Goodbye AM

Ho cominciato ad ascoltare con un certo impegno le onde medie quando Milano 1 (allora c'erano pure Milano 2 e 3) era ancora su 899 kHz. Era insomma la canalizzazione ereditata da un periodo decisamente "antico". Se non sbaglio l'ITU decretò la nuova canalizzazione, più moderna, nel 1979 e Milano 1 passò su 900 kHz. Una ventina di anni dopo, sulle onde medie cominciò a soffiare il vento della smobilitazione. L'epoca della guerra era davvero finita, la Germania riunificata, le stazioni FM ascoltate da tutti. Per i DXer delle onde medie si accese la speranza di una banda con tante belle frequenze libere, tante chance in più di sintonizzare le ambite prede d'oltre Atlantico e magari, chissà, l'estremo Oriente, che pareva tagliato fuori dopo che nel 1979 fu deciso anche di passare, da quelle parti, alla canalizzazione a passi di 9 kHz e le frequenze sfasate con i loro potenziali buchi, sparirono. La speranza durò poco, perché proprio mentre si svuotavano i canali partiva la sperimentazione del DRM. In fondo in fondo sappiamo tutti che tra cinque, dieci, quindici anni le onde medie ospiteranno solo stazioni digitali, in Europa come negli Usa. Forse per il mondo della radiodiffusione sarà meglio così e gli ascoltatori saranno serviti meglio, sono il primo a rendermi conto che l'evoluzione un'intera industria (e il piacere di chi ascolta un buon programma in ottima qualità audio) non sono un bene negoziabile sui tavoli di un centinaio di hobbysti attempati. Per allora sarò comunque troppo vecchio per stendere fili e lottare contro il sonno solo per qualche inutile segnale lontano.
I primi segni sono già piuttsto evidenti. Come scriveva il Media Guardian pochi giorni fa, l'Ofcom inglese sarebbe intenzionato entro il 2012 a togliere le frequenze in onde medie oggi assegnate ai due network commerciali TalkSport e Virgin, per riassegnarle ad altre stazioni operanti in DRM, ormai ritenuta (non del tutto a torto, devo ammetterlo) la tecnologia migliore per il cosiddetto "gap filling", la copertura dei buchi lasciati dal DAB o dalla stessa modulazione di frequenza.
Intervistato al proposito, il responsabile in seno all'authority britannica sottolinea però che per il momento sul DRM restano molte perplessità. Tra le quali il non trascurabile particolare della mancanza di ricevitori. Ma da qui al 2012...

Is it goodbye AM?

Julia Day
Thursday September 21, 2006
MediaGuardian.co.uk

Ofcom is considering taking away Virgin Radio and TalkSport's AM radio licences in six years' time to use the spectrum for new digital radio stations.

Peter Davies, the media regulator's director of radio and multimedia, said three new national stations and a whole range of local stations could be squeezed out of the spectrum used by the two national AM services. But his comments have provoked angry responses from both broadcasters. TalkSport said considering ditching AM broadcasts was "crazy" and "illogical" and Virgin said it would lobby for preferential treatment in the auction of the digital spectrum.
Both SMG's Virgin and UTV's TalkSport's licence are due for renewal in 2012 - after they were recently given a four-year extension. At that time, the licences will be auctioned by Ofcom. But Mr Davies said that instead of simply auctioning the existing AM licences, Ofcom is looking at ditching the AM licences and converting the spectrum to "Digital Radio Mondiale". DRM is an alternative digital radio standard to that already used by services such as BBC 6 Music, 1Xtra and Planet Rock in the UK, which is called Digital Audio Broadcasting, or DAB. "Both licences are due for renewal in 2012 - possibly earlier, if they handed back their licences. These AM national licences could be reused for DRM," Mr Davies told a digital radio conference organised by the broadcast and transmission company WRN. "You could get potentially two more national networks using a high-powered frequency and a range of local services [from TalkSport's licence]," he said. "With Virgin you could get a national frequency and a number of local services. "When those licences are up for re-advertisement in 2012 they have to be auctioned off. There is no mechanism to allow the incumbent to hang on to them ... whether we auction them on a technology-neutral basis or not is something we will look at nearer the time. "It is one of the possibilities that we are looking at, at the moment."

'Commercial suicide'

Scott Taunton, the managing director of UTV Radio, said the AM frequency was essential for his business and turning it off in 2012 would be "commercial suicide". "Surely Ofcom is not thinking about turning TalkSport off. We have increase listening hours by 30% since 2000 on AM. He said that until many more households and mass market cars have digital radios as standard, it is "pointless" to talk about turning AM off. Ofcom should set a analogue switch-off timetable first, said Mr Taunton, who thought 2020 was about the right time.
"I'll fight tooth and nail to have our licence extended even further, the public interest is best-served by an AM service being available until we have a date for switch-off. In 2012 more than half our audience will still be listening on AM, so to turn us off would be commercial suicide." Mr Taunton added that the AM frequency may be more valuable to his speech station than to Virgin's music station. Music sounds worse than speech on the crackly AM signal and a much larger percentage of Virgin's listeners than TalkSport's have already have migrated to digital. He floated the idea that TalkSport be allowed to keep its AM service past 2012, even if Virgin were happy to have its AM licence turned into DRM. A spokesman for Virgin Radio said: "We believe, that having persevered with the AM signal, we should be given preferential treatment on the allocation of any DRM spectrum."
The media regulator believes DRM could be used to "fill in the gaps" in digital radio coverage reaching parts DAB of the UK that DAB radio does not reach, or that are not commercially attractive. "DAB might not be enough by itself," said Mr Davies. "Some remote areas are not accessible by DAB, and for smaller stations DRM could complement [DAB]. "It might be that there isn't any commercial interest beyond the areas we advertise [for DAB licences] in the next year or so. It might be that DRM could fill in the gaps," he said. But he recognised the crucial element in the plan could be missing: that people may not have radio sets that can receive DRM by 2012. Only 15.3% of adults have a DAB set at home compared with over 70% of UK households which already have digital TV.
"But there is no point in auctioning DRM if there are no DRM sets available. It is a chicken-and-egg situation. By indicating now that there is a long-term plan to put services on those frequencies using DRM should encourage manufacturers [to produce DRM sets]. But we are only starting to talk about it now. It's early stages." And he added that Ofcom is not in a position to announce a date for the switch-off of the analogue radio signal, mirroring the move that has been made in the television industry. "We are not anywhere near analogue switch-off yet," he said. He added that Ofcom will put out a consultation early next year that will "start to ask the question about if [analogue switch off] is a good idea".

Tags: radioascolto, radiofonia, radio, dxing.