Frequently asked questions about UK Radio
This section contains answers to questions commonly asked by visitors to this site. If your question isn't answered here, please post it to our visit our forum, and we'll try to help.
| How do radio stations know who's listening? | Both the
commercial radio and BBC radio stations use a body called RAJAR
to conduct independent research. This is normally done by RAJAR
representatives handing out diaries on a door-to-door basis during
sampling periods. Listeners mark in the diary which station they
listen to, and RAJAR compile the results, informing stations of
the ratings. Ratings are collated four times a year. For details, see www.rajar.co.uk |
| How do stations get their Travel news? | Local radio source their
travel news in several ways, but most commonly, they'll make use
of the services of one of the dedicated companies that provide voice
and text reports to radio stations: Until recently, AA
Roadwatch was probably the best known of the companies providing
travel information, but changes announced in late 2004 means that
their role is to be reduced (see Times
News Story). This leaves Trafficlink
as the prime source in the UK. Some stations have their own in-house travel staff as well, to add a local voice to reports. Travel is gathered from various sources, including: local police, motorway control, rail companies, courier/taxi firms, listener "jamlines", and spotter planes.
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| How do stations keep their clocks accurate? | Radio stations use radio-controlled clocks that are synchronised to atomic clocks via the MSF time signal. It's now possible to buy such clocks for use in the home for under £10. See our section on radio-controlled time for more information. |
| DAB vs Digital TV? |
A common area of confusion. in the last few years, a host of new "digital" radio stations have appeared. There is common confusion over what exactly "digital" stations are, and where you can find them. The following all class as digital stations:
Some stations broadcast on all of these formats, including the new national radio services from the BBC. If you're looking for more radio choice, you may find that the station you're looking for is available on all of the three options, otherwise consider whether listening to radio through your TV suits your requirements, or whether a portable DAB receiver more suits your needs. |
| Radio listings | Looking for listings of upcoming radio programmes? Try a powerful listings program for your PC, mobile phone or pocket computer. Listings are uploaded over the Internet. The advantages are: searchable, cheap, greater listings, configurable. See our dedicated TV and Radio guides page |
| Distant stations | What happens if you want to listen to a specific station, but you're out of the area? Suppose you're a fan of a local radio station, then you move away from the area... or perhaps you want to listen to a local station from work... maybe you've even moved countries and want to keep in touch with news from your home town... There are a few options to try:
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| Can I use my UK DAB receiver overseas? | The UK uses
Band III (Band 3), while other parts of the world use the lower-performance
L Band (1452-1490MHz). The UK may be extended to cover L Band in
the future (a recent report states that this may happen by 2007).
Most DAB radios available to the UK support Band III only, although
some receivers for both Band III/L Band are expected to be released
in 2003. If in doubt, check the manufacturers website. For details
of which countries use Band III and L Band, see the DAB
Ensembles site. Note that we're not aware of any UK stations
being transmitted overseas on DAB. Worldwide travellers may still
be better off with shortwave or satellite services to receive UK
stations abroad. If you can add anything to this section, please
let us know. For more on DAB digital radio, see our DAB page. |
| Radio on your PC? | If you're looking to listen
or record radio onto your PC, you'll need an internal card or an
external USB receiver. Note that a Freeview TV card or USB box can
also receive radio stations, and offers both radio and TV for your
PC - worth a look. For more on listening and recording radio on your PC, see our Radio on your PC page. |
| Internet radio? | Thanks to the Internet, you can now tune in to radio stations from around the country and around the world over the Internet. Get yourself a broadband connection, and there's a host of radio stations to choose - you can even start your own for next to nothing. For more, see our Internet Radio page, or consider getting a BT Internet Radio Then there's also the new form of broadcasting, known as Podcasting |
| Portable FM |
See our Mobile Audio page |
| Music copyright |
If you know a little about music copyright, you may now that each time a piece of music is played to an audience, a royalty payment is due. In the UK, there are three main bodies that are responsible for collecting royalty fees from radio stations and apportioning the money to their members. They are as follows:
Most music radio stations own a 'blanket' licence, that allows them to play whatever music they wish, in return for an annual licence fee (based on audience size and revenue). To allow the likes of PRS to apportion the revenue, PRS ask each station to return a detailed summary on what was broadcast, via a series of random "sampling periods", where all music played including jingles, advert music, and even the presenter singing, gets logged and returned to PRS for analysis. |
| What was that song? |
If you've heard a song but don't know the title or artist, there is a service out there that may be of use. Shazam allows you to dial a number from your mobile, hold the mobile so it can hear the track, and then get the information on title and artist back as a text message. The fastkey number is 2580, and you can find more details on this service at www.shazam.com Once you have a title and/or
artist - try Amazon |
| How do I start my own radio station? | We quite often get asked what's involved in setting up a radio station in the UK (legally), so here's a few considerations:
The above gives a general idea of what's involved in setting up a UK station. There are a couple of books on the subject, which may be worth considering. The Ofcom site also carries information on the licensing process and what's involved. For non-UK stations, contact the appropriate regulator in your country for guidance. Another option open to you, is to consider broadcasting on the Internet - to get started, all you need is a PC and an Internet connection. We have some information on how to set up an online radio station over on our Internet Radio page. |
| Why is there a time lag with digital radio? | One of the slightly annoying things you may notice about digital radio and TV, is that there's a slight time delay in the digital transmissions - sometimes up to a couple of seconds. This can be a pain if you are listening to a digital service with an analogue service in another room,or you're using the BBC pips to set your watch. The delay is due to the way channels are combined together (multiplexed) and compressed - it's one of the limitations of having a system that can squeeze loads of channels onto a single frequency. Your digital radio is receiving the encoded and compressed signals and using an onboard microprocessor to decode the incoming data and convert to audio - something that doesn't happen with standard analogue TV. Satellite listeners note that there's also the delay of a round-trip to the satellite and back (Typical delay is 900ms and 2200ms, depending on the data encoding/decoding used, and allowing for the 72,000 kilometre journey) |
| How do I get a job in radio? |
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