News

Our series of short interviews with WorldDAB members exhibiting at IBC2024 continues with Gary Luhrman, Sales & Marketing Manager of Inovonics, Inc., who says they will be showcasing their Off-air DAB+ SiteStreamer products. Inovonics has been a leading manufacturer of innovative radio broadcast products for over 50 years.

RADIO BOLLERWAGEN, the station of the Vienna-based audio company Bollerwagen Audio FlexCo, is now enriching the variety of programmes on the ORS group's DAB+ transmitter network throughout Austria. ‘We are delighted that RADIO BOLLERWAGEN is now also represented among our neighbours on the nationwide MUX III with ‘Xtreme Party Music’. We bring variety to the programme offering and are guaranteed to deliver the right playlist for every party. From après-ski to hut fun - we have something for every musical taste,’ says Harald Gehrung, Managing Director of Bollerwagen Audio FlexCo. “My special thanks go to lawyer Dr Gerald Ganzger and his colleagues from LGP Lawyers, who provided us with perfect support in setting up our company, and to Alexandra Sükar and her team from radio content austria GmbH,” he adds.

In the latest of our series of short interviews with WorldDAB members exhibiting at IBC2024, Wolfgang Peters, Managing Director, AVT Audio Video Technologies GmbH says they will be presenting a complete DAB headend, from Audio Encoder, Switch and Converter to Multiplexers, as well as a Tunnel Break-In Rebroadcast System. AVT is a leading manufacturer of professional audio products for radio and television broadcasters.

The hr programme service can already be received almost everywhere in Hesse on frequency block 7B in the new DAB+ mobile standard. On 27 August, the Schlüchtern transmitter in East Hesse went into regular operation. It improves mobile and indoor coverage for Schlüchtern and the surrounding area. Prior to this, the Herborn-Burg transmitter in central Hesse went into regular DAB+ operation for hr programmes on 25 July 2024. This new transmitter provides DAB+ reception in large parts of your home in Dillenburg, Herborn, Burg and the surrounding area. From now on, both transmitters will also ensure stable DAB+ mobile reception in cars in this region. The further expansion of the DAB transmitter network for 2024 and 2025 is currently being planned.

There is now a concrete timetable for the end of the analogue broadcasting dinosaur in Switzerland. FM is set to end on New Year's Eve 2026 at the latest. However, SRG will switch off its analogue broadcasting facilities as early as 31 December this year, as Marco Derighetti, Director Operations at SRG/SSR, confirmed in a discussion round with private radio stakeholders [at SwissRadioDay]. Anyone who still uses SRG programmes via FM today will receive notifications at increasingly frequent intervals in the near future that there will soon be nothing to listen to on these frequencies. Private radio stations, on the other hand, will gradually say goodbye to FM at the turn of the year in a so-called fade-out process, which according to Peter Scheuerer, Managing Director of the private radio association VSP, is due to the specific situation of the programmes. ‘Every station has different broadcasting areas.’

The Government has today appointed Charlotte Ingvar-Nilsson, lawyer and former Director-General of the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, to lead a one-year inquiry into the safe and accessible distribution of radio and television programmes in a new media landscape. The inquiry will have a particular focus on the needs of public service broadcasters. "In an uncertain world, the availability of information is more important than ever. That is why the Government is now commissioning Charlotte Ingvar-Nilsson to investigate the possibilities for media companies to maintain editorial control and distribute programmes safely and easily accessible in a new media landscape, even in times of turbulence," says Minister for Culture Parisa Liljestrand. The first part of the assignment is to map the distribution of radio and television, both in terrestrial networks and over the internet.

Antenne Niedersachsen GmbH & Co. KG has received an unlimited, state-wide licence from the Lower Saxony State Media Authority (NLM) to broadcast and distribute its special-interest radio programme ‘Antenne Schlager’. This decision by the Commission for Licensing and Supervision (ZAK) marks an important milestone for the programme, which has already been broadcast via DAB+ in Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Bremen since mid-July 2023. ‘The state-wide licence for Antenne Schlager is an important step towards further expanding our brand and strengthening our presence in the digital radio market,’ says Carsten Hoyer, Chairman of the Management Board of Antenne Niedersachsen GmbH & Co. KG. ‘We are already looking forward to making the programme available via additional DAB+ locations and being able to offer our listeners a diverse and high-quality pop music programme.’

ZUN radio, a digital radio station focused on electronic music, will broadcast in the eastern part of the country in the DAB+ multiplex of the operator Teleko digital. Its founder and director Ladislav Antoš confirmed this to the Digital Radio portal. ZUN can already be tuned in on channel 10D from Lysá hora, followed by the Strážník transmitter in Vysočina on Thursday 29 August in the late afternoon. "For us, the strengthening of the D1 motorway coverage is one of the most important events of this year and we are already looking forward to the next one, which will be the expansion of our broadcasting in South Moravia. It is from the east of the country that we have the greatest interest from advertisers so far and it is a great benefit for us that Teleko is the leader in the transition to auctioned final channels," Ladislav Antoš told Digital Radio. In Vysočina, the station will improve its coverage thanks to the Strážník transmitter, which will increase its power from 1 kW to 5 kW after the transition to channel 10D.

Four years after its web debut, Radio Morcote International grows further and lands on DAB+. It can be heard on the Swiss digital airwaves from 1 September on the Digris mux, channel 8A. ‘We have worked hard over the past four years to make Radio Morcote what it is today,’ said station manager Daniela Moroni, ‘a quality radio station born thanks to the commitment and professionalism shown by every single member of the team. In a few months, most of the radio stations in Ticino will switch off FM: what better opportunity to seize than this one?’ she added, enthusiastically announcing the station's new mode of operation.

This season, Nostalgie+, the DAB+ version of Nostalgie in Belgium, promises to leave even more room for its audience with a new programme called ‘Juke-box’ and a brand new immersive event in the world of the Beatles.