News

Ownership of DAB broadcast equipment manufacturer and WorldDAB member Inovonics Inc has passed from founder Jim Wood to current President/CEO, Ben Barber. Barber said “I am humbled and blessed for the opportunity to continue the company Jim started 50 years ago. We have a good name and it is my goal to continue to carry on his legacy”.

In another of our series of short interviews with WorldDAB members exhibiting at IBC2022, Wolfgang Peters, Managing Director at AVT Audio Video Technologies, says they'll be showing their DAB headend systems for small scale applications as well as large DAB networks.

In the first of a series of short interviews with WorldDAB members exhibiting at IBC2022, Ben Poor from the European Broadcasting Union shares how at IBC2022 he'll be helping to demonstrate how the EBU is working with its members on how to make content multilingual using AI – including radio content.

Sergio Natucci, DAB Italia: Radio as always comes last, but never too late. Now the implementation phase opens: we will not accept delaying attempts of any kind and they can come from nowhere. MISE [Ministry of Economic Development] still has time to improve our heritage of VHF frequencies for DAB. After the concession, everyone must, with seriousness and professionalism, build their networks in full compliance with the rules contained in the Plan. The DAB Plan must escape bureaucratic traps: if we realise that the road map is jammed, we will turn to the government in its entirety and to Parliament.

On the occasion of the launch of digital radio Nacional, the President of the Board of OIV (Transmitters and Communications Ltd.), Mate Botica, talks about DAB+ technology and how much it can change the media image of Croatia in the near future. "90.3 percent of the population of Croatia is currently covered by the DAB+ signal. All major cities are covered. The highways are covered by 76 percent, and after November 15, this will also improve because we will insert new transmitters into the network."

Italian communications regulator AGCOM has published Resolution no. 286/2022 / CONS relating to the new national frequency allocation plan for the DAB+ sound broadcasting service. DAB Italia said: "It is a great achievement that definitively stabilises the digital radio system. The Plan provides for three national multiplexes of equal service coverage with large isofrequency areas. For local services, at least three layers are envisaged in each region, reaching up to seven in some relevant areas. Following the publication of the resolution on the AGCOM website, DAB Italia will begin the application phase of the rules of the DAB+ plan."

Broadcast Partners is currently busy converting the existing supra-regional DAB+ networks to the new format. After the first channels in Friesland and The Hague were converted to the new channel last week, changes have already been made in Overijssel, Groningen, Noord-Brabant and Zeeland. The new network consists of seven allotments, which collectively have national coverage and better meet the needs of the regional public and commercial radio stations.

Local radio is returning to Blackpool in the form of a brand new station. Central Radio launches on DAB+ in September, as part of a new local radio broadcast offer, transmitting from the top of Blackpool Tower. The new station will appeal directly to those who work, study and live in Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde, with an exciting variety of music from the 70s to present day, plus a wide range of local news, sport and information. Central Radio will be available as part of the switch on of the new Blackpool DAB multiplex next month.

Boom Radio’s old classics make me want to dance around the kitchen, writes Libby Purves. Boom sweetened the last long lockdown for many, and they stayed. Radio 2 still rules with 14.5 million weekly listeners, and you can get it on the knackered old Roberts in the garden shed. But as DAB and online listening rose, Boom nearly doubled its reach.

The BBC has announced its intention to increase Radio Cymru 2’s broadcast hours in the Autumn. Speaking at the National Eisteddfod in Tregaron, BBC Cymru Wales’s Director Rhuanedd Richards said the ambition was to increase Radio Cymru 2’s broadcast hours from 15 hours a week to over 60 hours a week. This would make it the destination for those looking for a music-based Welsh language national radio offer on digital. The plans mean that for the first time ever there will be a music and entertainment brand aimed at all Welsh speakers, working alongside Radio Cymru. BBC Radio Cymru will continue to broadcast its schedule to the nation on FM and on digital. BBC Radio Cymru 2 will be on air on digital, offering a mix of music-based programmes blended with some of Radio Cymru’s entertainment programmes, broadcast simultaneously.