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I have noticed for some time that the programme material of commercial radio stations contain frequent dropouts, periods of silence lasting maybe 50-100 ms. I have a theory on where they come from, but would like to find out what others think.
Are you speaking of dropouts that occur in the middle of music, voice or other program material or are these dropouts during transistions - possibly when switching between network material and local station material? Here in the US I notice some bursts of audio at transition points - and I am guessing they mute the audio much of the time to keep the data bursts of the air - but that's just a guess.
My theory about the "dropouts" from radio stations is that your radio is faulty.
Oh, you are in the UK. Ask your post office. My post office does only mail and has nothing to do with radio.
I do have a radio at home that has a mute function that can be enabled. When enabled the audio is muted if the signal strength of the station drops below a preset level (that I can't change). Reflections from vehicles or aircraft can result in momentary nulls in signal strength - resulting in the muting or silence - particularly with a distant or low powered station.
If the radio is digital it might be a dropped frame. In weak signal conditions my TV displays dropped frames as a garbled batch of pixels. It is certainly anoying.
.05 second dropout? I don't know if my ears can even detect that short duration!! So tell us this theory of yours.
As for stevez comment, often there are two advertisements being broadcast simultaneously... one from the original network feed and the other from a local insertion point. There are encoded signals that will mute the network feed so as to allow local advertising/announcements to prevail. When these radio spots are not exactly 30 secs or 1 min. etc. and the local spot ends a second too soon, you hear the tail end of the network feed pop in. The transition to digital control and digital audio to the ad insertion equipment has greatly reduced the error factor behind all this. However it still occurs on occasion. Prior to the newer technology, timing of begin and end times was critical.
The dropouts occur during program material, at random it seems. I think it may be a problem with trying to cram more into a digital channel than will go, with windowslike consequences. I might email one of the stations involved, see what their opinion is.
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