As the transmitter is better demolished then, well, yes it is closing.

They made no mention this time last year, during the run up to the Manor Farm Tx in Reading closing (for the same reason)

In fact, I seem to recall that the other use of that site (Absolute Radio) only gave a few days notice themselves.

Absolute on 1197 seems a lot clearer at night these days. Have any big foreign stations using 1197 been turned off?

I was just ruling out the possiblity, however remote, that they had found another site.....

I can't see Global spending the money to do that. Bristol requires a reasonably powerful signal to cover the area properly, and the shared use of 1260 requires a directional array to protect Leicester.

Although another frequency (666 kHz) for something quick and dirty rigged at Clevedon might work ?

My guess, Smooth Bristol will quietly become DAB only after Feb 19th, with absolutely no on air mention.

It’s incredible how much the AM broadcast band has improved since the big continental Europe switch-off.

Perhaps when our big stations start to drop, there may be many regular DXing opportunities from the US stations - assuming that they will still cling to AM for a few more years.

they was a station on 1206 so with that gone i have also found 1197 to be much better aswell here in kent

And 1242 is much better here at night now France closed, almost better than 1215!

I’m a little closer to the Boston tx on 1242 kHz - it’s a nice clean signal at night. 1215 kHz seems louder initially, but it suffers from lots of distortion / fading.

I've noticed that the echo is gone from 1215 now, which is nice!

Yes, indeed. Mind you, it's been fixed before only to return some time later. Let's hope it's a permanent fix this time but it will be somewhat ironic if it has been corrected now that the French transmitter has closed on 1242 and Absolute can be heard clearly on that frequency 24 hours a day in Lincolnshire.

Yes it is much nicer to listen to now the echo is gone!!

I would say maybe they closed the 1215 filler transmitter at Paull but the signal is still strong in the day and the echo was fixed before Christmas so it can't be that!

The Bristol AM shutdown might kick start start shutdown of other AM stations as Pure start promoting their new DAB car adapter? http://www.pure.com/press/november-2...tegic-partners


The US still has class A stations which allow increased skywave at night, the FCC seems to be debating about allowing the AM stations which have to reduce power at night keep thier power and coverage, which may affect the A class stations so they will have to reduce power, so not to interfere with the non class stations. A bit like Europe where ground wave rather than sky wave was the norm, (except for stations like Radio Luxembourg).
But sounds like most small US AM stations want FM repeaters rather than increase AM coverage at nighte, but not all will get FM so looks like the FCC is looking at the Skywave interference problem and maybe IOBC HD on the AM band
http://radioink.com/2016/01/20/the-f...evitalization/

What is supposed to be so good about this adaptor, and how does it differ from the adaptors that have been out there for a few years now?

Smooth Radio can be heard clearly (24/7) throughout Bristol on 1305 KHz from Newport in addition 936 from Wiltshire is also of a useable quality.

If Smooth wishes to provide dedicated output for Bristol on AM the cheapest option would be to increase the editorial areas for the travel news and ads on these two frequencies to cover Bristol/ Bath.

It's just adverts that are local nowadays on Smooth isn't it?

The AM transmitters simulcast the London FM/DAB service 24/7 except for adverts and travel bulletins. The only exceptions being the 3 Welsh transmitters (1260 Wrexham, 1359/1305 South Wales) which have a locally presented afternoon show between 1-4pm.

From what I have heard, AM radio in the States will be around for a long time yet.
I had many great DX-ing opportunites while staying in Canada a couple of years ago. The AM band in daytime Ottawa is blank apart from a few news and sports stations in French and English. But after dark the band comes alive with stations from many areas of the USA.

Details are vague from the press release but seems to be low cost?

From the link I posted earlier seems with the US FCC AM revitalisation the class A stations with high power Skywave signals have have to reduce power so small AM stations will have a better groundwave signal at night. But means long distance Skywave AM might have reduced life? TV
From
https://media.info/radio/news/yet-an...revitalization
400 US AM stations have applied for FM translators, which might indicate the future of US AM radio is ultimately being on FM?

Is that show in English or Welsh?

You may be right the few remaining Smooth AM listeners when they find 1260 stops with no warning may retune to other frequencies?
The Ofcom mca maps (still Gold) show 1305 from Newport covering half of Bristol, but think the AM licences have no obligation to have local travel news? But local Bristol traffic news might stay on Smooth Bristol DAB?
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/radio...amaps/MCAs.htm

It's in English. I think it now runs from 3-7pm.

Ok. It's just that in the old days of Marcher Gold they used to have a daily show in Welsh.

Now that Global own other stations in part of the world they may be meeting that PSB requirement in another way.

From what I remember I think the Welsh requirement on 1260 went when the Classic and Capital Gold networks merged - the format were standardised between the two networks and it disappeared. The show did continue for a while under Gold though.

The corresponding FM licence - 103.4/97.1 doesn't have any Welsh shows AFAIK.