Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
My only distinct memories of AM are it being on in the car on our way to or from holidays and being overcome by static every time we went under power lines (that would have been Radio 2 on medium wave) and Atlantic 252 on long wave in the late 80s and early 90s, which for some reason was preferred over radio 1 amongst most folk I hung around with, and even the bloke who drove our school bus.
“I listen to the best music on long wave radio, Atlantic 252” … (no longer)
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Atlantic 252 gave long wave a real boost as the waveband was seen as on its way out. It changed radio forever with its mix of contemporary pop at a time when Radio 1 wasn't that trendy and youthful and ILR wasn't exactly thriving. Within a few years of its launch, Radio 1 was transformed and ILR on FM started to follow a similar format to Atlantic 252. Consequently, the long wave giant stopped being listened to due to people being able to listen to the same sort of output on FM.
As for AM, that waveband also got several boots at the same time when firstly ILR stations had to launch a separate AM service and then the arrival of two national commercial stations on AM plus Radio 5 and 5 Live.
---------- Post added at 13:21 ---------- Previous post was at 13:20 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul
I remember Radio 1 on 247 in my early cars, and something on about 1500 meters ?
I believe Radio 5 is still on 693/909, I last had that on in the car just before the pandemic.
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5 Live is still very much alive on AM although it is rumoured that this won't be the case forever with a possible switch-off of 5 Live on AM by the end of the decade.
---------- Post added at 13:24 ---------- Previous post was at 13:21 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by nodrogd
The BBC gave up use of 1215 for the launch of Virgin Radio in 1993.
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Correct - it was forced to do so by the Government.
The resulting issue was where test match Special was to go. In 1992 it was broadcast on Radio 3 FM, in 1993 the morning's play was on radio 5 with the afternoon coverage on radio 3 FM and by 1994 it had been moved to radio 4's long wave frequencies where nearly 30 years on, it remains.
Also at the same time, a number of BBC Local stations lost their AM frequencies. Some such as BBC GLR, BBC GMR and BBC WM, were given to commercial radio but others such as BBC Radio Cleveland's AM frequency, were, for some unknown reason, were never reused.