-wave broadcasts in some countries suggest that some governments remain acutely aware of the potency of this often overlooked delivery option. Earlier, we mentioned that the UK sold off the BBC transmitter sites in 1997 and in common with many other countries is presently preparing to auction TV spectrum released by the transition from analogue to digital terrestrial TV. In a sense this seems to be trading short-term treasury gain against a potential loss of control over national TV and radio broadcasting, with a risk that political influence shifts to third parties, owners of satellite broadcasting networks being one example. In the US the National Association of Broadcasters is presently lobbying against the proposal by the FCC to take away an additional 120 MHz of TV broadcasting spectrum. 108 MHz, channels 52 to 69 had been taken away and auctioned in 2007. The additional spectrum would take out channels 31 to 51 that would mean (according to the NAB) that over 600 of the 1735 full-power radio stations would either need to close down or move to VHF, which would be rather impractical. Looking at this globally, Table 15.1 provides an overview of the 500 MHz of broadcast (radio and TV) bandwidth available between long wave and 2 GHz. Table 15.2 lists the associated digital broadcast radio system options. Table 15.1 Frequency allocations and digital broadcast system options Radio Band Frequency System Options Long Wave 3 kHz-300 kHz DRM (Digital AM) Medium Wave 300 kHz-3000 kHz (3 MHz) DRM (Digital AM) Short Wave 3 MHz-30 MHz DRM (Digital AM) VHF (FM radio) 88-108 MHz DAB/DMB VHF Band 3 174-233 MHz DAB/DMB (218-230 MHz) UHF Band 4 470-490 MHz DVB-H, ISDBT, Media FLO UHF Band 5 790-862 MHz DVB-H, ISDBT, Media FLO L Band 1452-1492 MHz DAB/DMB 1670-1675 MHz DVB-H 7 http://www.nab.org/. Making Telecoms Work Table 15.2 Broadcast receivers as at 2005 through to 2010 Broadcast receivers Functionality Analogue AM Voice and low-bandwidth audio Analogue FM Voice, stereo radio, text and images (visual radio) Voice, audio, t