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 useless nowadays, ever heard of streami

[Kjella]

DAB here in the UK is a failure because we adopted it too early, and we are stuck with first generation DAB rather than DAB+. I hope Norway is a bit more advanced.

We were just as early adopters, but in an effort to give as many as possible the finger it will be exclusively DAB+. So if you bought a DAB radio it has both been born and died in less time than most FM radios have lived. If you live in a sane country and need FM radios you can probably get them for a few bucks + shipping, there will be literally millions of them thrown away. To my knowledge there will be zero effort made to recycle them other than as electronic trash, when you could have just put them in a container and shipped them to... anywhere but here, really and sold them cheap or given them to a third world country. We spend billions in tax relief for EVs... but trash millions of working radios, that's good environmentalism. /facepalm

Misguided Priorities

[mysidia]

The NUMBER of Analog FM stations which the bands can accommodate are MORE THAN NEEDED.

And switching them off is a major public detriment, Because of the loss of the major advantage which Analog FM radio has....

Receivers for FM are CHEAP, UBIQUITOUS, Easy to receive transmissions, And Analog signals are very forgiving.

Also, the relatively small NUMBER IS AN ADVANTAGE. When FM receivers are being used for THEIR MAIN PURPOSE, which.....
Is to receive broadcast messages, potentially during a time of emergency when aLL THE DIGITAL STUFF is broken.....
(E.g. Due to EMP)

Re:Misguided Priorities

[DogDude]

You SEEM to have an INTERMITTENT problem with your CAPS LOCK.

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.