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Absolute UK Shutting down AM

they donjt have call letters in the UK
Every country has internationally assigned call letter prefixes. But whether there is a requirement to use them on the air is a different issue.

In Ecuador when I owned stations, I once wanted to use the call letters as the station identifier because doing so would be unique among commercial stations; I was told I could not do that and I had to pick a name to use.

In Argentina, when I was licensing some music scheduling software, the vendor wanted "call letters" for the contract. Nobody in the building knew them. We called the government licensing bureau, and were told "we can look it up... call back tomorrow or the next day and we can find it." A few old, traditional stations there use their calls, but together with a name, like "LR3 Radio Belgrano" or the like.

Canada and Mexico, sort of emulating the pioneer US stations, use calls. Both require them in legal identification. But most newer stations use a name or slogan most of the time. Only heritage stations like KDKA and KFI and WOR use calls exclusively.

But technically every nation gives every station calls, but whether they are used varies by nation and by station.
 
What country allows broadcasters to transmit a continuous stream of music without an identification of station, network or anything else?
None that I know of. Even digital-only stations that are operated by European broadcasters identify themselves frequently.

Plenty of small AM pirates around Europe - Italy and Greece are hotspots, but there are also a few in Ireland, the UK and even the Netherlands, despite the latter's move to legalized LPAM.
I don't think that the signal is originating in Italy. The signal is weaker there than it is in the other places that I have mentioned.
 
Bauer Media (owner of Absolute Radio) may have to pay a fine and get their AM license revoked for turning off all the transmitters before their license expired. Of course the license revocation won't matter if they have no intention of using it anymore or selling it to another company, and the penalty may end up being less than what it would've cost to keep the transmitters on the air for the remainder of the license.

 
But technically every nation gives every station calls, but whether they are used varies by nation and by station.
Not true, at least not in Europe, Africa or.much of Asia.

There's nothing at all in UK licensing through Ofcom, for instance, that has call letters, not even as any sort of internal record-keeping. The BBC hasn't had callsigns on medium wave since the 1920s and on SW since after WWII. It never had them on FM or TV.

Commercial radio didn't have calls when it started in 1973 and hasn't ever had them since.
 
Not true, at least not in Europe, Africa or.much of Asia.

There's nothing at all in UK licensing through Ofcom, for instance, that has call letters, not even as any sort of internal record-keeping. The BBC hasn't had callsigns on medium wave since the 1920s and on SW since after WWII. It never had them on FM or TV.

Commercial radio didn't have calls when it started in 1973 and hasn't ever had them since.
But there is an international system that assigns a designation to every station, whether it be letters or numbers. Whether the station is given the designation to use internally or externally, it's my understanding that every nation has to designate each station with a "code" of numbers and/or letters that makes each station unique within the country and internationally.

The question in the apparent absence of calls in the UK is how they complied with international coordination of stations which requires some kind of identifier.

I know from when I consulted Metromedia that their Berlin news FM had something that looked more like a serial a serial number, but it was just like "call letters" in that it was a unique identifier that no other station in the world would or should have had.

As I said, I ran into cases of stations that had no knowledge of their call letters, but the licensing bureau had a unique ID, like the VIN on a car, to identify each station or transmitter of networked or simulcast stations. That was my point in showing how it took two days for the licensing entity in Argentina to find out the call letters of what was, at that time, the nation's most listened to radio station. Of course, the identifier was a set of letters and numbers.. in this case the nation code (LR) and some numbers which I can't remember.

Of course, in Spain and Portugal stations at one point actually used call signs on the air, but that practice was used mostly on very heritage station that were among the earliest in those nations.
 
But there is an international system that assigns a designation to every station, whether it be letters or numbers. Whether the station is given the designation to use internally or externally, it's my understanding that every nation has to designate each station with a "code" of numbers and/or letters that makes each station unique within the country and internationally.

The question in the apparent absence of calls in the UK is how they complied with international coordination of stations which requires some kind of identifier.
If any such identifier existed, it would be handled through the ITU.

I have never heard of such a system in 30+ years in the business.

My understanding is that in the modern era, the ITU handles overall frequency coordination (designating 1215 as a UK clear channel, for instance) but it's up to each national regulator to take it from there.

I would suspect Ofcom in the UK has some sort of internal unique file number to identify each licensed transmitter, but it's purely internal and not internationally unique. (The equivalent would be the FCC's facility ID numbers for US broadcast stations, which are just six digit numbers with no international significance)
 
I wonder if 1215 will become a "mini-1710" of pirates in western EU now that Absolute is gone? All that's left is COPE in Spain IIRC.
 
WebSDR in Eschende, Netherlands. 3:40pm EST/2040 UTC, had presumably a soccer game on one or both COPE channels, then mystery station faded up and is now dominant.

Just checked out a Rome-based SDR, the mystery R&B station is there and alone, but weak
 
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There's 1kW out of Italy (Zed 100)

The r&b I'm hearing at 1215 on various European SDR's matches the Zed100 (Milan) stream linked on MWList.org


And we have a winner! It was my suspicion. It's getting out for the (presumed) kW.
As I have written before, the signal is weaker in parts of Italy. Specifically, those areas where I tested the signal are in the central region of Italy. As has been reported previously, the signal of Z100 Milano is stronger in areas that are close to the North Sea. Therefore, it appears that the station is using a directional pattern toward the northwest.
 
As I have written before, the signal is weaker in parts of Italy. Specifically, those areas where I tested the signal are in the central region of Italy. As has been reported previously, the signal of Z100 Milano is stronger in areas that are close to the North Sea. Therefore, it appears that the station is using a directional pattern toward the northwest.
Or simply that conductivity is different in various area of Italy... and the coastal areas being near salt water give the best groundwave propagation.
 
Good point about Italy, but I was referring to skywave reception at night.
Single towers can produce directional skywave to some extent due to surrounding terrain such as hills and mountains. And propagation of skywave varies by day, month and season, too.
 
During the last half hour, I have been tuned to 1215 kHz via three SDRs (UTwente, Essex, and Midlands), and all I hear is COPE Córdoba of Spain. The station is audible, with the signal reception ranging from good to fair.
 
Anyone who is wondering if switching off AM reduces ratings - Absolute Radio recorded its highest ever cume and one of its highest shares in the most recent quarter, now that it is a DAB and online only station.
 
That's a shame - was in Europe last May/June (2022) and could receive a strong signal from Absolute Radio at 1215 kHz (the old Virgin frequency) from Normandy, France all the way to Amsterdam in the clear (it faded at night). Sure, I could stream it if I wanted but what's the fun in that?
 
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