Media Guardian writes: RTÉ must have known that axing its mediumwave service would be unpopular, but the Irish broadcaster could not have expected the furore that has followed. RTÉ’s decision to unplug its mediumwave service on the island has provoked a political row that even encompasses the Good Friday agreement.
The station stands accused of abandoning nationalists in the north who, apart from those living in areas close to the frontier, can listen to RTE radio only via mediumwave. They are so incensed that they have taken their grievance all the way up to the Irish foreign minister.
Related story:
on Jan 28th, 2008 at 12:34
Actually this is somewhat misleading given RTE 1 is available via a Sky Digibox/FTA box plus, as people have commented in the past, reception of RTE in some parts of Northern Ireland on FM, is better than in parts of the Republic !
on Jan 28th, 2008 at 12:36
Indeed, but British newspaper journalists never let the facts get in the way of a good story
on Jan 28th, 2008 at 17:33
Good luck with getting that Sky receiver to work in the car.
Or finding a reasonably-priced radio in any part of Ireland which has Long Wave on it. Or finding any car radio with a long wave tuner.
on Jan 28th, 2008 at 18:43
John, the AM signal from RTE1 isn’t great in Northern Ireland and to be honest any decent car radio should pull it in on FM, there are enough TX’s overspilling. I’ll admit the Antrim coast is one area where FM really does fail to get through, but to be fair, in some parts of that coastline, neither do the Northern Ireland services. If you were going to spend the money on a decent AM radio, it should have LW on it. A cheap AM’er simply won’t get an “average punter” a listenable RTE1 signal on MW anyway, there’s far too much “backround noise” about these days.
on Jan 28th, 2008 at 19:21
John - as has been pointed out on other forums a LW radio can be purchased for about £10. Car radios are, admittedly, more of a problem. You have more chance of having a LW radio if you have a French car (due to the widespread use of LW in that country) than if you have a German car.
For the money it is saving in transmission costs, RTE could probably justify subsidising a few cheap LW radios for those listeners in Northern Ireland that can’t pick up the FM signal.
on Jan 28th, 2008 at 21:07
RTE says on its website (http://www.rte.ie/about/pressreleases/2008/0119/rtemediumwave.html):
“*Note: LW 252 carries considerably further than MW. This is especially relevant to the maritime community and the Irish community in Britain.”
Here in Brussels, Belgium, 252 kHz is worthless, while 567 kHz always give reasonably good reception in the evening hours, and in the morning until well after sunrise.
on Jan 29th, 2008 at 22:23
And it doesn’t matter how far the signal carries, if your radio doesn’t have LW you won’t hear it!
on Feb 9th, 2008 at 18:24
RTE 252 gives good reception here in Holland, it sounds even louder then BBC 4 on 198 as a result of much better modulation.
However during the evening a North African station blocks the signal from Ireland.
For those who want LW in their car:
There are more car-radioos with LW than it seems.
First of al car-radio retailers never advertise the AM reception option, but many brands radioos like Pioneer or Kenwood DO have longwave, indicated as AM. But this bands comprises of MW AND LW, just go to the end of the MW band and it flips to LW.
Disadvantage, you have only 6 presets for MW and LW, I prefer separated bands.
ruud
on Feb 11th, 2008 at 16:33
The Irish News is carrying nearly six pages of coverage on this issue today, on the effect of this move on people in the North.
I work with an organisation called Ean (the emigrant advice network), which is aimed at the needs of Irish emigrants around the world - we’re concerned particularly about the effect of this move on emigrants in Britain - we’re concerned that older people who may have been dependent on the AM service for years may have difficulties with the switchover.
But it’s interesting to see the reports from Holland and Brussels here as well!
on Mar 6th, 2008 at 08:40
I live in Co. Cork and find that for the last 12 months I’ve had regular breakdowns or interruptions to the RTE Radio 1 service on FM. Yesterday it happened just before the start of the 1 O’Clock news on radio 1 so I retuned to the local AM transmitter on 729m. I had only just moved over to it when they made an announcement that this transmitter along with the bigger one in the midlands on 567m will be closing down and I should retune to Long Wave - a transmitter in Co. Meath nearly 180 miles away from me. Long Wave is notoriously prone to electrical interference and in the area I live there are milking machines, small factories and shops with heavy electrical equipment that make Long Wave almost impossible to listen to. This decision to close down the Medium Wave service is a disgrace.
on Mar 11th, 2008 at 10:07
to the persons who commented and doubted the validity of the British Journalists claim on NI reception of RTE. The 600,000 people in the Greater Belfast area knew MW was the only way to hear radio 1 on a potable radio. RTE knew this and were forced to concede moving LyricFM 87.8FM to 95.2 & RTE Radio from 95.2 to 87.8 due to adjacent Radio Ulster signal on 95.1 from North Antrim coast. This a move RTE could have made any time in the past number of years (15years), the move is effective 9am 14/03/2008.
Yesterday I learned from the Department of Communication in Dublin, who were informed by RTE, that the MW shutdown on 24/03/2008 is happening so that they can direct cost savings (€1M p/a?) into DAB roll out in Ireland which despite it being on trial is been aggressively rolled out countrywide. I kid you not. This is what I was told, on further examination it seems to be part of RTE\’s very short term strategy. A medium length strategy they do not have, and soon the wont have a medium wave to put it on if they ever do get a medium to long term strategy. FWIW DAB in 23 years out of Demo mode. They are killing off 80 years of MW just before it may breath new life with DRM in favour of mpeg2 DAB which is failing on a tech & business level in our nearest neighbours market the UK.
on May 5th, 2008 at 09:57
I am not suprised that RTE closed the Tullamore MW transmitter, when they have to pay € 180,500 wages just to one professional broadcaster! I’ve no doubt in the next few years they’ll pull the plug on LW TX and tell us to use the internet or satellite to listen outside the Republic.
on May 6th, 2008 at 09:41
I can only see them(eventually)moving to DRM on LW and doing things this way(and no receivers in the consumer marketplace to get it;which is a pointless futile exercise!)