Did a Paris DAB scan tonight (am comparing to London, so posting it here).
London wins the quantity battle (129 stations vs 101 here in Paris), but Paris wins out on efficiency and quality. Why I hear you ask?
Well, London is quite odd, some stations use the inefficient MP2 codec (possibly as a result of using the original DAB, not the newer DAB+ standard). And that some stations use 80 Kbps MP2 mono, or 128 kbps stereo. But then others use 32 Kbps AAC stereo but arguably sound better. And some (like Absolute Radio) run stations in mono, but also have a stereo duplicate. Go figure.
Paris, on the other hand, is pretty much all AAC stereo, many in 88 Kbps AND slideshow images! (below). Didn’t see any of that in London.
One thing against both compared to Australia though, there are virtually no stations or programming that is NOT in the local language. On FM or DAB. At least we have stations like SBS, 2OOO or 3ZZZ etc to cater to multicultural audiences.
After nearly 50 years of broadcasting from Saffron Green (with nearly two years at Lots Road prior), LBC will cease AM transmissions and return the AM license to Ofcom. LBC News will be digital only from the end of the month.
This marks both the end of service for the Saffron Green site, and leaves Global with a single AM transmitter in service (Farndon, which provides Smooth Radio to Wrexham & Cheshire).
Honestly, the glory days of British radio were decades ago. The Australian industry is arguably the best in the world but overall nationalisation will kill it off quickly.
Maybe, but the Australian industry is about to jump off the cliff if it nationalises everything. That’s how you get steep audience decline and disengagement like over here. UK Radio is not spoken about at all like it is in Australia. It’s still healthy and viable there.
IMO the UK radio landscape is in a far better position than in Australia for one main reason. They have a strong BBC that has popular stations with big listening audiences. R1, R2 and R4 in particular. As commercial radio goes into decline they’ll still have the BBC stations that are mainstream and popular. Australia doesn’t have this with the ABC. Instead the ABC has tiny audiences and niche programs, and is largely stuck on AM in the capitals. It’s really quite dire.
Also, I’d point out that national programming works a bit better in a small county like the UK compared to the vastness of Australia. You can drive from London to Edinburgh in 7 hours, it’s just not the same. The Brits are also far more used to fully national programming on popular stations like R1 and R2, and even the likes of Virgin Radio in the early days.
Outside of Sydney and Melbourne there’s a very limited choice of formats on commercial FM. Look at Brisbane, 3x CHR stations and 1 bogan sport/greatest hits station. Regional areas are just horrendous for the most part. I think Australian radio will die long before the UK.
As October passes over into November, Saffron Green has finally ceased AM transmissions across London after nearly 50 years. LBC News ended regular output at 09:57 on the 30th, with an advisory message being transmitted until 15:00 on the 31st, when the transmitter was turned off.