Good old FM has been knocking around since the 40’s and RTE have been broadcasting on it since the 60’s, However it didn’t become popular in Ireland for another 20 years.
That’s when, in 1981, an entrepreneur called Chris Carey made a decision to base pirate station Radio Nova firmly on FM. He sold the advantages of “clutter free” stereo FM and it was a huge success. So much so that in 1988 the government, when establishing the new legal independent radio sector, made a very big decision to go …

In reply to my last post Is Radio Screwed? my answer is a resounding NO.
The world is changing but it’s changed before. Marconi himself never envisaged radio as a medium for speech or music. It was other inventors who changed radio to the more human friendly sound medium we know today.
In the 50s and 60s television took much of radios golden content and radio once again adapted to the changing times. Now as the internet threatens our advertising lifeblood, radio must adapt once more.
Radio has some evergreen advantages over …

A neat idea is being floated by the UK government where new radios would display a listing of stations receivable by the radio regardless of whether they’re on FM or DAB.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Mr. Siôn Simon outlined the idea during this weeks debate about the UK governments plans for the future of local radio;
“We are committed to ensuring the implementation of a combined station guide, which is similar to an electronic programme guide, which will simply have a list of station names. The …

The new year got me thinking about how radically things have changed in just one decade.
Ten years ago there was no online music business. Broadband was fantasy. Your mobile phone was for calls and (maybe) text. A tv was a big bulkly box and cable gave you a whole 17 stations (wow!).
Today people have nearly a hundred tv stations to choose from. With Sky+ and DVD box sets they choose what to watch and when to watch it. Today people carry around their entire music collections on their mobile phone. …

The beginning of a new year is a good time to look at what’s in store for DAB over the coming months.
The downturn in the economy has unsurprisingly put the brakes on investment in DAB across Europe. However it has not prevented many countries from considering how they will implement digital broadcasting as the economy picks up again.
Ireland
The BAI are due to publish a white paper on how digital broadcasting will progress in Ireland. It’s widely expected they will establish DAB in line with new FM licences due for renewal …

Well here it is a brand new year and for a change … a very very welcome new year.
Making no bones about it, last year was a dog. I’m glad to see the back of it. On the up-side I think the recession has been a good kick in the butt. It taught me what is really important, both professionally and personally, and has forced me to get the house in order.
Now all that is done I can move into 2010 in a postitive frame of mind predicting with all …