News

On December 11, a seminar on "The Past, Present and Future of Radio Broadcasting in Azerbaijan" was held, organised by the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport (MIND) and the Audiovisual Council. As a result of the implementation of the "Action Plan for the Implementation and Development of Digital Radio Broadcasting in the Territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan", it is planned to expand the DAB+ standard digital radio, which began broadcasting in Baku and the Absheron Peninsula in 2019, to the entire territory of the country. For this purpose, it is planned to replace the DAB+ radio broadcasting equipment taken from the Baku TV Tower Complex with new ones by the end of this year and organise DAB+ broadcasting from the Gulustan Radio and Television Broadcasting Station located in the Agsu district.

In the coming years, it is planned to cover 70% of the territory of Azerbaijan with DAB+ (Digital Audio Broadcasting Plus) digital radio broadcasting. Report informs that Elman Hasanov, Acting General Director of the Teleradio Production Association, said this at the event titled “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow of Radio Broadcasting in the Republic of Azerbaijan”. “DAB+ technologies are applied in more than 55 countries. They are mainly used in Europe, Australia and some Asian-African countries. This technology allows broadcasting 12-18 FM (Frequency Modulation) channels at one frequency. At the initial stage, it is planned to install a 3-kilowatt DAB+ transmitter at the Baku TV tower complex and the Gulustan station in the Agsu district. This is expected to be implemented by the end of 2024,” he noted.

CADA showed strong DAB+ listening in Sydney in the final GfK survey of 2024. In the other metros, smooth DAB+ continued to be the most popular option where there is no FM smooth station. Coles Radio regained No 1 in Melbourne from Gold 80s. Elf Radio returned, much like Mariah Carey and Michael Buble do, for the festive season. It would be interesting to see how many listen if the station played year round! There was also a debut for MMM 70s in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and a strong showing for iHeart Australia in Sydney for what is typically Oz-tober, a month of locally focused music on radio.

As reported, at the outcome of the Mimit's expression of interest procedures for the start-up of DAB+, it emerged that local broadcasters in several regions, do not have sufficient frequencies to broadcast the programmes of all the current analogue FM licensees. In order to provide a solution to this serious concern, Aeranti-Corallo has been asking for some time for more frequencies to be identified in addition to those planned by Agcom in 2022. Mimit has now asked Agcom for an opinion on the retrieval of additional radio resources to be allocated to DAB+ local networks in areas with greater demand, through the reallocation of part of the frequencies of TV mux 12.

Südwestrundfunk (SWR) is further expanding its transmitter network for DAB+ digital radio reception in Rhineland-Palatinate. The commissioning of the Bleialf site will improve DAB+ coverage in the respective regions. The Bleialf site will go into operation on 11 December 2024, improving DAB+ coverage to the right and left of the A60 between the Steinebrück border crossing and Waxweiler, along the E29 between the Arla roundabout and as far north as Olzheim and between Lützkampen, Waxweiler, Schönecken, Weinsheim, Schönfeld and in the border area with Belgium in frequency block (channel) 11A.

As DAB+ continues gaining traction in Europe, analog FM stations are set to be shutdown entirely in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein and all of Switzerland. The details of these “FM switch-offs” were discussed during the WorldDAB Summit 2024 session, “Switchover is Happening Here and Now.” WorldDAB, the industry group promoting the DAB+ digital radio standard, hosted the summit on Nov. 14 in Zagreb, Croatia. Dirk Schrödter, head of the state chancellery of Schleswig-Holstein, opened the session by declaring his state home to the happiest people in Germany. “This is surely due to the great radio stations we have in the north,” Schrödter proclaimed. “And now,” he added, “we are making people even happier: Schleswig-Holstein will be the first in Germany to fully switch to the new, more convenient DAB+ standard.”

The network and platform operator ORS comm has received expressions of interest for all regional DAB+ bouquets of Mux II for part of the advertised capacity of 54 CU each, which would correspond to a programme with a data rate of 72 kbit/s for error protection PL 3A. Other interested parties have until 27 December 2024 to also apply for this free capacity. It is not yet known which programme provider(s) would also like to broadcast in the regional bouquets, which enable national broadcasting as a whole.

Radio Sabbia, the historic radio station in Riccione, is back on the air in Emilia. As of Monday 9 December, it is present in the CRdab mux on channel 9B, for the provinces of Bologna and Ferrara. The broadcaster is identified as *SABBIARICCIONE. The second network ‘Balla coi miti - Radio&Disco’ is also present. In this case, however, the identifier shows SABBIA 70/80/90. The broadcasters currently present in the mux, therefore, are as follows: Dimensione Suono Soft, Radio Cusano Campus, Radio Fresh, Radio Number One, Discoradio, Radio Città Fujiko, Radio 80 Dab, Giornale Radio, Radio Venere, Ritmo 80, Mitology 70-80, Radio Sound Dab, Radio Sound Italia, Diva FM, Canale Italia, Radio Onda d'Urto, Stereocittà, Love FM, Radio Subasio, Radio Sabbia Riccione, Radio Sabbia 70/80/90.

RTI cz's nationwide radio multiplex C already has 21 individual frequency licences. The latest additions are four regional cities, three in Moravia and one in Bohemia. These are locations where digital radio is already operated by partner operator Teleko digital, which will provide transmitters for RTI cz north and east of Prague. The South Moravian region will be covered by multiplex C on channel 9B from the Brno - Barvičova transmitter. The Olomouc Region will be covered from a transmitter located at the Regional Office building next to the main railway station. For the Zlín region, RTI cz will use the Zlín - Mladcová transmitter. Finally, with Liberec, it will use a transmitter in Proseč.

Local radio company Nation Broadcasting has abandoned two of its UK FM licences in Scotland and will switch off two of its FM transmitters in Wales next year. The broadcaster has told UK media regulator OfCom - which handles radio licensing - that it expects that its two affected services, Nation Radio Scotland and Radio Pembrokeshire, will see DAB listeners overtake FM audiences at some point during the next licensing period. While there are still a large number of commercial FM stations broadcasting in the UK - 246 according to OfCom’s licensing portal - shifting consumption has made FM less important than it once was. With many cars now coming with DAB radios installed as standard, many people are naturally shifting to DAB stations when on the go.