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Interference to Kiss 106.4 from new community station Intobeats
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Is anyones reception of Kiss 106.4 (formally Vibe FM) being spoilt by this new thing called Intobeats FM? They are supposedly using 25W erp from Manton Lane Bedford (a pretty high site)
Its on 106.5, what idiot at Ofcom gave them that frequency? There are loads of gaps in between (way) out of town Radio 1,2,3,4 relays that they could have put them on instead, but no! They put them in between Kiss and Smooth 106.6 which also suffers. This is how stupid Ofcom are. Even BBC 3CR have been put in the BBC 3 and 4 area, who didn't even require any more FM relays anyway as nobody had any problems with the big TX's on104.5/103.8/95.5, another stupid decision by Ofcom and waste of your TX tax money by the BBC, but I digress!
Before you start going on about Kiss's TSA, think about the logic here. People in and around Bedford, Sandy, Bigglewade & Cambs do listen to Kiss. Its the same music that this Intobeats plays.... or was that the idea - block out the competition?
Its on 106.5, what idiot at Ofcom gave them that frequency? There are loads of gaps in between (way) out of town Radio 1,2,3,4 relays that they could have put them on instead, but no! They put them in between Kiss and Smooth 106.6 which also suffers. This is how stupid Ofcom are. Even BBC 3CR have been put in the BBC 3 and 4 area, who didn't even require any more FM relays anyway as nobody had any problems with the big TX's on104.5/103.8/95.5, another stupid decision by Ofcom and waste of your TX tax money by the BBC, but I digress!
Before you start going on about Kiss's TSA, think about the logic here. People in and around Bedford, Sandy, Bigglewade & Cambs do listen to Kiss. Its the same music that this Intobeats plays.... or was that the idea - block out the competition?
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If Intobeats are treading on Kiss's ground then Buaer will have complained a long time back.
However Kiss is now a national digital station but sadly not in some areas like Bedford where the local DAB mux is still to start, but it should be able to be received on DTV and the web clearly. It could be progress with DAB coverage will be made this year!
Kiss will not be worried about Intobeats.
But Ofcom see stations like Intobeats, Rinse, Kane and even Kiss with ex pirate DJs getting licences as am important strategy against FM pirates.
But I'm afraid official TSAs are just that. Your only consolation is that....
I can only recommend giving Intobeats a whirl, or trying for Capital on 105.4 from Leicester
EDIT- have you tried all the other Kiss frequencies? 105.6, 107.7, even 100.0 and 106.1
Is this a full-time community station Martin? Kiss will have the upper hand during the slightest bit of lift, when Kiss 106.4 swamps into Bedford!
Usually Bedford is where the signal starts to die from Mendlesham with the mast being near on 70 miles away. Could be Ofcoms way of saying "You shouldn't be listening to Kiss over here, Heart is your local now" :eek:
Appears to be a community station rather than an RSL http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/radiolicensing/Community/community-main.html
Kiss has never been licensed to cover Bedford though so never was "your local" if you lived there - it was just luck it extended that far.
Or with an FM Aerial they might get more stations.
Or an Internet Radio?
But it can be a pain as they won't be able to tune in when in the car any more.
I know that, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and North Essex are Kiss East's patch. Even though it's general TSA is 'East Anglia' and Bedford is in the ITV & BBC East region, but not covered by Kiss!
Kiss East on 106.4 would be stronger in Bedford than Kiss 100 from London. With a high gain FM aerial looking East, he should get Kiss 106.4 or even 105.6 from Cambridge with a stereo signal. However with the new community station on 106.5, a good narrow band tuner would be needed. And yes, alternatively just listen online!
There was a small 'lift' this morning. Outside Bedford Kiss 106.4 was wiping this Intobeats out. Not sure what kind of problems this will cause them in Bedford as when this happens 106.4 can become very strong. Its not a good choice of frequency for either party. Putting it on 106.5 to blot out Kiss is like putting it on 103.0 to blot out Heart Cambridge. That wouldn't have been a bad idea but they wouldn't do that would they? I wouldn't see a problem with stopping people in Bedford listening to Heart Cambridge as they have Heart Bedford putting out exactly the same thing. But this raises interesting questions. Is it ok to do this kind of thing?
I still think its very strange that out of all the out of town stations they could have placed it over they had to choose a station that also plays dance and rap. Too much of a coincidence.
Ofcom had around 50 other frequencies where they could have stuck it. If you want to concentrate on TSAs then what was wrong with using 105.1 or 102.8 which are used in Luton by other community stations? According to Intobeats Diverse FM is not recievable in Bedford. It bloody is, but thats ok its not supposed to be so why not stick Intobeats on top of it.!!?? I think you get my drift now.
