Radio-L moderator Ted Ledingham plans to shut down the listserv at the end of this month, though the news has prompted a flurry of activity, with some people asking for his material to be archived.
Radio-L, which focused on Eureka-147 DAB technology as well as other digital formats, dates to 1992. The list “arose when there were no technical standards, lots of discussion and many disagreements on policy and technology,” Ledingham stated in a post to subscribers.
Noting there has been no activity for 12 months on the forum, Ledingham has proposed shutting it down, saying that since the forum began, “Countries have decided on standards, implementation is underway (or stalled, depending on the country and your viewpoint) and the need for a discussion of issues seems to have reduced.”
He senses Radio-L has “run its course” and asks those who disagree or have suggestions on ways to make it relevant again to post a message.
While many posters agreed with his decision, one asked whether the group should debate why the digitlization of radio has proven to be so much harder than TV, noting that while there are quite a number of countries where both terrestial OTA and satellite TV-broadcasting has already been completely replaced by digital television, a fully digital-only radio-system is still (at best) a decade off.
“Or is it just that broadcasting (in whatever form) is changing that fast; that this question has become irrelevant?”
