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LBC Radio Pulled From DAB Across the UK
orangeandlemon
Posts: 281 Forum Member
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I heard the terrible news that just a few days ago LBC has been pulled from several parts of the UK on DAB.
My parents who are avid listeners to LBC, listened daily in fact every room within there house had a DAB radio which was tuned only to LBC. Every station on FM and DAB is either music or sports oriented, in fact 70% of the stations in Lincolnshire is aimed towards the older listener. I've been reading through several website forums, which are filled with angry, upset and confused LBC listeners across towns and cities up North with utter disbelief. Twitter and Facebook have again many comments and questions aimed asking why LBC has gone, yet they haven't even had the balls to reply with the fact LBC will not be coming back and it has been replaced by Gold and Heart, many listeners think it's a problem with the transmitters or there own DAB set been faulty. They simply reply asking people to tune in either online, via SKY TV, or via mobile phones.
Global Radio who own LBC once again did not even have the decency to advise the huge amount of listeners outside of London that LBC has been removed from DAB, very similar to the appalling and unprofessional actions they had on Chill Radio when that mysteriously was deleted on DAB radio outside of London.
People are getting sick to death of stations such as Heart, Capital and Gold been rammed down our throats constantly, this country has just ONE non-sports based talk radio station which is a comfort and enjoyment to huge amounts of people and a growing listenership.
DAB is suppose to be diverse
what a joke that is! Unless of course you are religious, over 50, or from an ethnic minority.
Global Radio has yet again missed a huge opportunity for LBC to become a real hit it really is a radio station which doesn't have any stiff competition from anyone else, the same goes for Chill Radio. Both stations which had an impressive amount of growing listeners yet no actual funds to publicise the stations unlike Heart which funny enough the listeners are dropping each time RAJAR is published yet millions have been pumped into it.
LBC and Chill Radio does not deserve to be in the hands of Global Radio, they couldn't care less about both the brands nor the listeners!
It's about time it was written into broadcasting laws that media organisations should give listeners or viewers ample warning before pulling the plug on broadcasting across the UK.
I won't even get started about the incompetent organisation named Ofcom! :mad:
My parents who are avid listeners to LBC, listened daily in fact every room within there house had a DAB radio which was tuned only to LBC. Every station on FM and DAB is either music or sports oriented, in fact 70% of the stations in Lincolnshire is aimed towards the older listener. I've been reading through several website forums, which are filled with angry, upset and confused LBC listeners across towns and cities up North with utter disbelief. Twitter and Facebook have again many comments and questions aimed asking why LBC has gone, yet they haven't even had the balls to reply with the fact LBC will not be coming back and it has been replaced by Gold and Heart, many listeners think it's a problem with the transmitters or there own DAB set been faulty. They simply reply asking people to tune in either online, via SKY TV, or via mobile phones.
Global Radio who own LBC once again did not even have the decency to advise the huge amount of listeners outside of London that LBC has been removed from DAB, very similar to the appalling and unprofessional actions they had on Chill Radio when that mysteriously was deleted on DAB radio outside of London.
People are getting sick to death of stations such as Heart, Capital and Gold been rammed down our throats constantly, this country has just ONE non-sports based talk radio station which is a comfort and enjoyment to huge amounts of people and a growing listenership.
DAB is suppose to be diverse
what a joke that is! Unless of course you are religious, over 50, or from an ethnic minority.Global Radio has yet again missed a huge opportunity for LBC to become a real hit it really is a radio station which doesn't have any stiff competition from anyone else, the same goes for Chill Radio. Both stations which had an impressive amount of growing listeners yet no actual funds to publicise the stations unlike Heart which funny enough the listeners are dropping each time RAJAR is published yet millions have been pumped into it.
LBC and Chill Radio does not deserve to be in the hands of Global Radio, they couldn't care less about both the brands nor the listeners!
It's about time it was written into broadcasting laws that media organisations should give listeners or viewers ample warning before pulling the plug on broadcasting across the UK.
I won't even get started about the incompetent organisation named Ofcom! :mad:
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And the rest will follow suit!
Yet that hasn't happened yet which exaggerates your point.
LBC 97.3 @lbc973
@Stevemarflitt If you have Sky (channel 0112) or Virgin (973) you can listen there, or on our website: http://www.lbc.co.uk/listen-live-3578 …
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2 Nov Steve Marflitt @Stevemarflitt
@lbc973 @Stevemarflitt: @thisisglobal Seem to have lost Lbc off my dab, have tried retuning but to no avail, any ideas
Fortunately my DAB radio has Wi-Fi so can still get it on that.
They have not once either on Twitter or Facebook just gave people the answer that 'Yes, LBC has been removed' instead referring confused listeners to tune in by other means.
Nothing was even mentioned on the recent pointless 'Newsletter' LBC sent just a few days ago.
But as per my earlier post in LBC chat and the link to the trade aricle they will be the middle of Next year !:eek:
Chill
Core
The Storm
Passion for the Planet
Amazing radio
theJazz
Oneword
I'm sure there's a lot more.
