[worldlad]

Fun kids will be coming off D1 in October 2009, the big question is who will get the big national DAB channel?

Smooth
LBC
Chill

Or another station?

[hanssolo]

Depends on the outcome of the Ofcom consultation and the Digital economy bill being passed.
If Classic FM gets it's licence extended automatically in the Digital economy bill rather than gp to auction, Global in return will go all out to support DAB and might put a version of LBC and Galaxy on D1, maybe freeing space on MXR for other smaller stations to expand coverage (like maybe Chill! and also Jazz FM in Yorkshire) but also later expand MXR to go national.

However putting Galaxy national will also depend on the Ofcom consultation based on the Myer's report as there are local/regional issues to be sorted to make it viable for global, the same holds for GMG putting Smooth national and Bauer's Heat or another station like Q! as they will get local/regional savings to make it easier to go national.
Details are here and it is unusual for a Labour government to be working closely with commercial radio groups for reform! http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/radio/

2.15 Allowing existing regional analogue stations to share all of their programming in return for providing a version of their programme service on a national DAB multiplex could bring competition and choice in national services, a greater range and diversity of content for consumers, and the potential for new investment in programming. Being carried on national DAB, these stations’ local content would become less of a defining characteristic. The level of localness regulation that applies to them, we propose, would be unnecessary and should be removed.

2.16 Due to the specific needs of the nations, we propose that regional stations in Scotland and Wales should have to retain their specific national focus. In Wales, where there are separate regional services for South Wales and North & Mid Wales (not yet launched), these could combine to form a national service for Wales, provided that service was carried on either a national DAB multiplex or all local DAB
multiplexes in Wales.
2.17 The existing national commercial multiplex cannot offer regional variations of either programming or advertising (other than between Scotland and England & Wales).
Such regional capability could benefit listeners, station operators and advertisers. So, if the relevant legislation is passed and spectrum can be secured, we propose to
allow the six existing regional multiplexes (plus one of the three London multiplexes) to combine and extend their areas to form a single national multiplex with the ability
to offer regional opt-out programming and advertising. This would require the allocation of additional spectrum and we would only consent if we were satisfied that
this would satisfy certain criteria, in the interests of listeners. We envisage a short consultation upon receipt of such a request.

Then following a list of current regional stations.

6.10 While some of these regional stations, such as Real Radio in Central Scotland and South Wales, have made a strength of their regional content and effectively become quasi-national stations within their home nation, for others, such as Smooth (in the North West or the West Midlands for example) or Galaxy (in the North East for example) the required regional content has been strongly supplemented by the type of music they play.
6.11 We believe these stations should have the flexibility to become national stations and so should be able to drop regional speech content.

Only one response posted so far from a member of the public.
GMG's Guardian said
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009...edia-ownership

The second consultation proposes allowing some regional commercial radio stations to share all of their programming. To be allowed to do so station owners would then have to agree to provide a version of the service on a national digital audio broadcasting (DAB) multiplex. Ofcom said this would "in effect enable the creation of new national stations with significant scale and reach".

[Anoraks United]

RadioOneGold

[aja]

Originally Posted by Anoraks United

RadioOneGold

I wouldn't bet against it

[Anoraks United]

I was replying tongue in cheek but I would like to see it as well. I'm fed up with musical juke boxes coming & going on DAB it would be nice if there was something there to compete with Gold.

[Gildersleeve]

If it would/could offer a wider range of material to what Gold does now...and some specialist shows which it did under it's other guise...it might be welcomed. It was at the disadvantage of only being carried in part of the country on AM or via satellite.

Whatever one feels about how DAB has been handled in the UK at least it would have access to a UK wide audience if given the chance.

Its one thing to always coomplain or feel that you are in competition with the BBC but as Planet Rock and some others have realised they need to offer something different to the other commercial broadcasters.

[frank james]

If the past is anything to go by it will probably be replaced by silence or birdsong.

[FM_Bandit]

Keeping my fingers crossed for Squirt - but after years of disappointing decisions by Ofcom/the RA I wouldn't be at all surprised to see dance music shunned yet again.

[agill]

Originally Posted by aja

I wouldn't bet against it

Nor would I......

[hanssolo]

Originally Posted by FM_Bandit

Keeping my fingers crossed for Squirt - but after years of disappointing decisions by Ofcom/the RA I wouldn't be at all surprised to see dance music shunned yet again.

Ofcom are hoping Global's Galaxy goes on D1 if they get the changes approved.
Richard Park says Galaxy is "dance" from his broadcast magazine interview.

Park thinks "quite the opposite" and highlights his own stable of stations as testimony to that.

"We've improved choice," he says. "Capital is a hits station, Heart plays everything over four decades. Xfm is guitar-based. Galaxy is a dance station.

[jaybs]

Originally Posted by FM_Bandit

Keeping my fingers crossed for Squirt - but after years of disappointing decisions by Ofcom/the RA I wouldn't be at all surprised to see dance music shunned yet again.

I don't see why any national station should go to either Squirt or Galaxy, we need true national stations that will compete at last with BBC Radio One and Two, on a level playing field.

