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RANSOMWARE ATTACK on radio station group

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  Watch out! Hackers About! Another Ransomware Attack  on radio station cluster. Tuesday 19 October 2021 A disturbing report from Seattle this morning that a group of stations have come under sustained cyber attack. The victims are the stations in what has been for many years called the Sinclair Broadcast Group but were sold to Lotus Communications three weeks ago for around $5 million cash plus a further $13 million in 'deals'.  Sinclair have retained the ongoing rights to the KOMO call letters and they will continue with their TV channel of that name. They have around three hundred outlets. The stations concerned are News  1000 KOMO Seattle 97.7 KOMO-FM Oakville 9 7.7 K249DX Redmond, Hot AC “ Star 101.5 ” KPLZ Seattle  and  Conservative Talk  570 KVI  Seattle The attack was RANSOMWARE and manifested to listeners as key stations such as Star 101.5 having intermittent dead air,  songs skipping and no imaging (jingles and recorded liners) between the songs.   On 1000 KOMO , t

More DAB radio stations on the way

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  More DAB + stations to launch OFCOM have finally released details of which stations will be included in the next round of Multiplex licenses offered. The 25 licence areas, which are to be offered towards the end of this year, include : Aberdeen (N & S), Bedford; Belfast; Coventry; Darlington & Bishop Auckland; Dundee; East Hull; Leicester; Lincoln; Llandudno; Middlesbrough & Redcar; Milton Keynes; Nottingham; Oxford; Rutland & Stamford; Shaftesbury, Swansea; Swindon; Taunton; Warminster, West Hull; Harrogate; York and the Yorkshire Coast. OFCOM recently announced more multiplex licence holders in many small towns across the North West of England and North Wales. Some will have a couple of slots reserved for community radio stations, or non-profit operations, but many more will be small scale commercial radio stations, often with programmes networked from other areas. Several companies are likely to bid for some of the locations. Each MUX will be capable of transmit

DAB Expansion

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 My  personal Blog page had filled up with radio articles and comments, all of which I loved to read but they were getting mixed up with personal traffic, and my other interests (I'm sure it will amaze some of you to learn that I DO have other interests, as well as radio). So in future, all the radio 'gubbins' will be found on this BLOG.  Please do bookmark the Blog if you want to find it easily - these Googly addresses are not very easy to learn are they, nor remember!  I have no idea how I got this awful long-winded Google address. I don't use it for email or anything else, just this Blog. So, whats happening in the radio world in 2021?     We certainly had no idea that 2020 would turn out as it has. One thing is for certain:  there will be some big changes. Again!   The radio landscape in the UK will expand massively.  Licences to operate 25 new DAB MULTIPLEXES have already been advertised, and 45 would be operators already big to operate them, so each one WILL come