[Steve in Pudsey]

Nothing has really changed technically with FM since stereo was introduced, I can't see there being much opportunity to reduce the size of the subbands. I don't know whether single frequency networks are viable on FM?

[Stooky Bill]

Where does this leave TalkSport and 5Live? The three stations typically share transmitter sites from the days when the frequencies were Radio 1,2 and 3.

Presumably at some point Arqiva will be looking to renegotiate the charges it makes for the use of these sites as the common parts are now shared between two rather than three?

Supposedly Talksport will stay as long on MW as 5 Live is, with them both competing with football commentary they won't want to give that up to the BBC

I think 5 Live is due to come off MW at the latest by the end of 2027

[James2001]

I had no idea how much history 1215 AM had. Even more poignant to see it go.

I've seen people being anal and pointing out it was 1214 until 1978, as if 1kHz makes a difference.

---

And Radio 4 LW must have a very low listenership these days given they're on FM too. I can't be the only one who doesn't even have a radio capable of picking up LW anymore.

I wonder how many listeners it has from outside the UK (admittedly not within the BBC's remit), or indeed on boats, which is the reason why they have the shipping forecast (and why the shipping forecast was on the Light Programme/Radio 2 when they were on Longwave before 1978).

[Steve in Pudsey]

It may have been 1214 but it was always quoted as 247m, which 1215kHz still is.

[Spencer]

I had no idea how much history 1215 AM had. Even more poignant to see it go.

I've seen people being anal and pointing out it was 1214 until 1978, as if 1kHz makes a difference.

---

And Radio 4 LW must have a very low listenership these days given they're on FM too. I can't be the only one who doesn't even have a radio capable of picking up LW anymore.

I wonder how many listeners it has from outside the UK (admittedly not within the BBC's remit), or indeed on boats, which is the reason why they have the shipping forecast (and why the shipping forecast was on the Light Programme/Radio 2 when they were on Longwave before 1978).

Surely mariners don’t rely on Radio 4 Long Wave anymore to know what the weather conditions are at sea.

[Dadeki]

Nice to see famous YouTube personality John Jurasek aka. TheReportOfTheWeek, best known for his fast food reviews, comment on the closure of Absolute MW:

[VMPhil]

This is the best quality copy I've found, recorded directly from an AM receiver.

www.youtube.com 

[Stooky Bill]

There's a clean copy of the closedown and the ad break announcements from the last week in Internet Archive. They were recorded from the satellite feed used for distributing the station to the transmitters
archive.org 

Absolute Radio AM Closedown - Closing Messages and 1215 Tribute : Bauer Media Lt…
Absolute Radio stopped broadcasting on AM on 2023-01-20, bringing 30 years of co…
  Source: archive.org

[Stooky Bill]

I had no idea how much history 1215 AM had. Even more poignant to see it go.

I've seen people being anal and pointing out it was 1214 until 1978, as if 1kHz makes a difference.

---

And Radio 4 LW must have a very low listenership these days given they're on FM too. I can't be the only one who doesn't even have a radio capable of picking up LW anymore.

I wonder how many listeners it has from outside the UK (admittedly not within the BBC's remit), or indeed on boats, which is the reason why they have the shipping forecast (and why the shipping forecast was on the Light Programme/Radio 2 when they were on Longwave before 1978).

Ships have better ways of finding out the weather forecast these days, the shipping forecast itself is mostly obsolete. 

There's 3 real reasons 198 LW still exists - switching electricity meters, the shipping forecast and British people abroad who want to listen to Radio 4. 

The first one is the only thing that's keeping it going and that doesn't actually need to have any radio broadcast alongside it. The equivalent French system stopped broadcasting a few years ago but kept the data transmission

[Spencer]

There's 3 real reasons 198 LW still exists - switching electricity meters, the shipping forecast and British people abroad who want to listen to Radio 4. 

Is the final point a genuine reason, or just an inadvertent bonus for expats? The BBC doesn’t have any obligation to provide its domestic services to people outside the country. Plus wouldn’t the vast majority of British people abroad have been listening online for many years now anyway?