Times have changed. Who listens to fm pirate

[Ian]

It clearly isn’t what it was..in anyway shape or form. What do you left t listen to? Pirate fm ? Or DAB pirate style? Who’s your favourite Dj??

[OldskoolPirate]

I listen to fm in the car all the time and I have a modern car. Better than a cd or streaming. It comes on straight away so just easier. All the Dab i stations are crap.

Sometimes I even listen indoors on fm but not that often.

I wish everyone would stop saying it’s dead, it’s not dead, it’s just the people who used to listen to radio a lot now don’t listen anymore. I never used to listen to radio at all in the 90s until I discovered pirates. And most people don’t have stereos indoors anymore. It’s just not as popular anymore. Doesn’t mean it’s fully dead.

[Ian]

Centreforce is pretty good also been listening to Unity DAB a bit lately. Not bad. Release your s good too on DAB

[famefm]

Pointblank who used to be on 90.2 haven't changed one bit they are dab now and are OK so not every thing is crap on dab the one's that don't work for me are the ancient pirates that hadn't been on for years that are back now on dab

[urbanocturnal]

It clearly isn’t what it was..in anyway shape or form. What do you left t listen to? Pirate fm ? Or DAB pirate style? Who’s your favourite Dj??

Infrared FM 105.15 have that authentic old vibe going, but with new music! Posted a recording of their live Xmas Eve set on my blog (yes, actually recorded off FM ) so you can see what I mean.

[Ian]

Thanks for that . Had a listen to it. Good stuff will keep an ear out when I’m in the car!

[OldskoolPirate]

That nothing. I still record fm to cassette just for giggles in the future. Can just Chuck in a tape and listen back to 2020 pirates in 2030 haha

[teckniqs]

I am gonna do a poll next week so lets see how many people still listen to FM radio....

[zoostorm]

I largely stream Kool and Eruption online.

[nrglcb2016]

Still listen to vision on FM , in work it's either vision or live FM due to the crappy stereo we got

[reverend]

A legal station in Oxford (Jack 3 and Chill - silly name if you ask me) moved from DAB only to DAB and FM (107.9) and immediately tripled their audience (as measured by Rajar). I think that says it all for the importance of FM!

[famefm]

I am not surprised I think select radio are very happy with fm for South London that can actually be heard across most of London and it's much cheaper than the London wide dab price

[Ian]

I am not surprised I think select radio are very happy with fm for South London that can actually be heard across most of London and it's much cheaper than the London wide dab price

out of interest, any idea what the cost are ? For a DAB or FM license?

[Albert H]

I am not surprised I think select radio are very happy with fm for South London that can actually be heard across most of London and it's much cheaper than the London wide dab price

out of interest, any idea what the cost are ? For a DAB or FM license?

OFCOM seem to charge whatever they think that they can get away with!

They claim that pricing is proportional to prospective audience coverage and population density, but this is certainly untrue since some stations (never ex-pirates, incidentally) are particularly favoured. It is well known in the broadcast industry that OFCOM are essentially corrupt, and various licence infractions by the "big boys" are mysteriously overlooked, "probably" by means of fat brown envelopes handed over in pub car parks.....

[famefm]

I was told about 800 for a fm license at 50 watts but that was 4 years ago as apposed to 10000 for London wide dab

[famefm]

A year

[mpx]

It's the multiplex owners who set the rate, you pay a flat fee to Ofcom for the license. I think we are quite some way off to where DAB equals FM for listener numbers.

[Albert H]

TBH mpx, it'll never happen. The major migration away from broadcast radio is to online services:

DAB is very poorly implemented, and is a surprisingly aged system - original DAB still uses MP2! DAB+ is better (in some ways), but still doesn't "hit the spot". There's the huge problem that people who were persuaded to buy expensive DAB radios can't receive DAB+ services, so many stations are unavailable to them, and there's no way to upgrade their expensive receivers to allow them to receive everything in their area. This incompatibility has been part of the collapse of DAB listenership. It's never going to become a mass market broadcast product.

[famefm]

Got it in one it's fm for me or via the phone

[reverend]

DAB transmission rates on SSDAB are about £1000 to £2000 per year for 48kbps.