BBC Radio Essex and Hereford Worcester closing down

The BBC is running a further trial commencing on the 30th October - 6th November 2012 to switch off existing MW services at two more local radio stations, Radio Essex and Radio Hereford & Worcester. While extending the trail for Radio Nottingham and Radio Kent MW frequency (1602 MW). This is because we want to assess the impact of a longer term switch off given the low number of response in these areas. Why are you doing this? The BBC is required to make savings. One option to make savings and preserve value to licence fee payers is to switch off MW services except where listeners depend upon MW as an alternative to FM and DAB. MW services mainly duplicate what is already available on FM and DAB, and most listeners will be able to hear their local stations on FM. The BBC is also committed to a full roll out of local radio stations across the DAB network. If local radio is not already available on DAB it will be in the future. The aim of the trial is to get a better understanding of the impact of the loss of MW for our core listeners and also enable us to ensure adequate coverage is available on other platforms in these areas. http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/mwtrial/  (via Steve Whitt, mwcircle 31.10.2012 via Tore Larsson, ARC)