It would appear that some people are happier talking about bitrates than what is actually delivered...mind you, with some stations it's probably more interesting...;-)
I'm far from happy talking about bit rates. But LBC sounds very poor now ... and as far as I can tell the reason is bit rate. What do you suggest we talk about ?
The carriage rental costs are proportional to the bitrate.
According to reports 64k on Digital 1 costs about £500k per annum, so stereo would be almost double that.
I can see that it probably doesn't make sense for a speech station to pay double for stereo ... but I really think that they should pay for more mono bandwidth. The station just sounds "amateur" at the moment.
I can see that it probably doesn't make sense for a speech station to pay double for stereo ... but I really think that they should pay for more mono bandwidth. The station just sounds "amateur" at the moment.
It was 80k in London, they have now left the local mux leaving LBC News at 48k and AM with London only content, but there is no space left on D1 to go 80k.
At least it is still FM London and any DSO is years away, for the previous listeners on the MXR muxes 64k is an improvement on 48k.
But bitrate is not always the reason for poor sound, might be a digital to analogue back to digital part of the transmission chain where levels might not be right or wrongly set processing?
Currently there is far to much discussion and talk of London, last night while listening to Clive Bull he had a conversation about pollution with London yet again been highlighted amongst other conversations I'm coming across.
Another example was this morning mentioning food banks again only London was highlighted, strange as this topic has effected every city and town in the UK.
As somebody who is listening outside of London, I am just not interested in discussions like this, nor am I interested in the continuous traffic and travel updates by certain presenters always updating the National listeners on problems either in London or just outside such as Kent/Essex. Oddly some traffic and travel updates give a proper update for the whole of the UK but it seems to be dependent on who is reading it, the worst updates are from Andy who updates during the breakfast shows which he seems to refuse to announce anything outside the M25. A friend of mine called him one morning to question this, and Andy became extremely irate began shouting and slammed the phone down! Very Professional!
Something i have noticed are the callers going on air which are quite obviously not living in London, the presenter does not give out a location for them I wouldn't say this is happening all of the time but it's happening enough for people to notice, I've read several other discussions about this refusal to provide a location if outside of London.
Unfortunately if LBC want 'Leading Britain's Conversation' to become as successful as the station deserves changes need to be made. And a investigation as to why some presenters seem to take the 'National' identity seriously and others not so....
I still don't see the need for a London station to be nationwide. Most people in the North have probably never even heard of LBC or have any wish to listen to it. How are they advertising it up there anyway to get new listeners?
It must work the same in the South. Personally I've got no reason to listen to any local radio for Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield etc. I'm in London and listen to my local stations.
Seems to be struggling to not lose its core London audience yet at the same time reach out to the rest of the country. Everything is introduced as "In London and in the rest of the country ...".
Sorry. Not a good way to make new friends who are left feeling like gooseberries on the outside peering in at the party.
I'm a Londoner and I've been listening for over thirty years.
If LBC becomes distinctly non-London, then I will stop listening. I just don't want to listen to a national radio station.
I can't be alone in feeling this way. LBC is in great danger of losing its traditional audience ... and I can't see it picking up a national one to replace it.
We always hear about the quarterly RAJAR figures (or at least a spin on them which shows how well the station is doing). I wonder if we'll be hearing about the next ones with the same fanfare ?
I'm a Londoner and I've been listening for over thirty years.
If LBC becomes distinctly non-London, then I will stop listening. I just don't want to listen to a national radio station.
I can't be alone in feeling this way. LBC is in great danger of losing its traditional audience ... and I can't see it picking up a national one to replace it.
We always hear about the quarterly RAJAR figures (or at least a spin on them which shows how well the station is doing). I wonder if we'll be hearing about the next ones with the same fanfare ?
The rajars have been showing a gentle reach increase q on q for a while so will still increase, appart from 5 live there is no alternative. Nationally there is a void left by Talksport going sport only, but looks like LBC will keep enough topics of interest to Londoners going?
Perhaps Global may have been taken back by how passionate the small numbers of regional MXR listeners were when LBC was removed, and saw an opertunity to get on D1 when a new Jazz station to replace JazzFM did not materialise?
I still don't see the need for a London station to be nationwide. Most people in the North have probably never even heard of LBC or have any wish to listen to it. How are they advertising it up there anyway to get new listeners?
