News

In her first public appearance as WorldDAB president on Nov. 7, Jacqueline Bierhorst struck up the (digital radio) band at the WorldDAB Summit 2023 gala dinner, the annual, informal event where WorldDAB members and delegates from the radio industry lay the ground for the upcoming discussions and networking. The following day, Bierhorst opened the Summit with her keynote speech. “It’s my priority to continue Patrick’s work,” she stated, referring to Patrick Hannon, WorldDAB’s past president. “We need to create a DAB+ awareness and keep on doing that, building on his vision, mission and strategy, fostering collaboration and excellence in all aspects.”

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited, an operationally focused specialist digital infrastructure investor, is pleased to announce that its Polish portfolio company Emitel S.A. ("Emitel") has won a nationwide tender to extend digital broadcast coverage to 17 regional radio stations for state broadcaster, Polskie Radio. Under the new agreement, Emitel will extend the existing coverage of DAB+ digital signal from 67 per cent to 88 per cent of Poland's households. Polskie Radio is the largest broadcaster of DAB+ radio in Poland, operating a large number of radio stations including Radio Poland national and regional services (which also broadcast in English, German and Ukrainian).

More than one in two listeners can listen to digital radio thanks to digital terrestrial radio (or DAB+). Hervé Godechot, member of Arcom, takes stock of the deployment of DAB+ in France. (VIDEO)

Hospital service Radio Royal in the Forth Valley has joined a local DAB Digital Radio multiplex. They’re now broadcasting via Central FM’s small-scale DAB service. Chair of Radio Royal Andrew Morley said: “It’s great to get Radio Royal back on the air again, we had many listeners let us know that they missed our broadcasts after our AM service closed when we moved to the Forth Valley Royal Hospital in 2010. “Our unique blend of music and healthcare messaging will now be available to a much wider audience across the Forth Valley and I would like to thank Central FM and NHS Forth Valley for their support in making this launch possible”.

Mimit has published the list of expressions of interest received of consortium companies admitted to the procedures for the assignment of the rights of use of frequencies for the terrestrial digital radio broadcasting service. In Emilia Romagna: three expressions of interest; in Marche: two expressions of interest; in Sardinia: two expressions of interest were submitted.

The public broadcaster today launched the experimental station NPO BLEND. NPO BLEND is a public broadcaster pilot and can be listened to via DAB+ and NPO Luister for at least a year. Chanelva Rier, station manager NPO FunX and Menno de Boer, station manager NPO 3FM, are jointly responsible for NPO BLEND: "With the pilot station NPO BLEND, we offer listeners between the ages of 35 and 54 a varied mix of R&B, afro, new soul, hip-hop and many classics from the nineties and zeroes."

MDR is expanding its DAB+ transmitter network in Thuringia with the new Altenburg site. DAB+ coverage in this region will be further improved and stabilised from Monday, 13 November 2023. This will particularly benefit listeners of MDR THÜRINGEN and MDR SCHLAGERWELT. MDR's digital Schlager programme will broadcast regional news from Thuringia every half hour on weekdays in the daily programme.

Jacqueline Bierhorst has been elected as President of WorldDAB, the global industry forum for DAB+ digital radio. Bierhorst was previously the Vice President and has represented Digital Radio Netherlands on the organisation’s Steering Board since 2015. She takes over from Patrick Hannon, who is stepping down after ten years in the role. The handover took place at the annual WorldDAB Summit, held this year in Munich, Germany. Speaking at the Summit, Bierhorst paid tribute to Hannon’s work as President. “His leadership, enthusiasm, and vision helped shape the course of WorldDAB for the past ten years. We have witnessed an exponential growth of DAB+ across the globe and how DAB+ is now included as standard in every new car in Europe and beyond. It has set the bar high!”

DAB+ may be best known for its widespread adoption in Europe, but this digital radio standard is also taking hold in other parts of the world. The progress of DAB+ implementations in Ghana, Indonesia and Bahrain as covered at the WorldDAB Summit 2023 this week. The session “Global growth of DAB+ led by emerging territories” was part of the one-day in-person/online event, hosted at the Design Offices München Atlas in Munich, Germany. DAB+ in Ghana was described by Christiana L. Attrams, assistant manager of the National Communications Authority’s Engineering Division. The NCA is conducting DAB+ trial broadcasts in the cities of Accra (11 FM stations being simulcast) and Kamasi (seven FM stations being simulcast), using VHF Band III.

Assistant Undersecretary for Technical Affairs at the Ministry of Information, Engineer Abdullah Ahmed Al Balushi, participated on 8 November as a keynote speaker in the WorldDAB Summit 2023 held in Munich, where he reviewed the experience of the Kingdom of Bahrain in launching digital radio broadcasting. Participation came via video recording and at the invitation of the international organisation WorldDAB, where the Assistant Undersecretary for Technical Affairs conveyed the initiative of the Ministry of Information in the Kingdom of Bahrain in activating digital radio broadcasting DAB+ and future plans with manufacturers of mobile devices and receivers, noting the necessity of adding text in Arabic.