News

The UK regulator Ofcom has granted "small-scale" licences to four more areas that were advertised in Round Three. These were given out in Oxford, Taunton, West Hull and York. Two transmitters in Oxford will cover 98% of the population, and coverage in York will reach 70% of the population.

Kink has put another theme channel on DAB+. From now on, Kink Distortion can also be heard on digital airwaves. The station replaces Kink Classics on MTVNL's network on channel 7D, ending the double coverage. Kink Distortion features the best metal, hard rock and metalcore 24 hours a day. The station honours icons like Slayer and Metallica, but is also full of the now with a focus on acts like Parkway Drive, Beartooth and Bring Me The Horizon.

37 years after the launch of Germany's first private radio station, Munich's most listened to radio station Gong 96.3 will soon be launching a second service. From 1 December, the station "089Kult" will be at the top of the station list on DAB+. With the new station, the Bavarian capital is getting a new service which, in addition to "cult hits" and current information and topics from Munich, will be devoted especially to culture.

Live radio is still dominant according to RAJAR’s MIDAS report, with live radio making up 71% share of adult listening. DAB digital radio made up 46% of radio listening, followed by AM/FM Radio (26%), and voice activated speakers or other devices (11% each). The highest share of live radio listening was done in the home (62%), with car/van/lorry, work or place of study and public transport, walking or elsewhere netting 22%, 14% and 2% shares respectively.

Flanders will soon get a commercial news-talk station on DAB+. Last Saturday, 'Business AM' was added on the second commercial network for Flanders (channel 5A/5D), announcing the start of the new station in a continuous message.

From January 1, RTL radio (M6 Group) will no longer broadcast its long-wave signal from its transmitter centre in Beidweiler, Luxembourg. The measure should enable the group to reduce by some 6,000 megawatt hours (MWh) its electricity consumption per year. Listeners will be redirected to other means of listening, including DAB+, FM and TV set top boxes or via their mobile app.

Belgian radio stakeholders have launched a major a publicity campaign extolling the benefits of DAB+ to coincide with the launch of 17 new radio stations now broadcast on DAB+ across the capital. These new stations are in addition to the 19 French-speaking radio stations already broadcast on DAB+ in Brussels since November 2018.

This year, Medientage München returns to the big stage at the ICM. From 18 - 20 October, visitors can expect a three-day conference programme with current and relevant topics on five stages with more than 400 speakers, a varied expo, numerous networking opportunities and entertaining entertainment formats. Bayern Digital Radio will be on site as an exhibitor and will present the test network 10D with the topics SPI (Service and Programme Information), EWF (Emergency Warning Functionality) and TPEG-EAW (Transport Protocol Experts Group-Emergency Alerts and Warnings).

On the occasion of the launch of Brussels' local radio stations on DAB+ on 26 September, the maradio.be team visited the broadcasting site of no less than 80 DAB+ radio stations (French and Flemish) to see the impressive installations deployed by the technical operator RTBF.

This year’s interoperability workshop, a technical test session organised by the WorldDAB Technical Committee (TC), will be a hybrid event held on 26 October from 11:00-16:00 CEST at IZT's offices in Erlangen, Germany. The purpose of the workshop is to provide a discussion platform for all technical aspects of operating the DAB system. Transmission side experiments and receiver prototypes can be matched, and interoperability issues can be identified and addressed. Conclusions reached will be reviewed by the TC and may lead to specification updates.