By the way 106.4 is the only Kiss freq audible in Bedford. 100.0 is blotted out by Sutton Coldfield Classic FM 100.1. Kiss 100 was a reasonable signal in Bedford before that Classic FM TX was switched on.
I'm annoyed. I'll shut up now.
It's more like the other way round as Heart 96.9 from Sandy Heath belts into Cambridge, where as Heart Cambridge isn't solid enough in Bedford.
Before long Intobeats will realise they have been awarded a naff frequency and apply to Ofcom to have it changed, which can take up to 4 months for 'international frequency clearance' (I know, pathetic red tape)!
Fact is, people living near Bedford in general are not supposed to be listening to Kiss from Suffolk. If anything, this new station on 106.5 will make more people in Bedford find Kiss, or even confuse it with Intobeats during lift!
Complain to Interbeats about not being able to recieve them properly, and complain to OFCOM about same. That would be a justified complaint. What do people think?
Can they be changed and has there been one that has successfully got there frequency changed?
You can but its a long winded process, and Ofcom would need to see plotters and a legitimate reason for requesting a frequency move. Like I said, it's a lot of red tape.
CR suffers from a lot of this. I think the most relevant example of it in commercial/ILR heritage is that of Beacon 103.1 from The Wrekin & Key 103 from Saddleworth. If they were 200KHz apart, certainly 300KHz apart there would be huge overlap in service.
So CR will very often be placed 100KHz away from an out of area station & one that would have official TSA white area between both, but that gives a good signal over the brow of the hill & beyond 3/4/5 miles away. Or place a CR station 200KHz away from an adjacent station that perhaps has a reduced signal strength in the 3-4 mile CR area because of topography.
hmm several stations around here are in the clear
Big City 89.1 - heard as far as wolverhamton
Raaj FM 91.3 - heard in my neck of the woods in stereo
Unity FM 93.5 - not a great signal but in the clear at least
I think you have a very good point there!
It took them a few months but CR station Voice Of Africa in Plaistow East London got there frequency changed from 94.3 to 94.0. Has made a big difference used to struggle to pick them up on 94.3 they now come across a lot stronger on 94.0.
Also there's a big difference in interference terms between going directly on top of a station and going 100kHz to the side (the difference is 10dB, or twice as much interference). It's not just a matter of being outside the TSA.
Originally Posted by Martin_S
I still think its very strange that out of all the out of town stations they could have placed it over they had to choose a station that also plays dance and rap. Too much of a coincidence.
To S Morris: You haven't quite got what I was saying but granted I wasn't totally clear. I was suggesting that Intobeats were gaining from Ofcom removing the competition. I don't think Ofcom have anything against Kiss. Also, people driving into Bedford listening to Kiss will lose the signal and then get the same music on this Intobeats thing, was this the plan, to pick up on the Kiss listeners?
Quote:
According to Intobeats Diverse FM is not recievable in Bedford. It bloody is, but thats ok its not supposed to be so why not stick Intobeats on top of it.!!?? I think you get my drift now.
Because it's stronger than Kiss on 106.4, no doubt, and would therefore cause more interference to Intobeats. Same with Heart on 103.0 - much stronger in the Bedford area than Kiss, I would have thought.
Diverse FM is a community station on 102.8 from Luton which smashes into Bedford with a great signal (20 miles away). If these community stations are only supposed to have a 3-4 mile range why does 105.1 (new Muslim religious ranting thing - Luton) and 102.8 have massive signals outside the towns they are supposed to cover? If allocating these stations 100KHz from other stations is due to wanting to limit the community stations range then maybe they should have used 102.8 or 105.1 again for the Bedford station Intobeats?
We can talk and talk about why Ofcom did what they did but they more I think about it there is no logical pattern to this and it just looks like they have no idea at all about how to organise the FM band, just look at the state of it!
Don't know if it's the case now but in the Radio Authority days I wanted to complain about a pirate which was interfering with an out of area station I wanted to listen to. However having received the information I found out they didn't prioritise out of area interference when following up complaints.
Like someone in Lincoln trying to get Smooth FM from London on 102.2, lol!
Not really as they would be getting a legal station on 102.2. I can’t see the police accidentally busting Lincs FM on a drugs raid which is what happened to the pirate which bothered me!
(At any rate I could get the legal station I wanted but could hear the harmonics of the pirate in the background - couldn't go down 0.1MHz as that was next to another legal station!)