News

Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) Chairman and ARN CEO, Ciaran Davis, today announced the appointment of Lizzie Young as the industry body’s new CEO. Young was most recently CEO APAC & Global Growth Officer of WeAre8. Young is a media and technology executive with 25 years’ experience across multiple global markets and has worked on all media platforms in roles spanning commercial, content and operations. She has also spent over a decade in the audio industry, including 7 years at GWR Radio/GCap (now Global Radio) in the UK where she held various roles including Commercial Programming Controller and Head of Agency Sales and 4 years at Austereo in Brisbane and Sydney in various promotions, marketing and integration roles. Young will commence her role at CRA on August 7, 2024.

Radio in Schleswig-Holstein is going digital. Private and public radio stations have reached an agreement with the state government and the state media authority to gradually switch to DAB+ digital radio broadcasting via FM antennas in the northernmost federal state from 2025 to 2031. Radio stations have been working on expanding their DAB+ networks and increasing the variety of programmes for years, after the legal requirements for this have been created. For listeners in Schleswig-Holstein, the switchover means more diversity in radio broadcasting, which can only be achieved with digital programmes. For programme providers and the state government, the focus is always on the listeners who are provided with outstanding radio quality. The demand for linear radio programmes is consistently high.

Nation Broadcasting has announced it will be applying for four small scale DAB licences in Ofcom’s sixth round of licensing. They will be submitting applications for Ayr, Bournemouth, the Isle of Wight and Sunderland in time for the closing date of 5pm on Thursday 18th July 2024. The Bournemouth application is a venture between local FM broadcaster Nation and newly launched Bournemouth One. Roy Martin, co-founder of Bournemouth One said of the partnership: “Bournemouth One is already attracting a substantial audience online following our launch in January, and we can’t wait to bring this and extra services to DAB in the next year or so.”

Today, to listen to the news, music, the weather or traffic announcements on the radio, people generally turn to DAB+ or IP (Internet) broadcasting technology. Fewer and fewer FM receivers are still in use in Switzerland. SSR will therefore be decommissioning its obsolete FM antennas by the end of the year. Around ten years ago, the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM), private radio stations and the SRG began working closely together to plan the transition from FM to DAB+. The predictions made at the time - that DAB+ would become the new radio standard - have been borne out: the proportion of people who listen to radio exclusively via FM has now stagnated at less than 10%. From 2020, the industry will no longer be obliged to broadcast radio programmes using this technology, and maintaining three parallel broadcasting technologies is costly. The SRG Board of Directors has therefore decided to stop broadcasting SRG radio programmes via the now obsolete FM antennas on 31 December 2024.

Nation Radio has signed a long-term contract into the next decade for its London and South East England DAB platform. Following a trial period last year, Nation 80s has also joined the London-wide DAB platform full time in DAB+ stereo. Nation’s Founder Jason Bryant said: "Nation is a fast growing and important media brand in major population centres across the UK. In Wales, Scotland and Southern England, we are reaching record weekly audiences. In the London market, the most competitive in the UK, Nation recently posted its highest ever weekly audience of nearly 200,000 – one of the largest digital only station audiences in London."

Ballermann Radio, Germany's party and pop radio station, is now available nationwide via DAB+. The DAB+ radio station under Germany's most notorious event and party brand Ballermann® will be bringing rousing party sounds and the unmistakable, original Ballermann® feeling to every corner of the country around the clock from 9.00 pm today. "Whether chilling on the couch, dancing in the shower, in the office or on the car journey: the best party and Ballermann songs provide that little bit extra and that pure Ballermann feeling - all year round and all over Germany!" says Klaus Drescher, Managing Director of BMR Media GmbH.

Gorka Zumeta writes: A new instalment of Radio Exterior de España's "En menos de tres" ("In less than three minutes") micro-space is available, with Javier Sanchez of RTVE. There is no mobile phone with 5G Broadcast technology and, for the moment, it is not even expected. It is very easy to worship the totem of technology, driven by fashions and the rhythm of the times, but it is important to contextualise the reality of the facts and the real possibilities of the application of new technologies. In analysing this new digital standard of content dissemination, the author prioritises two questions that he considers fundamental: the real use that it satisfies and its penetration among the population. This is the starting point of his reflection on the 5G Broadcast in Spain.

In response to huge demand (and a few trolls), Radio Exe has taken advantage of half-Christmas – 25 June – to relaunch Radio ExeMas, non-stop Christmas songs whenever you want them. Radio Exe’s breakfast presenter Matt Rogers, never one to pass up an opportunity to don a Christmas jumper said: “For people who say Christmas seems to start earlier every year, they’re right! “We wanted to be at the top of Santa’s nice list by bringing festive cheer to Devon, and now people can get their fix of Mariah, Wizzard and Wham by tuning to Radio ExeMas. Feliz Navidad!” The festive station is on digital radio across much of Devon on the Exeter, Torbay/Teignbridge and Plymouth areas, as well as being streamed on its own website and on the Radio Exe app.

The Ingolstadt local network (channel 6A) is getting a third location for DAB+ today. In addition to the existing transmitters in Pfaffenhofen-Wolfsberg and Gelbelsee, a further site in Eichstätt is now strengthening DAB+ reception in the region. The transmitter operates with a power of 1 kW ERP. The network operator of the regional network is Bayern Digital Radio GmbH. The Ingolstadt 6A DAB network now also covers the large district town of Eichstätt almost completely in indoor quality (approx. 99%). With the expansion of the network through the Eichstätt DAB transmitter, the Ingolstadt 6A DAB multiplex can be received by approx. 93.9% of residents in buildings and approx. 98.6% on mobile devices in the Ingolstadt region.

Cars and radio are a close-knit team - and DAB+ now has a regular place: 37 per cent of the population in Bavaria who listen to the radio in their cars on weekdays on average receive radio programmes via DAB+. Regardless of how radio is listened to in the car, despite increasing competition from online audio offerings such as music streaming or podcasts, 85 per cent of audio time in the car is spent listening to the radio and only 13 per cent is spent listening to online audio. These are preliminary results on DAB+ from the Radio Analysis Radio Bavaria 2024, which will be presented on 25 June at the Local Radio Days. There is good news regarding the ownership and use of DAB+ devices: around half of the population in Bavaria now has at least one DAB+ radio at home or in the car. DAB+ also remains the driving force for the use of digital transmission channels in radio.