I would have loved to see the LW equipment running at full chat. I tried to arrange a tour of Westerglen for our radio club but it’s not possible with the changes.
There’s something majestic about the word ‘sender’.
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Helps if you work in the industry! The old adage, “It’ not what you know, it’s who you know”
In our case, we know the Senior Engineer at Droitwich!!
Yes, 100%, Sender is far nicer term!
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Compared to listening to MW-AM stations in my youth (e.g. R.Luxenbourg under the pillow with my transistor^^, later the ‘pop pirates’), nowadays I find the local EMI pollution makes even these strong stations unpleasant to listen to during the day (not that we can get R.Caroline here ‘up north’ during the day). And e-vehicles at close range make it worse. Re the cost-per-listener, most EU/UK broadcasters have ‘read the runes’ and closed down many of their MW stations. The BBC plans a “Total AM Exit” by end of 2027. Commercial giants have already fled.
^^transistor (or ‘tranny’) = transistorised portable radio (a new thing in the early 1960s).The rise of the portable radio directly coincided with the birth of offshore pirate stations
DAB radio was useless in the early days with poor coverage; to be expected at ~200MHz with underpowered widely-spaced transmitters. Coverage will be perfect by the time no one under 70 is listening to it.
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I’m not sure that listening to a live station (other than for sport) will be a thing if current trends continue…
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The ad should read Italian QRPp operator. 
Alas tis likely true. It’s all about fragmentation, subscriptions and dark patterns these days.
I noticed Sky have monetised their podcasts now to a standalone subscription model. Not a listener myself but just an example.
Live events is probably still the main driver. I like having a radio on when WFH, or just to carry out portable occasionally. I like my Eton Elite as it does everything including Air.
The Tecsun PL-330 is a staple in my SWL diet, as is the little XH-DATA pocket radio. I wish I had a setup that could get BBC Radio Norfolk from EI as they have live coverage of local football and the EFL. This is all paywalled online so unless you live locally you can’t get the broadcast directly.
I also noticed recently a case of rug pulling by the BBC Sounds app. Until a couple of months ago they had the (I think) entire Sherlock Holmes radio plays available.
They disappeared with no warning and no mention of why or if they are returning. Good job the Internet Archive exists.
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I blame Moriarty…
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The BBC doesn’t own the permanent on-demand streaming rights to its entire archive even for content it originally produced. Instead, it operates on a strictly regulated time-window system.
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I remember the days of Marine CW beacons, there used to be a monthly list in Practical Wireless magazine, useful for learning CW
Band II FM Broadcast band will be next
They’re coming for FM already. 
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Will there be a rise of Pirate Radio though? I have been looking at low power mw transmitters just to warrant me keeping some old radios. For entertainment and educational purposes only of course!
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No. Pirate radio was a phenomenon of the 20th century - from 60s offshore ships to the 80s/90s rooftop FM transmitters. In the internet age young people don’t listen to linear radio; they expect on-demand music via their mobile phones.
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In the late 1970s, my first car was a rather rusty Mk3 Cortina. This had a slot in the dash for a radio, but being a low-end model, none was fitted.
Soldering iron in hand, I built and installed a budget LW/MW car-radio kit. The hardest part was drilling a hole in the wing and mounting a telescopic aerial. I used a posh one that retracted when the power went off; as it turned out, a short-life item that struggled to survive a couple of winters 
Perhaps history is due to repeat itself as, once more, we build the car radios we want from kits?
73 Dave
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Looks like its QRT, no carrier visible here now.
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On the drive back from the Hog Roast weekend , myself and Peter (M1BZJ) were discussing the demise of R4 LW and I said that cars just don’t have the capability to receive any more.
We then turned on the radio in my 2025 Citroen Berlingo to be surprised that the AM section (you get FM DAB and AM) covered both LW and MW. Tuned into 198Khz and listed to the repeating “No longer available message” once or twice then put it back to DAB.
It car manual probably says something about it, but I havent read it. Wouldnt surprise me if most people didnt know they could get LW, and if they did, would they bother.
I suspect receiver quality is little more than an afterthought even when they are included nowadays. Marianne’s 1989 Citroen AX had a lovely FM/MW receiver. My 2002 Citroen Xsara Picasso had a really good FM/MW/LW receiver. My current 2016 Dacia Duster’s radio wasn’t bad, but not as good. That radio got replaced with a Pioneer AVIC-F9880DAB satnav. The satnav and the FM/DAB RX is fantastic - but even though it has MW and LW, the receiver is so woeful as to make AM listening generally unpleasant. So I don’t - I listen to the football on BBC Radio 5 Live DAB, and Test Match Special on BBC Radio 5 Sports Xtra DAB. The only time I listen in AM in the car these days is if I’m gigging in the Essex area, when tuning to 648kHz is irresistible!
They were decommissioned across Europe years ago but you will still find many aeronautical Non-Directional Beacons (NDBs) across the UK which continue to broadcast their 2- or 3-letter Morse IDs between the LW and MW broadcast bands. They are still used to mark regional airports, military airfields and offshore oil platforms/helicopter rigs.
As I write, I’m listening to one via an internet-SDR : “EPM” on 316 kHz located in a rural field near Epsom, Surrey, 25W power output.
These too are on their way out. For decades they have been part of the non-precision instrument approach procedure to smaller airfields. The CAA has dragged its heels on the implementation of GPS-based instrument approaches, which should really have taken over completely by now, as has happened in the USA. For some years I nursed an old Racal NDB at my local airport hoping that we would get our GPS procedure approved before it finally gave up the ghost. It never happened, the NDB did indeed eventually fail… and I’m long since retired!
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Ive had a few cars over the years and they’ve always had radio with FM/MW/LW I used to scan around to see what I can pick up. My current one a 2016 Suzuki doesn’t have LW. Not much on MW just Talk Sport and 5 Live and Sometimes Manx Radio if I go far enough North.
Anyway MW transmitter Kit is on its way from Aliexpress not sure if it can be tuned to LW. Also got a MW Low power valve transmitter from a SK clear out a while back that will transmit on LW. Can broadcast Progresive Rock to the next street if anyone happens to tune in.
A spectrum of nothingness is here and we can’t do anything about it.
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