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Radio programs will be available via FM until the end of 2024 at the latest.

Sam Jackson, Managing Editor of Smooth said: “Through these new stations, we can’t wait to introduce Smooth to even more people, as well as giving our existing 5.7 million weekly listeners even more opportunities to enjoy the music they love.”

Says Al Smith, Deputy Managing Editor of Capital XTRA: “This is a hugely exciting time for Capital XTRA as we launch a brand new station. It’s the perfect time to expand the Capital XTRA brand as we celebrate record audience figures, with 1.9 million listeners now tuning in every week.

The new Actros truck released by Mercedes-Benz includes a number of new features, including a customisable multimedia cockpit, a new MirrorCam digital mirror setup, and DAB digital radio.

Public broadcaster RAS has proposed a 3-year plan to switch off FM. Since 2017 South Tyrol has already shut down 41 FM transmitters and now proposes to switch off a further 67. Two factors are driving the FM switch off - huge transmission cost savings to stop investing in an old technology.

The share of DAB+ devices in the radio receiver market already exceeded 32% in the first quarter of 2019. There are currently nine radio stations on the national DAB+ mux, with strong interest from more private broadcasters to broadcast via DAB+.

A final decision will be taken on which scenario will be adopted by 2021. The first scenario is that there will be an FM shutdown in 2022/2023, with the public broadcaster SRG turning off its FM stations in the second half of 2022, and the private radio stations in early 2023. The second option provides that FM would be switched off by the end of 2024, as stated in the DigiMig report, with all radios switching off FM at the same time.

Radio programs in Switzerland will only be available via FM until the end of 2024 according to Bernard Maissen, OFCOM's deputy director, on the occasion of the Swiss Radio Day in Zurich. As at end June 2019, only 17% of listeners use FM on an exclusive basis.

BBC Radio 2 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album with Radio 2 Beatles, a four-day pop-up DAB radio station. Radio 2 Beatles follows other pop up DAB’s from the station, including Radio 2 Eurovision (2014 and 2015) and Radio 2 Country (2015, 2016 and 2017).

In this series of interviews on WorldDAB members exhibiting at IBC, Wolfgang Peters of AVT explains how he sees the digital radio industry evolving in the coming years, and tells us about the DAB+ products AVT will showcase at this year’s event.