News

Following the public call for applications for the licence to operate DAB+ broadcasting and to set up and manage a 1st multiplex from 19 August 2024, the Minister responsible for Radiocommunications and Radio Spectrum Management has selected Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE) as the successful applicant. The Service des médias, de la connectivité et de la politique numérique (SMC) is currently finalising, in close collaboration with the Autorité luxembourgeoise de l'audiovisuel (ALIA), the public call for applications for the granting of licences for sound radio services to be broadcast on the first digital multiplex. At the same time, SMC is working on the concept for the second digital multiplex for local radio stations.

The Christian station Rádio Proglas plans to end analogue FM broadcasting and switch to digital technology DAB+ within two to three years. According to director Martin Holík, the management is considering how to make the transition smoothly and without major disruptions. Proglas wants to distribute the signal from the new transmitters of the Teleko operator, which are planned - Králíky or Třebíč, and it is also considering covering Znojmo. According to Martin Holík, the head of the digitalization project at Radio Proglas, who is also its director, it would be ideal for the station to reduce the power of FM transmitters during this period and at the same time encourage listeners to buy receivers that, in addition to the existing analogue broadcasts, allow them to tune in to radio programmes digitally.

Broadcasts of a local DAB+ network in the Rotterdam region started today around 11.30 am. The broadcasts can be heard on channel 6D. Radio stations Radio 972, Hofstad Radio, Girlpower, Sunrise FM and Arrow Bluesbox will broadcast via the DAB+ network from Rotterdam. Broadcasting is done from the tower at the Waalhaven in Rotterdam. ‘By placing the transmitter at the highest point of the Waalhaven tower in Rotterdam, a large part of the region is now provided with strong and reliable DAB+ coverage', said transmitter operator Radio Netwerk Nederland (RNN) in a press release. This operator previously facilitated local DAB+ networks in Twente, Leeuwarden, Tilburg and Den Bosch, among others.

Augusto Molina (SER): ‘We are in favour of DAB, if it goes ahead’. This statement by SER's technical director, made during the round table discussion ‘What will happen to broadcasting, does DAB have a future in Spain?’, suggests a change of position by the sector's leading company, the private Prisa Media, on the digital transformation of broadcasting in Spain, which is more than two decades behind schedule, although it is conditional on a series of needs, mainly economic, which should be included in the future National Digital Broadcasting Plan, which the government must work on in order to bring order to this new reality.

Augusto Molina, technical director of SER, was one of the panellists at ‘What will happen with broadcasting? Does DAB have a future in Spain?’, a presentation on the past, present and future of DAB. The round table was moderated by José Luis Ruiz, Head of ICT Innovation and Digital Agenda at ISDEFE, and included the participation of Jacqueline Bierhorst, President of WorldDAB, and Javier Sánchez, Head of Strategy at the RTVE Innovation Centre. ‘If DAB goes ahead, which we are in favour of, we need this extra cost to be subsidised by the Administration and for the listener to also receive a subsidy to buy that DAB transmitter’, explained Augusto Molina in his speech.

From 26 to 27 November, WDR will put the new multiplex on channel 9A into operation - and reorganise the distribution of its radio programmes via DAB+. WDR 2 listeners can look forward to better sound quality, while WDR 4 listeners will benefit twice over. Until now, the seven WDR 4 regional programmes were only available via FM and the Internet live stream - but not via DAB+. This is now set to change: On the night of Wednesday 27 November, WDR will expand and reorganise the distribution of its radio programmes via DAB+ by commissioning a second DAB+ network. As a result, all WDR 4 regional programmes will be receivable via DAB+ in future.

SRG will cease broadcasting on FM at the end of 2024. At the same time, most private broadcasters will also begin to thin out their transmitter network - including Radio Zürisee. The private broadcaster has announced that some FM transmitter sites will be switched off from 1 January 2025. In the core broadcasting area, this will initially affect the Glarnerland region, where restrictions may be imposed. All radio stations will cease FM operation at the end of 2026. Radio Zürisee recommends switching to DAB+ digital radio. This allows the programme to be heard terrestrially throughout German-speaking Switzerland.

In GfK Radio 360 Survey 7 results of DAB+ listening it was a win for the easy listening, classic hits stations with smooth top in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth and Gold 80s in Melbourne. In Sydney it was youth hip-hop and R&B station CADA at No 1. Sky News Radio debuted in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with a healthy 50,000 listeners across the three metros for their first survey.

Ràdio 4 starts broadcasting on DAB+ on 14 November, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the first legal radio broadcast in Spain. And it starts in DAB+ because, as we have said on other occasions, it is the only realistic alternative that exists today to guarantee the future of radio as we know it. With that future in mind, today we tell you what we are asking of the next National Technical Plan for Digital Radio, as well as what it must be accompanied by.

Tributes are being paid to long-serving radio engineer Bruce Davidson who has died at the age of 60. Bruce has spent the last ten years working at Bauer Media as Broadcast and Technology Director looking after all the national and radio stations and their broadcast technology teams. He most recently oversaw the move from Golden Square to The Lantern and was relocating. Before that, he worked for Global and Chrysalis for 15 years as Group Technical Director then Technology Director leading a team of 80 technology professionals. Davidson had been a director of UK DAB multiplex operators MXR, CE Digital and DRG.