Listener's Guide - 1999 - The Listeners Guide

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Authority only see it as a dumping ground for Gold-format - that is, endless golden oldiesplayed by someone who was yet to be born when the record was a hit. Musicprogramming made on the assumption that its audience is too old to appreciate FM.In the early days of commercial radio in the Seventies, one of the contributors to the IBAYearbook suggested they should give away a school pencil with a rubber at one end sothe reader could sketch in all the changes as take-over fever hit the industry. The sameis still true today. The Gold stations do make money but a young management does notknow what to do with them. So, it's all change but everything stays the same.Our American readers can only wonder why we have so many problems in our radioindustry. We, the Brits, need to see our broadcasting as art, whereas in the States it issimply a resource. Our American readers may also like to substitute the word "eraser" for"rubber" in the last paragraph unless you are Howard Stern...545KHzLichfield Aeronautical Non-directional Beacon. Very popular with "P for Popsie" pilots inthe UK Midlands but why is it in a broadcast band? Its placing outside the 9KHz spacingused on this band leaves two channels that can't be developed. Callsign LIC.558KHzSpectrum International. We have been asked what a "multi-ethnic incremental" is.Simply, it is a small station using many languages, quite successfully too.567KHzRTE Radio 1. As this was being compiled, the threat of peace hangs over this troubledcountry. To form a true opinion, free from the rhetoric of career journalists, listen herefor the news and a gentle style of radio we have not heard since The Home Servicebecame Radio 4.612KHzRTE Radio 2. Can pop music be treated intelligently? It can and can be heard as eveninggathers. A useful one to pre-set on the car radio for night drivers.648KHzBBC 648 for Europe. A special service for Europe from Orford Ness with opt-outs inGerman. Essential listening in the south-east for those in the know and the many whohold the more traditional broadcasting values dear. Watch out for time-checks in CET,Central European Time. A listing can be found on CEEFAX Page 648, times GMT/BST.Also in the better broadsheets and on subscription from Bush House and where everbetter books are sold in and around London. End of commercial.Among the yellowing cuttings that form the research - indeed, research was, believe it ornot, done for this Guide - is one from The Guardian that reads, "Friday 1615, Science inActon."BBC World Service can be heard overnight on your local BBC Station. And on Radio 4Long-wave, Radio Scotland and on Astra. If the satellite technology defeats you, you arein good company.In the South-east, daytime World Service can be heard on 648 and for limited periods,on 1296.648 is good enough for in-car reception in Central London, the only drawback being theopt-outs in German and other main European languages. This has some value forlanguage teachers stuck on the M25 marking German homework. Meanwhile, back inGermany they are all teaching English...It's open season for the rest of us. We must resort to short-wave if we wantuninterrupted listening to World Service. Meanwhile, it was one Jasper Carrot whoremarked that the chances of finding a radio station in English after midnight drivinghome from a gig were on a par with a snowball in Hades. The same skip effect thatbrought you Radio Luxembourg from the Grand Duchy is also responsible for the foreignvoices fading in behind the Sony Award winning sound of your favourite local station asdarkness falls. The skip is perfect to bring Central Europe to your door so, as the goodCarrot observed, most night reception seems to German. Looking back, they do seem tohave thrown a towel or two over some of our popular channels.873KHzAFRTS Europe from Frankfurt. The American Forces Radio and Television Service servesa slice of apple pie to the troops in Europe.930KHzCJYQ Newfoundland. One of the benefits of a falling sunspot count, the North AmericanDX season opens up. Stations from across the pond can be heard around midnight as UKlocal radio closes down. Signal strengths can be high enough to allow reception onmodest sets, the problem is the Americans use a 10KHz spacing where we use 9KHz.
This will cause interference in all but the best receivers but the variety of frequencies a9KHz spacing produces gives more interesting work to UK jingle writers.945KHzGEM AM. The all-oldies outlet of Midlands Radio PLC. Don't look away from the monitortoo long or it will have changed it's name along with the other "Gold Format" AMstations. While researching this, I was in touch with the Radio Authority asking for ageneral listing of which contractor is using what frequency. They, the controlling body didnot know - contact National Transcommunications Ltd who run the transmitters. NTL didnot know - they only send it, they don't know what it is. Could I write to each station inturn?Well, not really. But it does concern me that the industry changes faster than itsgoverning body can monitor it.It is difficult to identify Oldie stations as, not only do they sound the same, they are thesame. A feed for up to five transmitters comes from one studio. Digital sampling is usedto insert the local ident in each feed to an area transmitter on a command from the mainstudio.You think you have local radio, but it is only a part of a regional set-up.1215KHzVirgin 1215. Poor old Richard Branson. Those who remember Brian Matthew on SaturdayClub will recall the upstart Radio 1 starting up here in 1967. They called it 247 metres inthose days and even then BBC engineers said this channel had a jinx on it. Louder inHolland than it ever was in the UK, Radio 3 used its experience here as a real case forFM-only during the mid-Seventies. In the meantime, the Radio Authority will have tokeep building Richard AM relays in a vain attempt to beat off the night-time joys ofAlbanian Radio from downtown Lushnje.1296KHzBBC World Service, Orford Ness. Much as 648 but with more English language teachingand mid-European services as above. Less used now, Merlin Communications are lookingfor another European customer for this channel.1368KHzManx Radio, Isle of Man. Listeners on the west coast can hear TT Race commentary. Thisis the UK's first commercial radio station. It may not have been this station but the firstadvert we remember was for Camel Lites, an American cigarette brand. What my fouryear-oldimagination could not handle was the need to ride a camel after dark anyway...STOP PRESS: The Isle of Man to get Pan-European Long-Wave Radio?1386KHzRadio Moscow via Kaliningrad. There's a name off the old station glass...The trend over recent years is to have your message broadcast on the normal AM bandof your target country in the hope of higher audiences than could be expected for shortwave.Bless you, short-wave radio fan, but in the ratings game - the game accountantsplay more part in these days - the figures can be all but dismissed. You can do this byhiring air-time on local radio for a fistful of roubles or you can buy land in your targetarea and set up a relay station. Moscow got in early with this million-watt powerhouse,now audible in the UK.1630KHzWAFE, Baltimore. Our sudden interest in FM is not new. Over in the States, the rate oftake-up of FM frequencies is great, the regulating body - the FCC - is trying to revitalizeAM by extending the band to 1750KHz. Just who will have the radios to hear the newstations we don't know, but on this side of The Pond experimental stations like this oneare real catches.Future experimental stations will have a 2 in the callsign.Soap Box Corner Looks at AM Dx'ingIt has to be said. Sometimes, a portable radio will outperform a communications classreceiver costing up to fifteen times the price, or seem to. True, it will only be at theselower frequencies when the ferrite rod antenna is in use. The ferrite rod only reacts tothe magnetic part of the electro-magnetic radio wave. This component is much lessprone to the interference suffered by a long-wire swinging about in the electrical part ofthe passing wavefront. Most interference has a strong electrical field, so medium-wavelistening on a portable often seems clearer - a better signal-to-noise ratio - than on thebig receiver.
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Listener's Guide - 1999 - The Listeners Guide

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