You know that old joke/response, when people say how ‘set back in time’ the Isle of Wight is – “Yes. We’ve just got radio too!”.
Well, those in the south of the Island can now say that with extra enthusiasm. DAB has finally arrived down here.
Anyone living in the south of the IW will tell you – there’s been no DAB radio reception at all.
All change
Well, that’s all changed.
There’s now a set of ten BBC radio stations are available over DAB, down south:
BBC Radio 1; Radio 1 eXtra; Radio 2; Radio 3; Radio 4; Radio 4 eXtra; Radio 5 Live; Radio 6 music; BBC World Service; BBC Asian Network
By coincidence (we’re sure) OnTheWight has been in discussion with Ofcom, as when their Digital Radio Report 2014 was published at the end of September, the DAB coverage maps in it made it look like the whole Island was covered.
We’ve been testing it this morning after a reader (Hello John!) tipped us off. It sounds great.
Are you now covered?
It’s currently unclear where on the Island has now got DAB and where still lies dark.
If you can now get it when you previously couldn’t, please do get in touch, or comment below. Likewise if you still cannot get DAB on the Isle of Wight.
Previous DAB transmission on the Island
As mentioned, OnTheWight has been in discussion with Ofcom about the DAB reception (or lack of it) on large parts of the Isle of Wight.
Here’s one of the maps that they sent us showing where the transmission of DAB should be over the Island as at 2012. Of course the theory of where signals should be transmitted to and when they are actually received are two different things.
The green areas show degrees of coverage, the white – the lack of it. Happily this has changed now.
(Click on image to see it larger)