[FM_Bandit]

Originally Posted by jaybs

I don't see why any national station should go to either Squirt or Galaxy, we need true national stations that will compete at last with BBC Radio One and Two, on a level playing field.

Why do we, when Radio 1 and 2 do a perfectly good job already and virtually every other major commercial radio group is aimed at the same demographic? (Heart, Magic, Smooth, Real...) Surely listeners not already catered for should be the priority. Why do we need yet more of what we've already got all over the FM band?

And Galaxy is a rhythmic pop station, not dance, as has been pointed out on here time and time again. And I don't know how Park kept a straight face saying "Heart plays everything over four decades". If only it did.

[steviedab]

Originally Posted by jaybs

I don't see why any national station should go to either Squirt or Galaxy, we need true national stations that will compete at last with BBC Radio One and Two, on a level playing field.

Well I think that they could be well going on dab, finally! they have been doing test broadcasts over the last few days so it looks like we all could be in for a treat for all dance music fans its looking good at the moment (yes at the moment!)

But there is more than 1 national slot available on the D1 network.

[jezcarter]

[quote=steviedab;35385355]Well I think that they could be well going on dab, finally! they have been doing test broadcasts over the last few days
QUOTE]

Have they really though? Only those who seem to be die hard fans of squirt have heard this station testing on dab and for only a few minutes at a time. Coincidence?

None of the DAB news sites such as Wohnort have listed it whereas normally they are very quick to pick up on new stations, especially on the national mux where lots of people would come across it and report it.

One poster claimed the "test" was labelled as AAC. Why would anyone shell out all that money then use a format that effectively reduced their national coverage. Surely they'd need all the audience they can get to cover the fees.

Sorry if I sound a bit cynical here. I don't begrudge anyone the opportunity and I hope I'm proved wrong, but something really doesn't fit right about this.

[Orangy]

I'm not ruling it out, but why would Galaxy have been rolled out to many of the local multiplexes, replacing Chill, if Global only had to wait 6 weeks before they could have put Galaxy on the national mux. It doesn't make sense to me.

Personally I doubt Galaxy will go on D1 as I get the feeling the brand is going to be developed further with potential for local breakfasts in the morning in various areas, much like Heart now, which is why it's more suited to a local 'plex.

Could be wildly wrong though!

[Westward]

It's more to do with local/regional advertising opportunities rather than local programming.

That's the reason that none of the big commercial brands are on D1 . If MXR extends to the whole of the UK we could end up with MXR & the local muxes being crammed with stations, while D1 is still 30% empty (or more), because of the SFN issue.

[steviedab]

Originally Posted by jezcarter

One poster claimed the "test" was labelled as AAC. Why would anyone shell out all that money then use a format that effectively reduced their national coverage. Surely they'd need all the audience they can get to cover the fees.

That would need to be taken up however, if they did broadcast in AAC which concluded DAB+ (but is DAB+ testing in the UK at the moment - no?), perhaps these are the reasons why and perhaps they want to take hold of developing technologies;

•Latest MPEG-4 audio codec delivers exceptional performance efficiency
•More stations can be broadcast on a multiplex
•Greater station choice for consumer
•More efficient use of radio spectrum
•Lower transmission costs for digital stations
•New receivers backwards compatible with existing MPEG Audio Layer II broadcasts
•Current MPEG Audio Layer II services and consumers unaffected
•Compatible with existing scrolling text and multimedia services
•Robust audio delivery
•Optimised for live broadcast radio

[dpb]

Originally Posted by FM_Bandit

Keeping my fingers crossed for Squirt - but after years of disappointing decisions by Ofcom/the RA I wouldn't be at all surprised to see dance music shunned yet again.

When have they shunned it in the past?

[worldlad]

Does anyone think Chill has any chance at all

[mattd]

Originally Posted by worldlad

Does anyone think Chill has any chance at all

Not in the slightest.

[Dave FM]

Originally Posted by mattd

Not in the slightest.

I agree.

[Spiderpig]

Just a tought but what about W.R.N.

[steviedab]

WRN has nothing to with DAB, they mainly deal with;

Streaming
iPhone Applications
Connectivity infrastructure
Satellite Capacity and Uplink

[Les Wires]

Originally Posted by steviedab

•More stations can be broadcast on a multiplex
•Greater station choice for consumer

Isn't this the main reason it is unlikely to happen in the near future.

The large Radio Groups would not be very happy with competitors entering the market, and keeping spectrum space down to a minimum is one way to guarantee their almost monopoly.

Perhaps this is another reason DRM has been slow to progress.

[steviedab]

Originally Posted by Les Wires

The large Radio Groups would not be very happy with competitors entering the market, and keeping spectrum space down to a minimum is one way to guarantee their almost monopoly.

Digital One and OFCOM have purposly left approx. 30% of the MUX free to allow for fair competition and to allow a chance for brand new and upcoming digital stations 'radio groups that are starting up' to launch rather than allow the big boys to be greedy to swallow the rest of the space, so yes the large radio groups would not be happy. But that's part of the industry game.