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LBC Goes national on DAB on 11th Feb
BurlyBeaR
Posts: 5,696 Forum Member
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Nick Ferrari just announced this. It will be renamed Leading Britain's Conversation.
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BurlyBeaR
Posts: 5,696 BurlyBeaR
Posts: 5,696 BurlyBeaR
Posts: 5,696
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Talk Radio couldn't make it work and neither will LBC. Lots of Big Crap
LBC is already UK wide and available on sky / Freesat and online. This is additional way for people outside London to listen to LBC.Surely a good thing.
I think the issue is that they have thrown away their USP, the London focus (unless they are going to have opt-outs for 97.3 & London DAB). They are allowed to do this if they are on Digital 1 but I'm not sure that this makes commercial sense. BBC London 94.9 must be celebrating today.
Yes, but the station will no longer be London biased and discussing mostly issues that affect London, the capital city, but discussing national issues. This could go either way as a positive or negative. Londoners will either embrace or switch off. Personally I find it amazing that Global do not believe that London can sustain a standalone talk station.
Are we having news advert and travel opt out does anyone know?
A very shrewd move on globals part
And something myself and Ritchie Wilde have mooted for a couple of years now
By the way re the London posters comments
I understand where you are coming from totally
Maybe the powers that be might take up another suggestion I made
As 1152am simulcast from 6pm and is also on DAB and Sky why not launch It as a standalone LONDON service
Everyone wins listeners with more choice local and national
Global with more listening and if advertising opt out is put in nationally more revenue for them
I'm nearly but not quite ready to forgive them for inflicting Heart on us
I'm also guessing the "jazz, soul and blues" element of Digital One's licence has been removed by Ofcom and the formal announcement by Ofcom of that is forthcoming. Another nail in the coffin for DAB.
How is this 'another nail in the coffin,' when it is a specialised radio station?
I don't think they'll get rid of the simulcast totally but there could be an opportunity to promote AM as having a London focus, maybe extend hours slightly - perhaps a rebrand to "LBC London Extra". Although that could be a risk as it could say "We're national now, get your London information on AM".
It will be interesting to see how it affects the London figures - as they will be the core for a while to come I think in the short-medium term it'll feel like a London station nationally. I presume they'll split news and travel.
I'm pleased with the news and think it is good news for DAB especially with the publicity Call Clegg gets - I might even invest in a personal DAB set again (although D1 is variable out and about where I live).
The website states LBC will be available across Britain on DAB digital radio, on 97.3FM in London, on Sky Digital across the UK on Channel 0112, Virgin Media Channel 973 ad (sic) internationally online at lbc.co.uk and through mobile apps.
Does this mean that it will be on Northern Ireland 1 rather than D1? Or are they just using the terms 'UK' and 'Britian' as if they were interchangeable?
BBC London are tweeting that they are still a London station. Quite right too.
As an LBC listener from the start, the station gets worse daily for me. I've gone from having it on 24 hours, to a couple of hours a day.
Still, I suppose they are trying to ditch listeners like me, who want somewhat lighter entertainment than 24/7 politics, so it's working.
The problem is who else would provide "jazz, soul and blues" apart from Jazz FM? Any potential candidates haven't got the cash to spend on national carriage.
If I was a betting man I would expect the change of service document from D1 will argue that Smooth includes music influenced by soul and jazz (as tenuous as that might seem to the jazz fan).
Off-topic about the UK/Britain interchangeability thing I always understood it as the UK being the Kingdom (as in 'Her Brittanic Majesty' and all that) whereas 'Britain' was the parliamentary democracy unit. I suppose Nu Lab's devolution has blurred the lines there a bit and woe betide you if you try to educate the patrons of a Swansea pub that Wales is not a country but a principality.
It's similar to the fudge where the UK has a Royal Navy and a Royal Air Force both in theory answerable to the Monarch Instant, but an Army answerable to Parliament rather than a Royal Army (leaving aside the complications of the Guards brigades).
Back on-topic, doesn't D1/NI1 use the same block in Norn Irn as in Blighty, so it would be impossible not to have LBC on it?
Hang on, this is all non news isn't it ? LBC has been on the now defunct regional muxes in the past, and as pointed out it's also
on D-Sat and of course on line. Despite all that, up until now they've been a London 'local' station.
Have they announced they are now going to officially *serve* the rest of the UK, because if so, that would violate their main 'FM'
licence with Ofcom ?
In theory they COULD get rid of simulcast on 1152 and launch a LONDON standalone as its also on sky and freesat nationally and on DAB in the capital
By doing that would that satisfy their original license conditions anyway??
Shrewd move as with extra revenue generated it will help pay for the GMG/Real/Smooth b#lls up
He's already got loads of fans here oop North
I agree they COULD in theory, I was thinking more of the costs that could be involved in doing that which I don't think would be offset by any added revenue - at least in the short term.
Although with less restrictions on sponsored programming ala the Bupa hour etc, maybe that could an avenue to go down to fund more 1152 only content? Don't think they will though.
London-wide licences can apply to drop all local content if they have a certain amount of national coverage on DAB - similar to what Absolute, Smooth and Kiss have done.
Tenuous isn't quite the word I'd use. However the exact wording of any change of service is presumably still not in the public domain.
What I would like to know is, how much more would it actually cost Global to put a jazz station on DAB? Take the Dutch digital-only station Radio 6 Jazz as an example. It's totally automated, no speech, but consistently plays a great selection of jazz without any of the bogus stuff Jazz FM plays. So you'd need a playout system, and someone with good taste to maintain it. Maybe an intern or music student could do it in exchange for travelling expenses and luncheon vouchers. Surely Global could afford that?
So will Nick Ferrari.
I agree with the idea of making 1152 Khz AM into a London centric station.
Despite going national, they still have to meet the Character of Service for the London FM licence which is:
So they'll need to keep a particular focus on London, unless they apply for a format change.
(Much like Smooth going national but having to continue to play some soul/jazz to meet the London/NW FM licences).