Heart
Heart+1
Heart+2
Heart-1
Heart-2
Exactly! The thread title is slightly misleading, or exaggerated... :rolleyes:
I agree with this. I am one of those people who live in the Yorkshire area and the only station i listen to is LBC, I discovered it on DAB in my car and bought a DAB alarm clock radio so I could listen to LBC early mornings and evenings. I am devastated this was pulled with no advance warning, I thought my radio was faulty until I read comments in another thread advising that LBC had been replaced in our area.
I am not very techy minded but I always thought the beauty of DAB was that you could access other statons not local to your home?
I know there are apps for smartphones etc but they will just drain the battery overnight so are not really practical.
Really annoyed about this. Although there are lots of issues discussed local to London, the majority of the discussions have relevance across the UK, particularly where political matters are discussed.
Not really, while stations have simulcasted analogue FM services from other parts of the UK, DAB was designed to provide additional services not heard on FM, alongside improved sound quality from AM stations.
LBC was only added to the MXR multiplexes initially to replace the regional news station DNN, by continuing to supply the news and travel segments within the London based programming (which were supplied by GMG Radio). This was removed by Global when they no longer had to supply those segments and London news and travel were heard instead.
i agree with some points of poster, dab should be a refreshing change to mw lw fm and have more choice instead of half the dross we have at moment.
its time digital 2 was readvertised
why does sky news radio and sky sports radio not go on dab ?
i get the following from glasgow, edinburgh and central scotland and national
Absolute Radio - Abs 80s - Abs 90s - BBC R1-1extra-R2- R3- R4- 4extra--R5Live- R6 Music- R Scotland-R Nan Gael- BBC World Service- BFBS- Clyde 1- Clyde 2- Forth 1-Forth 2- Gold- Heart- Heat- -Jazz fm- Kerrang- Kiss- LBC Glasgow- Planet Rock- Premier- Real- Real XS Glasgow- Real XS Manchester- Smooth Glasgow- Smooth Uk- Smooth 70S- Smooth Xmas- Sunrise Radio- TalkSport- UCB-
Fact is this. LBC is "London's Biggest Conversation". It has no ambitions to expand beyond the capital. It exists elsewhere as a placefiller when Global has nothing else to fill the space.
If anyone elsewhere desperately wants to listen to it, it is available on Sky, Virgin and online. I accept many older listeners may not be able to adapt to those options, but it isn't aimed at them. The fact LBC was available beyond London was more by accident that design. Indeed, it was the opposite of local radio choice.
Global is not a charity, it is a commercial business. It makes no commercial sense to broadcast this station beyond London, except in areas where it is has nothing else to broadcast and may as well. That's it. Sorry.
But agree Global could have warned the loyal listeners of the change better.
The audience for LBC in London does seem to be growing but does not show much of a nationwide increase, especially with Talksport going sport only, but LBC has never been properly promoted outside London.
Thank goodness the regional's are closing with that vision
Yes but is that what the National is going to turn into???:eek:
Why is Planet Rock leaving DAB? Are they going net only?
Planet Rock is up for sale, and the station is losing about £250k per year, but there has been no announcement of it leaving DAB. I think it's more likely that they will reduce the bitrate to 80k to address their financial problems.
There will be no end for DAB while the BBC is still operating its national multiplex, as the two biggest reasons for buying one are 6 Music and 4 Extra (as shown by the latest RAJAR figures).
LBC is a local talk station for Londoners, the format is:
There is no requirement for it to be broadcast on DAB outside London, just as there is no requirement for BBC London 94.9 to be broadcast outside the capital. Any suggestion that Ofcom should step in and force Global to broadcast LBC in Yorkshire is frankly ridiculous.
Daft as it sounds I am not the slightest bit interested in what is going on in London, I am quite a long way from there!
It's a pity that DNN didn't take-off as well as they thought it would, but maybe that was due to the fact that the bitrate was that slow that it sounded like it was broadcasting from under water!
I think the point is that much of LBC's content is relevant to people across the UK, not just London. While I accept they have no obligation to be on anything other than the London DAB multiplex, as required by their licence, the fact remains that LBC had, for some time, been pushing for listeners outside London by advertising the fact they were on DAB in many parts of the UK. People bought into DAB in good faith so that could listen to LBC and had no reason to suspect that this particular radio rug would be unexpectedly pulled out from under them. Global's lack of consideration or empathy for how upset LBC's (former) listeners would be is shameful, in my opinion. Yes it's business and yes it's all down to money. But there is room for consideration and clear communication to loyal customers even so. If nothing else, LBC could (and should) have had at least mentioned it on air in the weeks leading up to it, even if it were to glibly advise that they switch to internet or satellite instead. Clearly, Global radio doesn't give a hoot about LBC's listeners outside of London these days. Such a shame.
If Heart could be persuaded to carry racing or lottery results, I'd listen
Well the fact that they call it London's Biggest Conversation puts me off listening for a start. It has no relevance to the rest of the UK in it's name alone! There's more to the UK than just London :rolleyes: