The long-awaited Dutch talk station with the working title Arrow Talks is set to launch on mediumwave 828 kHz in the second quarter of 2009. The station will also take over the cable frequencies and Internet stream of Caz! which will be closed. That’s apparent from an advertising rate card issued by the station’s owners, as reported on various Dutch media sites. The actual on-air name of the new station has not yet been announced.
on Jan 29th, 2009 at 14:56
How many times did we read that Arrow Talks was about to start. This time it is not even confirmed, it is just a rate card that shows something.
Meanwhile the government started a procedure against Arrow to cash it’s money. Arrow must pay some 5 million Euro per year only for the bidsum on the 2 FM-outlets. On top of that the Spectrum Fees and the costs for 828. Some rumours are going that Arrow is about to come down, The Spectrum Agency, so fast as they were to withdraw licences from a small AM-company, (basicly for to much critisism), the reluctant they are in taking measures against Arrow when they do not meet the requirements
on Jan 29th, 2009 at 16:12
I think Arrow also hired the right to use 1035 kHz, still silent. What are they going to do about that frequency?
on Jan 29th, 2009 at 17:06
Apart from 1035, also 1485, 1557, 1224 (40 kW!) are still silent. Most of them were taken away from Quality Radio for not being on air. As it stands the new owners are not able to fire these channels up before the roll out period expires. This could mean that QR was right and the government has acted too hard against her. QR sees the withdrawal mainly as a punishment for being too critical.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 19:35
How about the denial at http://www.caz.nl ? Here they say that they will “voorlopig” continue via cable and online.
Is “voorlopig” the same big backdoor than the German “vorläufig” = “for the time being”?
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 21:07
Yes, voorplig and vorläufig have the same meaning. But interestingly it doesn’t say that there are no plans to close it. The rumour about the dropping of 828 kHz is confirmed, and the station will continued ‘for the time being’ on cable and Internet - which is to be expected as they don’t want to risk losing their cable frequencies.
But whether the new talk station will ever materialise is, as Ruud said in the first comment, a good question. The URL arrowtalks.nl has been registered for many months now, but these rumours about the company’s financial position persist - although I must point out that the rumours have been denied by the station.
on Feb 1st, 2009 at 09:52
I can only assume they’ve forgotten they have a satellite release then ..?
on Feb 1st, 2009 at 13:33
Either forgotten, or the plan is to put the new 828 kHz station on the satellite channel, too? I was just wondering what they still want to do with Caz! after launching a new talk station, since it was my understanding that they bought it only to get the FM frequencies for Arrow Classic Rock and now use it to keep the mediumwave outlet alive. But on the other hand this is so far a mere phantom discussion.
Btw, does anybody believe that the other reallocated mediumwave frequencies besides 828 kHz (for which an operational transmission facility already existed) will ever go on air?