It must work the same in the South. Personally I've got no reason to listen to any local radio for Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield etc. I'm in London and listen to my local stations.
They are not advertising in the North. Like most radio and TV services they are arrogant and think people should search their EPGs etc daily which of course they don't. A few adverts on the back of busses would probably work wonders.
Since the change I have started experiencing an odd thing. When I try to turn off, or pause, my radio I often find it unresponsive with the recording light bizarrely on. A message appears about updating the EPG data !!!
This didn't used to happen. I can only think that it has something to do with the new MUX that the station now occupies.
[HDCriticalFan] The same thing is happening with my Pure Evoke 3. I think it has something to do with the the 'No Prog. Info' message that I have been getting ever since the switchover. It has got so annoying that I remove the SD card from the radio whenever I listen to LBC although I tend not to listen to it so much now anyway.
I tried emailing them but didn't get a reply
Comments
http://www.rajar.co.uk/docs/2013_12/RAJAR%20Q4%202013%20Chart%202%20-%20All%20Digital%20Radio%20listening%20-%20clean.pdf Sometimes it takes a while to get the audio tweeked, listening now seems OK for speech?
The carriage rental costs are proportional to the bitrate.
According to reports 64k on Digital 1 costs about £500k per annum, so stereo would be almost double that.
I'm far from happy talking about bit rates. But LBC sounds very poor now ... and as far as I can tell the reason is bit rate. What do you suggest we talk about ?
I can see that it probably doesn't make sense for a speech station to pay double for stereo ... but I really think that they should pay for more mono bandwidth. The station just sounds "amateur" at the moment.
At least it is still FM London and any DSO is years away, for the previous listeners on the MXR muxes 64k is an improvement on 48k.
But bitrate is not always the reason for poor sound, might be a digital to analogue back to digital part of the transmission chain where levels might not be right or wrongly set processing?
Another example was this morning mentioning food banks again only London was highlighted, strange as this topic has effected every city and town in the UK.
As somebody who is listening outside of London, I am just not interested in discussions like this, nor am I interested in the continuous traffic and travel updates by certain presenters always updating the National listeners on problems either in London or just outside such as Kent/Essex. Oddly some traffic and travel updates give a proper update for the whole of the UK but it seems to be dependent on who is reading it, the worst updates are from Andy who updates during the breakfast shows which he seems to refuse to announce anything outside the M25. A friend of mine called him one morning to question this, and Andy became extremely irate began shouting and slammed the phone down! Very Professional!
Something i have noticed are the callers going on air which are quite obviously not living in London, the presenter does not give out a location for them I wouldn't say this is happening all of the time but it's happening enough for people to notice, I've read several other discussions about this refusal to provide a location if outside of London.
Unfortunately if LBC want 'Leading Britain's Conversation' to become as successful as the station deserves changes need to be made. And a investigation as to why some presenters seem to take the 'National' identity seriously and others not so....
You gotta love modern technology!
It must work the same in the South. Personally I've got no reason to listen to any local radio for Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield etc. I'm in London and listen to my local stations.
Sorry. Not a good way to make new friends who are left feeling like gooseberries on the outside peering in at the party.
If LBC becomes distinctly non-London, then I will stop listening. I just don't want to listen to a national radio station.
I can't be alone in feeling this way. LBC is in great danger of losing its traditional audience ... and I can't see it picking up a national one to replace it.
We always hear about the quarterly RAJAR figures (or at least a spin on them which shows how well the station is doing). I wonder if we'll be hearing about the next ones with the same fanfare ?
Perhaps Global may have been taken back by how passionate the small numbers of regional MXR listeners were when LBC was removed, and saw an opertunity to get on D1 when a new Jazz station to replace JazzFM did not materialise?
They are not advertising in the North. Like most radio and TV services they are arrogant and think people should search their EPGs etc daily which of course they don't. A few adverts on the back of busses would probably work wonders.
Since the change I have started experiencing an odd thing. When I try to turn off, or pause, my radio I often find it unresponsive with the recording light bizarrely on. A message appears about updating the EPG data !!!
This didn't used to happen. I can only think that it has something to do with the new MUX that the station now occupies.
I tried emailing them but didn't get a reply