It’s a migration not a switch-off, stupid

Digital Radio
How important is it that the debate on digital radio always includes the phrase ‘switch off’? Does it matter that the plan is in fact for a migration to digital, leaving the analogue spectrum (or whatever it’s called) to community radio and other small players?

Yes, I think it does matter, for two main reasons.

Firstly, it’s a subversive coersion tactic: if you publicise loudly and often enough that there’s going to be a ‘switch-off’, eventually people fall in line, as they are doing with the (correctly named) switch-off of analogue television. Make them nervous of what is going to happen and steer them in the direction you want them to follow. I would bet that it’s no accident that the radio industry uses the term ‘switch-off’, especially in the run-up to Christmas, with the prospect of all those nice DAB radios finding their way into people’s home as gifts. Again, make people nervous of what is going to happen and steer them in the direction you want them to follow. In this case, that’s onto the DAB system, which has been discussed endlessly elsewhere as to whether or not it’s the right system.

Secondly, there has been a worrying lack of discussion around how the freed-up analogue spectrum will be used, allocated and policed. With all the mainstream players shunted (sometimes against their will) onto DAB, will community radio really have full use of the analogue spectrum? Or will we be faced with the bizarre situation of ‘pirates’ from the mainstream? What if, purely hypothetically, BBC Radio 4 decided that it couldn’t give up its FM slot but would continue to use it, eg. just for the Today programme in the mornings, in addition to digital? Would they get the same treatment as a black music station illegally broadcasting from a housing estate rooftop, with confiscation of equipment and being banned from holding a licence for a number of years? The mind boggles.

The ‘switch-off’ angle is more compelling if you want to get people to take action by buying new equipment. But I would have thought a ‘freeing up analogue for you’ would have been equally good, if the opportunities for small local radio stations really were going to increase with the migration.

But I doubt whether they are.

My fear is that there will be little in the way of support for the small-scale community alternatives on post-migration analogue, either financially or by way of endorsement from government or regulators. Instead, the ‘switch-off’ angle will become so ingrained that, when it happens, the sector on analogue will not be strong enough to fill the dial sustainably – so the government or its advisors will then say ‘It hasn’t worked. Look at all that under-used analogue spectrum, let’s now sell it off’. When history came to be written, the fact that it was never intended to be a switch-off would be conveniently forgotten, airbrushing out the middle stage of analogue for community radio.

By the way, my choice of the Today programme above is of course tongue-in-cheek, but also deliberate as an example here: this morning the otherwise excellent item from Tom Bateman (debunking some exaggerated listening figures for digital) unfortunately also contained the SWITCH-OFF error: click here to listen and judge for yourself. Eight out of ten, Today, because you moved so fast to counteract an extraordinary abuse of statistics (the speed doubtless helped by a deluge of emails and tweets from listeners who can spot a hype a mile off). What was that I said earlier about Today on FM? Maybe not so far-fetched after all…

[Update – link: Grant Goddard radio blog

16 Days of Action Against Gender Violence

Did you know that
~ Thursday 25th November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
~ Friday 10th December is International Human Rights Day
~ Between those two dates, 16 days of activism are taking place around the world?

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign which originated in 1991 from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute and which is sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CGWL) at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. Participants chose the dates, November 25 (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and December 10 (International Human Rights Day) in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights, and to emphasize that such violence is a human rights violation.

In this its 20th year the theme for the campaign is Structures of Violence: Defining the Intersections of Militarism and Violence Against Women.

Media links
I first heard about the campaign through the Madrid-based women’s network Nosotras en el Mundo (Women in the World), who broadcast on Radio Vallekas and who were one of the partners in the imMEDIAte radio training project for women.

Around the world, community media organisations take part in the campaign. This year, UK radio groups and stations marking the 16 Days campaign include:
~ 96.2 The Revolution Radio in Oldham
~ South Leeds Community Radio
Let us know what you are doing and we will add it here.

On Thursday 25th November there is a webcast of the official UN Observance for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

You can also follow the campaign on Facebook.