Norway To Become First Country To Switch Off FM Radio (reuters.com)

Norway is set to become the first country to switch off its FM radio network next week, as it takes the unpopular leap to digital technology. Reuters reports: Critics say the government is rushing the move and many people may miss warnings on emergencies that have until now been broadcast via the radio. Of particular concern are the 2 million cars on Norway's roads that are not equipped with Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) receivers, they say. Sixty-six percent of Norwegians oppose switching off FM, with just 17 percent in favor and the rest undecided, according to an opinion poll published by the daily Dagbladet last month. Nevertheless, parliament gave the final go-ahead for the move last month, swayed by the fact that digital networks can carry more radio channels. By the end of the year, all national FM broadcasts will be closed in favor of DAB, which backers say carries less hiss and clearer sound throughout the large nation of 5 million people cut by fjords and mountains. Torvmark said cars were the "biggest challenge" - a good digital adapter for an FM car radio costs 1,500 Norwegian crowns ($174.70), he said. For the same cost, digital radio in Norway allows eight times more radio stations than FM. The current system of parallel FM and digital networks, each of which cost about 250 million crowns ($29 million), saps investments in programs.

Comments

Re:DAB is garbage.

[Kjella]

And compared to FM, DAB is mostly nothing. At a fraction of the range where you'd still be pulling in very usable FM audio. DAB is gone entirely, or slamming open and closed like a berserk doorman on meth.

This is where commercial interests have won. DAB+ is actually quite nice in populated areas, more channels and better sound. We're building tunnel coverage and such so along the main roads it'll be okay. But when you start to consider the streaming capabilities of cell phones and particularly compared to the antenna and battery = power of a car we should have dropped radio altogether and just built out data transfer for streaming.

Because the places you don't have good cell phone coverage DAB+ isn't very good either. Remote cabins, deep in the mountains, far out at sea out of cell phone coverage where you don't care about DAB+ and 20 channels of music. You want to hear the weather forecast and know if there's a storm coming. I'm sure we could find some other alternative for that.