The BBC has stepped up its information campaign surrounding the imminent
switch-off of a number of Medium Wave services, due to take place in a few
weeks.
As announced by the BBC in August http://www.a516digital.com/2017/08/bbc-starts-medium-wave-switch-off.html,
seven local radio stations will see their Medium Wave services being cut at the
beginning of 2018, with three further stations having one of their current MW
frequencies being closed. A total of thirteen MW transmitters are
affected.
With the switch-offs about to commence, the BBC has
begun to provide more information about the changes, with a detailed listing of
all of the transmitters and frequencies affected being published for the first
time:
Listeners
who tune in on FM, DAB, Freeview or online are unaffected by the
changes.
The switch-offs are due to complete next month,
although exact dates still haven't yet been confirmed by BBC Reception Advice
and we are awaiting clarification.
The BBC says it decided
which transmitters would be shut after assessing the coverage of each BBC Local
Radio station on FM, MW and digital radio, which highlighted stations where MW
transmitters duplicated good FM or digital radio coverage.
It
added that the cost savings from these closures "will allow the BBC to continue
to modernise its infrastructure in order to meet our listeners' changing
needs."
Other BBC MW services, including BBC Radio 5
Live's broadcasts on 693 and 909KHz, are not affected. The process is also not
related to the proposed digital radio switchover and the broadcaster has
emphasised it has no plans to end FM transmissions of BBC Local Radio
services.
