The Disco Palace has started broadcasting the best of disco music of all time to listeners across Europe and North America using Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM). The Disco Palace is based in Miami, USA and owned by Alyx & Yeyi, LLC. The programme schedule includes hits from the USA, hits from the UK, great hits of the 1970s and 1980s, slow disco hits, etc. Times, frequencies and contact information are on the station’s website. The broadcast service provider is TDP and the broadcasts are via TDF facilities. The current shortwave schedule according to the DRM Software Radio Forums is:
To Europe: 1400-1500 UTC on 6015 kHz Issoudun, using 60 kW RMS and 2/2 antenna at 60° as on TDPradio transmissions.
To North America: 1900- 2000 UTC: TDPradio, 2000- 2100 UTC: The Disco Palace.
- Frequency: 17755 kHz
- Power: 100 kW RMS
- Antenna: 4 / 4 at 311°
DRM parameters:
- DRM B mode
- Bandwidth: 10 kHz
- MSC = 64 QAM
- CR = 0,6
- encoding : AAC + SBR.
- Parametric stereo: to be confirmed
(Source: The Disco Palace)
Andy Sennitt comments: I wish them well. However, a new RNW survey of over 1000 Dutch expats has revealed that nobody under the age of 35 listens to RNW on shortwave, which was hardly a surprise to me. Only a handful of shortwave listeners (literally a few hundred) have DRM receivers, so it isn’t clear who this service is intended for. And since the broadcasts are in the local afternoons, I would imagine that any potential listeners are likely to be at work or school. Or am I missing something?
on Feb 10th, 2010 at 14:39
I am in line with your comment Andy.
Also nobody will try and find a station that only provides music for a couple of hours with many alternatives doing 24/7.
SW is for 35 + and what do they expect from SW additional to their local content.
Good unbiased News, and music that is not or limited available on other platforms. Examples: Oldies 60-80, Jazz/Oldies 40-50, Salsa, “Bollywood”. Dynamic and catchy. With personlaity presenters.
And more News then just 1 minute 30 sec bulletins. So current affairs for say 15 min at certain times of the day.
Platforms SW and Internet, Satellite.
The production of these formats is rather cheap, and can be done by major broadcasters, most of them already have a newsroom, so this comes at no extra costs.
on Feb 10th, 2010 at 20:42
I guess the potential audiences for such a format rarely go still to school…
What are the other businesses of the company that runs this project, Alyx & Yeyi? Their website says that “we count with more than 12 years working as a service provider of worldwide radio broadcasting in Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East and North America. Alyx & Yeyi owns the required technical infrastructure in order to provide broadcasting service to Latin America and the Caribbean Region …”.
And, if you allow me to make no secret of this circumstance, what I read between the lines of this press release is despair:
http://www.drm.org/news/detail/news/new-drm-channel-of-disco-music/
on Feb 11th, 2010 at 08:43
from the disco palace website, it seems they emphasize DRM’s audio quality (over analogue shortwave)
“This digital radio technology replaces the traditional technology and provides the best audio quality” and “the maximum level of audio quality that you find in the market.”
That might be true as far as “wireless” radio goes, but of course Andy is right that almost no-one has a DRM set. As someone though without a speedy internet connection, I hope there is something in the future which allows me to listen to English-language radio which isn’t internet-based. But so far it seems DRM is making little to no progress: not many broadcasters, not many sets, not much awareness. I still don’t get why the BBC WS put some much effort into DRM if (as almost everyone reading these pages seems to think) DRM is waste of time. Apart from having their BBC/DW channel, they even go to the bother of recording trails which mention the time in CET of programmes and say “on DRM, digital radio”. Maybe it has something to do with BBC WS being a big organization…it will be interesting to see if their commitment to DRM extends into the next broadcasting season.