Another source of radio information in the UK are the ratings. www.rajar.co.uk - they make public their headline numbers, just as Nielsen does here. I bet some stations around here would kill for the numbers some UK stations get. BBC Radio 2 has about a 17% share - nationwide. My university city (Dundee, in Scotland ) - when you take the two main station's AM and FM numbers combined, you get over a 30% share and the AM accounts for over a third of that.
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Why am I not able to find out any information about radio stations in the UK?
- Thread starter fordranger797
- Start date
And don't forget radio stations (At least here in the US) only use their callsign for the top of the hour ID. Beyond that, it's just Mix, Magic, Kool etc. For Hot AC stations, it's usually something like Alice 105.9, Alice @ 97.3 etc. Sports talk stations (Usually those not affiliated with ESPN) use monikers like "The Fan' & "The Ball (Heck even I got caught up in this scraze, using "The Puck" an Internet Only station)
Of course, long before then, there have been US call letters that actually spelled out words (or punny approximations): KOLD, KARE, WETT, WAXX, WENR, etc.
And don't forget radio stations (At least here in the US) only use their callsign for the top of the hour ID. Beyond that, it's just Mix, Magic, Kool etc. For Hot AC stations, it's usually something like Alice 105.9, Alice @ 97.3 etc. Sports talk stations (Usually those not affiliated with ESPN) use monikers like "The Fan' & "The Ball (Heck even I got caught up in this scraze, using "The Puck" an Internet Only station
So in short, even stations in the US have gotten away from callsign ID, leaving only BBC Radio as the only "True Blue" network of stations that still stick to the callsign ID method
Cheers & 73
Depends on the station...plenty of music stations still tied to their callsign....also plenty of talk stations...BTW callsigns prefixes are issued under International regulations, which all ITU member countries adhere to (well most anyway)...what we have in the US/North America like the NANPA does not apply overseas...so what works here is not what is used over there...but hey, they are slowing learning to drive on the right side of the road in a lot of countries!
)...Callsigns in the US change on a regular basis it seems some days so the FCC does not use the callsign as the facility ID never changes even if the callsign does..especially with legacy stations that have changed callsigns many times since the 1950s, etc. So the FAC ID makes sense but for interference, etc, the callsign is still needed for the public to file complaints.Broadcast is the only service that uses Fac IDs in the US BTW...other radio services such as LMR, PS, amateur, etc DO use the callsign as the primary ID for the station..because they hardly change (though hams can change using the Vanity callsign system but there are limits there anyway)
(Harumph and 96! LOL
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I know this is an old thread but I've been enjoying listening to European AM just like I lived there, courtesy of The University of Twente near the Dutch/German border. I was familiar with the big government broadcasters from my SWL days, and used to listen to Capital Gold (now just "Gold") online. Use the receiver here: http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/.
I find it interesting that there's still a lot of music on the AM Euro-dial, some U.S. and British rock even from non-English language stations. There's even current top 40 music on AM. Is there still a substantial AM audience, or since most stations are simulcast on FM, DAB, cable/satellite and mobile, or these stations just wasting a lot of watts? Tuning 1548 on the recievr nets me 97,500 watt Gold, 2200 watt Forth 2, and 1000 watt Magic all at the same time and strength, Haven't quite figured that out
I find it interesting that there's still a lot of music on the AM Euro-dial, some U.S. and British rock even from non-English language stations. There's even current top 40 music on AM. Is there still a substantial AM audience, or since most stations are simulcast on FM, DAB, cable/satellite and mobile, or these stations just wasting a lot of watts? Tuning 1548 on the recievr nets me 97,500 watt Gold, 2200 watt Forth 2, and 1000 watt Magic all at the same time and strength, Haven't quite figured that out
I could be wrong, but some of it could be government mandate. Governments in Europe seem to have a bit of a heavier hand on the radio industry than the FCC does here in the U.S. They expect more segments of the public to be served, unlike here in the U.S., where money demos dictate nearly everything (not saying that's necessarily bad -- just saying).
An example: Norway. They have DAB covering most of the country, and it includes channels that would never fly here: a folk music channel, a jazz channel, and a classical channel. The idea is that the entire population gets served with variety of programming. They also kept a longwave station on the air in the north because the fishermen needed to be served. It plays the NRK P1 channel, that has music as well as talk and news.
Iceland did the same thing -- there's a longwave station because of the fishermen. It plays music as well as talk and news programming.
An example: Norway. They have DAB covering most of the country, and it includes channels that would never fly here: a folk music channel, a jazz channel, and a classical channel. The idea is that the entire population gets served with variety of programming. They also kept a longwave station on the air in the north because the fishermen needed to be served. It plays the NRK P1 channel, that has music as well as talk and news.
Iceland did the same thing -- there's a longwave station because of the fishermen. It plays music as well as talk and news programming.
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