services (and shiny new Bradford studio building) were redundant.
Arqiva don't seem to be in any hurry to sell off redundant sites, although I guess a lot were leased corners of a farmer's field rather than owned, but the likes of Farnley (Radio Leeds 774AM) was such a long-standing site it would have been BBC owned and passed to Arqiva through the various buy outs?