Celador takes Breeze off DAB multiplexes

06/08/2012 - 06:11 | 10 Replies More

Celador Radio, owners of The Breeze network of stations in the south and south-west of England have removed the brand from DAB.

The company says the digital platform just doesn’t work for them in delivering local content.

The station has been broadcasting on DAB covering South Hampshire, but where numerous FM transmitters are offering local content, there is only one digital multiplex covering all areas. This, Celador says, makes it impossible to provide local content in each market.

Similarly in the south west, Bath DAB listeners were hearing Bristol content.

Richard Johnson, group creative director at Celador told RadioToday.co.uk: “We’ve spent a lot of money and energy making sure all our local licence areas have local news, traffic and information, so to broadcast Southampton content across the whole of South Hampshire just doesn’t make sense.”

“The DAB set up in both Hampshire and Bristol just doesn’t work for us,” he continued.

The company’s other brand, JACK fm, remains on DAB in Bristol/Bath and South Hampshire as the station operates on a single frequency and gains extra coverage by being on DAB.


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Category: Digital Radio News

  • Peter Symonds

    This is where DRM+ would be ideal for this situation. Unfortunately there are no consumer receivers currently on the market

    • Ben

      Sorry, but why would DRM+ help in this situation? What problem would it solve, or are you assuming that the network operators would make it less expensive?

      • Peter Symonds

        It will allow each station to individually control their transmission area.

        • Ben

          Surely you’re arguing for a change in how the broadcast infrastructure is run – i.e. the case for multiple local multiplexes. The platform itself is not the issue here.

  • http://twitter.com/PeterQuinnRadio Peter Quinn

    forgive me for asking…. but why did we invent DAB in the first place?

  • Simon Parton

    Same here in Shropshire. On DAB we get the Wolverhampton output of “Free Radio” instead of the Shropshire one!
    Very bloody useful!

  • http://www.facebook.com/mouley Daniel ‘Moley’ Moule

    DAB Is a waste of space. The signal is rubbish even at good times, the quality is very poor compared to FM. The americans have a better system called HD Radio which works just using FM & MW. Once again rant over

  • roysand

    DRM+ got the same problem, analouge is the way only out as AM/FM. An AM stereo of 15 kHz gets better coverage, dynamic, audio as FM do. No digital can replace analouge..it’s natural.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ddwig Dave Wiggy Wiggins

    I Do Hope Celador Radio Group Do Get Breeze Bristol Back On To DAB Digital Radio Wright Now That Would Be So Good Now

  • http://www.facebook.com/ddwig Dave Wiggy Wiggins

    DAB Is Bad Now Because Their Is Not Many Stations To Listen Too On DAB You Got Heart Capital Fm And Gold No Thankyou Global I Just Hope The Wave96PointFour In Swansea Do Get On To DAB Now Here In The West And South WalesOnTo Severn Estuary DAB Digital Radio Multiplex That Would Be Good Now

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