Rathergood Radio – requested story clarification

Rathergood Radio on DAB and FM in North Yorkshire have disclosed that there has been a breakdown in re-contracting negotiations between Rathergood Radio and one of their transmission providers, Arqiva. Arqiva was unable to provide IP services within the timescales and cost bracket that Rathergood required for its FM service, so the Rathergood team set about reviewing alternative methods of meeting their aggressive transition targets to a fully digital service. Rathergood Radio is still contracted with Arqiva for its DAB service, which is digital and is currently unaffected.

Rathergood Radio’s partners have completed a joint-venture deal with an alternative broadcast supplier to reduce the cost, increase flexibility and improve the quality of the current service with a full end-to-end crystal clear digital service. The outcome following this announcement is that Arqiva have disconnected FM services at midday today. Even though both parties have been working towards finding a solution to provide a much smoother transition from the old technology, but none of them were fully acceptable by both parties.

The owners of the radio station since its purchase from UKRD in April 2017, concluded that the station could not justify the substantially higher costs across the entire business compared to that of a flexible solution and to transition to a fully digital solution was the only way to secure the future of the local broadcaster and to comply with any key future announcements which we expect to be made across the industry.

Rathergood Radio will continue to broadcast using their newly rolled out services, but due to finalising the commissioning and other formalities, this may lead to a reduction in the quality of the service in the short term however, we believe this would only affect 10-15% of their total coverage area.

The owners are implementing an innovative technology solution developed in conjunction with a couple of highly respected, flexible and pragmatic suppliers who can provide an all-round improved service via a fully redundant IP connection to each transmitter. The solution will provide greater local broadcasting flexibility, full compliance with the localised broadcasting licences, higher-quality signal to the licenced areas and more importantly, a >60% total business saving over the previous solution. This transition will provide a saving of more than £500,000 over the comparative contract term and increase revenue opportunities three-fold with no change in coverage area. We are confident that this solution will show there is an alternative way for other radio stations to succeed who are currently struggling with their existing overheads and a lack of flexibility around their total broadcast services.

Due to Rathergood Radio taking this opportunity to install higher quality infrastructure in this transition, listeners may encounter temporarily loss across some frequencies, but this is expected to only impact people on the fridges of the Transmission Service Area (TSA). However, to be clear, the owners are aware of and are concerned about how this temporary reduction in service will affect local communities, they are committed to making sure that a full service will resume as soon as all parties involved in this transition have completed their tasks.

Rathergood Radio has disclosed that their newly appointed but unnamed suppliers will have all technology services available by midday on Friday the 8th December 2017, but various stakeholders have been unable to commit to having the relevant dependencies completed by this time, although they enforce all parties are 100% committed. The owners have already been working very closely with OFCOM to keep them fully briefed during the planning of the full-service transition. Listeners will certainly appreciate the effort that has been made in securing the local service as an exemplar for broadcasters to replicate when details of this solution are made available.

The owners of the station have committed that all current advertisers will be credited for any period of down time that affects their contracts, although they are confident they will be unaffected at this stage. Advertising customers will see the benefits that “Rathergood Radio V2.0” is able to provide to their clients with its extended flexibility over the next few days.

Using the innovative technology, Rathergood Radio can place localised satellite studios into each of the three local conurbations; Durham, Bishop Auckland and Richmond and receive the signal back at the main studios in Darlington, which will allow Rathergood Radio to show its commitment to the word local in the term ‘local radio’ over the coming months. This cross and split broadcasting was not possible before the introduction of modern technology due to the transmission points being anchored to an existing building via dated and discontinued technology. Rathergood Radio staff are open to suggestions and offers for their satellite studio locations, which could include shopping centres or other high footfall areas and highly accessible areas to increase the approachability of the service by local people.