Essential
maintenance and interruption to Longwave service
The transmission equipment
to enable the broadcast of the Longwave (LW) service
has been in continuous operation for over 29 years. It now requires urgent
attention.
Having made the commitment to sustain the service, and while other
long term alternative solutions continue to be explored, RTÉ has to undertake
significant remedial works on elements of the transmission equipment, mainly
the antenna/mast, which will guarantee the continuance of the LW service for a
minimum of further two years. Given the height of the mast this work has to
happen now in advance of the winter.
In order to facilitate this essential maintenance, and to ensure
the safety of those undertaking the work, the Longwave service will go off
air on Wednesday 4th September and Thursday 5th September 2019, from 9.30am
until 4.30pm.
This initial outage is to facilitate the preparatory work for a
subsequent more extensive and essential body of work to maintain this service. This
larger body of maintenance work will be carried out between Tuesday 10th
September and Thursday 17th October.
During both of these times, RTÉ Radio 1 will not be
available via LW.
RTÉ is communicating this information to LW service listeners on
RTÉ Radio 1 LW, and advising them of the various alternatives currently
available, which include RTÉ’s online services, apps and the RTÉ Radio Player
and through Virgin, SKY and Freesat on televisions.
We remain mindful of the role that RTÉ plays in keeping Irish
people in the UK and beyond informed and connected with home. Whilst the
temporary suspension of service is necessary, we are confident that this
investment will help to sustain the LW service for the medium term.
Ends