News

Ofcom has awarded new small-scale multiplexes in Inverclyde, Newry, Northampton, Southampton and Wolverhampton. Ofcom followed its theme of awarding small-scale multiplexes licences to those with active or promised involvement by established community radio stations, considering evidence of demand or support from persons providing or proposing to provide community or local digital sound programme services (C-DSP and DSP services) in the advertised areas.

New WorldDAB member Radio Screen is a metadata distribution platform for DAB+, RadioDNS Hybrid Radio and internet radio stations. Radio Screen enables radio stations to display slideshows to accompany their audio programmes illustrating music, talk shows and advertisements on the screens of vehicles equipped with a DAB+ or a DNS Hybrid Radio receiver. We learn more about Radio Screen's offer in this interview with Radio Screen's President, Bruno Alberti.

Digital radio coverage continues to improve. A new DAB+ transmitter was put into service last Friday in Les Écorcheresses. It covers the villages of Soulce, Undervelier, Sornetan, Rebévelier, Saulcy and the Gorges du Pichoux. In total, some 60 transmitters in the Romandie Médias network are to cover the whole of French-speaking Switzerland.

On 26 January, the Senate's Committee on Culture, Education and Communication organised a round table on the future of radio in the age of DAB+. Emmanuel Boutterin, president of the Syndicat national des radios libres (National Union of Free Radios), recalled the need to modernise radio broadcasting, which includes DAB+. He called for "a strong political signal". For the SNRL president, DAB+ is a major industrial and commercial challenge: "no one can go backwards".

The establishment of DAB+ in South East Asia is being led by activities in Thailand. The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission of Thailand (NBTC) in conjunction with the Royal Thai Army Radio and Television have been running a high power DAB+ trial in the Thai capital of Bangkok since 2018. A second project has been established to test DAB+ in four major regional areas, Chon Buri south of Bangkok, Chiang Mai in the north, Khon Kaen in the northeast, and Song Khla in the south of Thailand. The regional trials are an extension of the Bangkok trial and focus on determining the suitable technical standard and parameters for the regional areas. The NBTC commissioner for Radio Broadcast Air-Vice-Marshall Dr. Thanapant said: “The NBTC is now considering how to deliver state-of-the-art DAB digital broadcast radio to all of Thailand to ensure that the public can receive high quality radio with increased services. The results of the regional trial will be useful input into that process”.

Nielsen has reported that DAB+ station Fix Radio has a weekly audience of 211,000 tradespeople. The audience audit also revealed the station’s average weekly listening hours for the first time. Fix Radio had 19.8 hours of average weekly listening and 2.8 hours of average daily listening between June and November. “Fix Radio finished 2022 with a bang,” said company CEO and founder, Louis Timpany. “Since going national in May, the station has gone from strength to strength. I’ve always believed that builders are radio-mad and were crying out for their own station. The sheer amount of time they spend with Fix proves they love what they hear,” he added. Previously, when broadcasting as a regional DAB station in London and Manchester, the radio station’s own research estimated its weekly reach at 85,000 tradespeople.

i-médias Group, a media and marketing company based in the Antilles-Guyane (the French West Indies), is adding a raft of DAB+ stations to a multiplex in Martinique. The island is a single territorial collectivity of the French Republic. i-médias Group, which owns several FM radio stations in the Antilles-Guyane, initiated the five DAB+ stations on Jan. 23 — Fusion DAB+, Fusion Gold, Fusion Salsa, Fusion Compas and Fusion 100% News. It plans to launch four more stations after a 9-month test period: Radio Evangile Martinique, Radio Identity, Mixx FM and Maknet Jazz. The company expects to have 12 DAB+ stations in total, with plans to grow its DAB+ offering throughout the Antilles-Guyane. According to regulations, Martinique is allowed a total of 50 DAB+ stations.

On 1 February 2023 the Blender transmitter (also called Wiggensbach, Buchenberg or Kempten) was put into operation. The Blender transmitter supplies Kempten and the surrounding area and fills the area between the Ulm transmitter and the Pfänder transmitter. The city of Memmingen in particular, benefits from the Blender transmitter, and also the Autobahn 7 towards Füssen.

Radio Łódź Extra is being broadcast again via the Polish Radio multiplex in Łódź. It will, among other things, broadcast events in their entirety that will not fit on the main air of Radio Łódź. In the new version of the charter of duties, which dates from December 2022, the broadcaster states that in the years 2023-2024 Radio Łódź Extra will return to its original objectives and will continue to be used for launching occasional programmes and full broadcasts of concerts, cultural and sporting events or broadcasts from festival studios, which will be briefly covered in the regional programme.

Radio station Feel Good 60's & 70's Hits has further extended its reach on DAB+. The radio station can now also be heard in and around The Hague via DAB+ on channel 5C and in the Delft/Westland/Vlaardingen region on channel 9B. Feel Good 60's & 70's Hits is a themed channel for seniors, established by Feel Good Radio, the local radio station for the municipalities of Pijnacker-Nootdorp and Rijswijk.