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Auction of airwaves 'will end musicals'
Alexa Baracaia, Evening Standard4 Jan 2007
West End musicals could be silenced forever, Andrew Lloyd Webber warned today - amid plans to sell off the technology used for wireless microphones on-stage.
Communications regulator Ofcom has said it will auction off the chunk of airwaves currently reserved for wireless mics to the highest bidder in 2012.
But Lord Lloyd-Webber, who first introduced the revolutionary radio technology to the theatre in 1971 in his hit Jesus Christ Superstar, said it would spell "the end of musicals".
He claimed producers would not have the money to compete against the likes of the mobile phone networks to buy the spectrum.
He said: "We can't go back to the cabled microphones of the Fifties and Sixties: it would be like asking audiences to go back to a version of the musical Stone Age."
Lord Lloyd-Webber said a portion of the spectrum, known as Channel 69, currently reserved for theatres, TV production companies and concert venues, should be sold at affordable prices.
Reader views (2)
I am worried to death about this my microphone cost £2400 with an extra transmitter another £1000 I have been ill waiting to return to stage so my mic is still new looking I have been paying my license even though not able to work working again soon gotta pay off debt because was unable to work. To replace the equipment would cost about £5000 due to increase in exchange rates bought on by ressesion I believe there will be compensation for old equipment based on residual value which has been knocked down to practically nothing due to the fact that the mics are now unsaleable cause everyone knows they will be illegal soon also it will be a percentage of 10 parts residual value representing 10 years life span by the time of ban that means my mics wil be worth 2 parts of nothing cause it will be 8 years old still in prestine condition so I will be forced to use the equipment illegally cause I just cant afford to replace it this mic was my most expensive prized posession I worked so hard to get the mic used by the stars it was my dream now I feel awful and let down I will use my mic after the ban cause I have to if I could replace it I would the show must go on by the way when I got ill i stood on stage in agony trying to work for 6 months before it was too much for me show must go on rehearsing again in my living room with mic in question may be last chance to use it.
- Karl Morgan, Staffordshire England, 22/01/2010 22:30
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Not only would this affect West End musicals, but also the production of films and television programmes. Many feature films use numerous radiomicrophones, if the American producers cannot work the way they like here, then they (and their money) will go to countries where they can. Just when Gordon Brown's last budget was designed to encourage them to make films here.
Many television programmes also use many radio frequencies, not just for radiomicrophones but also for radio cameras and communications between members of the crew. If these frequencies were sold off to mobile phone giants at prices small production companies couldn't afford it would result in some very dull television.
- Nigel Woodford, Richmond Surrey, 04/01/2007 18:56
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