Fire Radio
DXRulz
Posts: 4,317 Forum Member
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I just heard "to continue receiving your Fire Radio you need to buy a DAB radio" so does this mean Fire on 107.6 FM will close down?
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DXRulz
Posts: 4,317 DXRulz
Posts: 4,317 DXRulz
Posts: 4,317
Comments
was listening is Winchester at the weekend on DAB and they have a lot of local versions of DAB and of the d-love ads. They say something like ' upgrade to digital radio in the car, and you can continue to listen to Fire Radio' others say things like you can take fire with you across Dorset and Hampshire with a DAB car radio and continue to listen uninterrupted over the whole area'
given the small FM patch and the fact they have a separate RAJAR for the bigger area plugging that you can continue to listen if you get dab sounds like a good idea.
they were not saying anything about dab only.
the owners also own a DAB multiplex and with the switchover decision due soon and the Ofcom report into digital radio just out it sounds more like a promotion for digital than being anything else.
They did.
that I doubt. a look on presenter facebooks show very upgraded studios for tv and radio.
as to dab.. absolute decades on now-digital sound crap as well. I was told it was old radioscape encoders compared to D1's new encoders. probably explains why 80k Kiss on D1 is better than 80k on now-digital.
They have a fault with the transmitter, the RDS carrier failed a few weeks ago, there's been discussion in another forum on the matter.
Lots of DJ changes too. Dave Taylor left the breakfast show and went to Heart. Allan Lake moved up to breakfast and is certainly a really good listen. Niall Moloney was apparently fired, replaced by someone new.
Have they released any photographs of the TV studios? And has anyone seen it yet?
Never thought one person could make a radio station, but it's clear that when someone left fairly recently, the hopes of everyone associated with it went too in their haste to knock out a half baked TV channel.
Wonder how the AFC Bournemou.... sorry "community" station, Hot Radio is doing listener-wiser as a result?
Visiting the area in Summer 2005, I remember 2CR was bland in presentation and was simply no match for Fire. Nowadays....
Thats an understatement, its p*** poor.
I do not listen to the daytime output any longer, just lsten to the specialist dj's.
Are they only running with 2 dj's during the day? I didnt hear any dj's when i tuned in on Sunday.
The website is off line but you can get the main page still at the moment because thet are using CloudFlare's Always Online™ technology, I did notice that the domain name is still owned by tlrc but expired yesterday, so prehaps something's going on there, allthough I doubt it as it has never really been updated.
Their facebook page is only really used by the specialist dj's.
From what I gather, Fire these days is run by an entrepreneur, who, despite the promises, is now doing what entrepreneurs often do best - ie: flitting about from one thing to the other, leaving the once-loved projects to wilt and eventually die.
Would be a good time for the station to be snapped up, by whom, I don't know.
I always try and respond to specific questions and comments about our businesses. Limited a little here by commercial confidentiality, but lets try be as open as possible:
- The Total Fire Radio current audience is 57,000 per week; up from 28,000 when I bought it in 2009; Year-on-Year our local audience is up 12% reach, 28% Hours.
- Fire was very lucky to have a stable line up for many years (more so than most) Dave is an excellent presenter who spend a very long part of his life with Fire and we are very, very happy for him that his chosen path is coming together for him; and I am personally very proud of his achievement.
- Allan was with us for over a year before taking over mornings and has been very well received: That is a testament to his talent and national/major market experience. Not everybody likes? Of course, that's broadcasting.
- The daytime changes were a surprise, so we chose to put on our established and very good ratings performer Ange to bridge the gap and give our audience some familiarity and consistency of sound. We may revert to 3 presenter's, we may not.
- Let's be clear this was a strategic decision not a financial one; Fire's programme budgets (and management time) are the same, and we pay rates inline with Global and Bauer across the business: that's why we attract and retain our talent on and off air. Radio and TV budgets are separate.
- Fire makes around 70 hours of presenter led exclusive content every week; despite only having core FM area of 300k and being 1 of under 10 stand alone stations in England.
Sam, I have just looked at our status monitors that report transmission working as normal to give an ERP of 1Kw. The audio spectrum analysis reports normal. The RDS is low in the signal mix, awaiting replacement in the new year with a whole new distribution system. Also Sam, please don't presume to know what time and energy is spent on the business.
Finally, I would comment that our industry is facing huge changes in the next five years. Listeners are sticking with radio - but on multi platforms. Choice increases, and listening appears driven by content with genre, cultural or demographic appeal rather than by geographic location. The challenge for Fire is to find a space big enough to be a relevant, fun entertainment station for the 'post Radio 1 but not ready for Heart' audience and broadcast that to a wider regional area. Like it or not, standing still as an FM only local stand alone business would be death in the long term. Our TV strategy will give us a brand exposure to promote our regional digital radio brands; and is a very cost effective marketing tool.
I hope those facts help clear up any confusion, and keep an eye for new places to hear and see Fire from our new website from 6 Jan. I'm sorry that I will not be able to get into a running discussion.
Gareth
Without wishing to seem picky Gareth, an RDS encoder is a 200 pound part. If it's level is low in the MPX it can simply be turned up on the encoder or at the point you introduce the RDS to the signal. While you may be replacing the TX chain in the new year RDS is quite important as some car radios are funny about locking on a signal with no RDS these days. It's a tiny job to turn the RDS level up and something that many stations (mine included) can actually do remotely
They have been transmitting colour bars, without sound, and an error message saying "video lock error" for ages. Because they haven't even bothered with a caption and the transmitter is very low powered, the service is dead in the water now even if it does start.
http://georgeandfire.co.uk/
http://www.fireradio.co.uk/
IMHO Fire went downhill ever since the logo changed. After this new image was brought in (I don't know by who), the website has been pretty much left to rot, with promises of rebuilding it, a Wordpress template was used (for a bit), and the focus just doesn't seem to be there anymore.
Now with Hot Radio about to cease broadcasting, which is a shame, this really could be an ideal chance for Fire to put some things right again...
It has been like that for at least the last couple of weeks.