AM reception is just truly dreadful.

1368 KHz in Surrey should also shut down.

Just driven from Heathrow to Cardiff listening to Radio Wales on AM all the way. The AM signal covers large parts of England as well as most of Wales. Turning off the am transmitters would be a great folly and loss.

Being able to hear BBC Radio Wales 100 to 200 miles away from its intended area is a great bonus gratefully received.

You have no right of complaint if you can no longer hear it on AM close to Guildford or anywhere else outside Wales driving along on the motorway if an AM transmitter closure is such because the whole of Wales can pick up the station clearly on DAB and FM.

I doubt you could cover the whole of Wales with FM/DAB. The terrain is just too challenging in a lot of places.

I can hear BBC Wales on 882 24/7 here right on the East coast of England!

Radio Wales on 882 is on a clear frequency, it's about to get clearer at night as the Spanish station on 882 is about to close. R Wales does enjoy good coverage on DAB/FM across more populated areas whereas AM probably covers larger parts of the more remote and rural areas.

How many Spanish stations are closing on am. There are dozens of frequencies and lots of local versions of the national stations still on a m.

Last time I was in London I could receive BBC Radio Wales on 882 kHz.

Here in South Antrim 882khz is also a great signal, both day and night.

Must have one of the best coverage areas of any AM station in the UK

Ydun's Medium Wave Info reports that Deutschland Radio will close all of the Longwave stations at Donebach (153 kHz), Sehlendorf - Oranienburg (177 kHz) and Aholming (207 kHz) on 31 December 2014.

This might free Saarlouis to move from 183 kHz to a standard slot (180 kHz or possibly 261 kHz).

On 31 December 2015 there will be closure of the 6 Deutschlandfunk MW stations.

Hopefully the one on 855 is closing soon too. That will extend Sunshine Radio's coverage after dark. Not that there is any programing going out at that time though, the weekday staff has been whittled down to just two presenters since Adie James was unceremoniously given the push a few months back.

855 is RNE, the public broadcaster. A number of commercial statios have left mediumwave, or reduced power, in the last few years but no RNE ones. Perhaps the public broadcaster needs medium wave to fill in gaps in FM coverage?

Much as I like Sunshine it does seem to be struggling a bit and is definitely not the same without Adie. I wonder why they don't network at some times with the Hereford/ Monmouth version so that both stations can have some more live hours?

The Dutch public service broadcaster NPO has just announced they will shut down their last remaining service on AM (Radio 5 on 747 kHz, 400 kW) on 15 September 2015.

They spend €1.2 million a year, mostly on the 3 million kWh electricity bill. Last year they announced they would bring forward the closure by two years and the €2.4 million total saving was being directed towards a speedier roll-out of the DAB+ network.

A back of the envelope calculation suggests the Radio 5 mono broadcast on AM consumes 90 times as much power as the same Radio 5 in stereo on their DAB+ multiplex.

Publieke Omroep stopt met AM-frequentie

[ends with]"...In Groot-Brittannië wordt de AM alleen gebruikt voor lokale uitzendingen van de BBC."

They don't get out our way much, do they

There seems to be a lot of unregulated FM stations throughout Spain, which means
that in some areas the national networks of RNE get swamped by local stations.
RNEI is heard all over Spain on various AM frequencies very clearly, On a visit to the Canaries I could not receive RNE Radio Classica as the signal was drowned out by
local pop stations. I understand that there is partial coverage of national stations on
DAB.

747 is actually only running 200kw in the day and 100kw at night time now. I guess they will also close their filler transmitter on 1251 too on September 15th.

Radio planning seems a mess with a new central regulator taking over from local town councils, but has not happened.
The DAB rollout was also a mess with low level coverage, no new content and promotion, so cash strapped RNE cut back from 50% coverage to 20% coverage to save costs (see previous thread) , with the intention to go DAB+, but so far has not happened.
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=216291
AM costs are increasing, while DAB+ costs are reducing, so can see RNE pushing for DAB+, but is so far is taking it's time getting DAB+ trials underway.
http://www.worlddab.org/country-information/spain

I took my Roberts Play DAB+ radio with me to Salou in June and there was nothing at all on DAB.

The FM band was pretty full, although there were none of the English ex pat type stations at all.

AM was also very congested and the local transmitter (which I could see from the hotel) swamped everything. Quite a few harmonics, as you could imagine.

I think the ERP is around 50kw and it seemed to carry the four national services.

RTE Radio 1 on 252kHz closes down on 27 October 2014.

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/static/2014...54-stay-tuned/

That's a bit of a bolt out of the blue.

I was under the impression that a fair bit of Ireland wasn't covered by FM, so I'm guessing there's going to be a few annoyed people out in the sticks? I know they're claiming 98% FM coverage, but I assume that's population rather than geographic? So in car reception could be a problem as well in certain areas?

Are they using FM only for the old RTE AM stations and DAB only for the old RTE FM stations in Southern Ireland?

FM stations continue on FM.
DAB carries a mix of both the FM stations and some digital only stations.

According to 2RN, the transmission network operator, RTÉ Radio 1 has 95.06% indoor household coverage.

I was meaning is the FM waveband a replacement for the AM waveband and is DAB the replacement for FM waveband in Ireland? Obviously not going by your reply.

Sometimes it's difficult to mention something without it looking so complicated.

I was thinking 2FM possibly being no longer on FM but on DAB instead and simply known now as RTE Radio 2 or 2DAB rather than it still being on FM.

Ok. I was puzzled by your question as there are no (legal)stations on AM in Ireland with the exception of Spirit Radio. Therefore FM cannot be a replacement for AM stations.
RTE LW 252 is only really a filler transmitter anyway so not relevant.
DAB is patchy at best with most of the country having no reception, so no, DAB will not replace FM. Not in the short or long term.