Replanning Digitial One - The Snow In The Summer or So-So

More DABblings

As we rather expected, Quirks had some good points regarding GCAP's attempt to leave the DAB sector.

I'd argue for some approach that increases variety. So that's one from UCB and Premier to arrive, keep or replace Rock/Jazz/Life/Core, and add a few specialist stations. Colourful, Passion for the Planet and Spectrum seem good picks.

Moving a BBC channel to D1 is tremendously cunning.

A few years ago, the Netherlands went through a controversial exercise, re-planning its AM and FM usage as though it were starting from scratch. The Zerobase resulted in stations moving frequency, swapping between AM and FM, and caused a hell of a lot of pain. The gains were significant: the remaining stations are more stable, and radio listening in general is up.

As a thought exercise, it would be interesting to Zerobase the existing national DAB multiplexes. We're not going to do the complete exercise - as C4Radio has yet to launch, we'll leave that alone for now - but will re-plan D1 and the BBC.

Start by moving BBC7 from the BBC to Digital 1, to leave the BBC multiplex in this standard configuration:

Here, we've given a boost to the popular music services, which all transmit at 128 JS.

There are regular changes to the multiplex structure: at present, Parliament and Daily Service cause Radio 4 to drop to 80 Mono, and data services to cease: the additional service transmits at 64 Mono. This arrangement can continue.

Sports Plus causes Radio 5 to drop to 64 Mono, 6 Music and 1Xtra to drop to 144 JS, and data services to cease: the additional service transmits at 64 Mono. If it were necessary to transmit two additional services (and we can't think this would be common), trim Radio 4 to 80 Mono and Radio 3 to 160 JS. At present, Sports Plus takes 32 kpbs from Radio 3 or Radio 4.

Assuming GCAP's closure plans come to fruition, and BFBS comes off air, Digital 1 thus becomes:

That leaves 640 kbps to play with. Our preferred alternative is to use this space to broadcast the D1 commercial stations, and some of the BBC and C4 stations, in DAB+.

Realistically, D1's new owners will want something that will actually pay the bills in the next five years. At the commercial sector's preferred rate, 640 kbps is enough for five stereo music stations (at BBC rates, four stereo plus one mono). OFCOM has recently allowed stations to broadcast at 112 JS; adopting this across D1 would allow for four stereo and at least three mono stations.

Completely fantasising, we'd go for approximate replacements of the original D1 formats. This approach ensures that there isn't too much competition against the stations on D2:

Core becomes A Pop / Dance Station. Kiss and Galaxy are possibles, but a new entrant feels more likely. (Eyeballs RTL, based on their experience on the continent. We're going to give substitutes from Dutch radio, and Radio 538 fits the bill here.)

Life becomes Heat Radio, already running as a quasi-national station on EMAP Bauer's multiplex space. Taking Heat would cascade space on a number of local multiplexes. If we're going to get Passion nationally, it would fit here - the station is four parts soft rock to two parts world music to one part environmental chatter. (Dutch station: Radio 10 Gold.)

Planet Rock could easily remain as a going concern, or be replaced by a version of Dutch station Arrow Classic Rock. Probably under a new name, to avoid confusion with Global's station of almost a hundred different songs. Bauer's Q Radio is also a possibility; again, this would cascade space on a few local multiplexes.

Primetime / The Jazz could be in line for another lateral shift. A direct replacement, again, comes from Arrow Jazz. Country music has been tried as a semi-national station, and 3C was a notable failure. Not entirely sure what this would turn out to be; we'll reserve this spot for a fourth stereo station.

Oneword we've replaced with BBC7, with more than a little irony.

Two to four mono channels: Colourful and some religious stuff look the most likely. London's ethnic station Spectrum is a possiblity and would help sell DAB into hard-to-reach communities. Arts Council funding to shove Resonance here is unlikely, not least because the station may well run up into commercial opposition from Pure4 when it starts in 2009.

GCAP seem to not have a clue what to do with DAB, which would explain why it is probably going to be remembered with OnDigital. There's no doubt digital radio can work - it's established well enough in the colonies - but it's never happened here.

Gcap's move is nothing short of utter desperation, of Fru Hazlitt selling the family silver to keep her job. The UK model of DAB is to provide additional choice at a moderate quality; that it's within 18 months of becoming a significant success shows the ultra-short-term thinking behind this week's announcements.

The comparison with North America doesn't work: their digital radio is broadcast from satellites, and is marketed almost exclusively at car drivers. Bandwidth is not a problem. Here, digital radio is broadcast over the conventional terrestrial network, is severely constrained by the available frequencies, and is almost exclusively for home use. The lack of in-car DAB has been a major stumbling block, but that owes a lot to the car manufacturers' usual slowness to react to customer requests. One car-maker claimed on Feedback that it would cost hundreds of quid to fit DAB radios as standard. Yeah, right.

Whether DAB needs something unique as a selling point - as satellite radio in the colonies has with live golf coverage - is a matter for debate.

DAB can have one big selling point, or lots of small ones. It can have the big selling point of CD-quality sound, or the many small points of extended choice. At the moment, we reckon there's a greater market for choice than quality, and cut our cloth accordingly.

That I am only using my DAB radio to wake up to Life in the morning - and even that channel is slowly losing its way, has Leckie left? - is telling.

We have no indication that Mr. Leckie has left Gcap; nor do we have any indication that he is spending substantial amounts of time working on Life.

It should be noted that Quirks's location has one of the poorest selections of digital-only stations - just Xfm and Traffic Radio above the national multiplexes. This corner of the West Midlands has those two, plus twelve (count 'em!) other stations. Another four (plus one AM station we can't receive after dark) should arrive when Hereford and Worcester begins transmitting late in the year. In such a restricted environment, it's no wonder that Mrs. Hazlitt can claim that most DAB listening is to existing stations: there ain't nowt else to hear!

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