News

When ‘Diddy" David Hamilton and Pete Murray appear on their Boom Radio Christmas special this Boxing Day, the veteran broadcasters will have a combined age of 181 and many decades of experience behind them. But becoming the oldest radio duo in history, while a nice footnote for the record books, is very much par for the course for Boom, which has carved out an enviable talent roster and listener base in less than two years. Veteran producers David Lloyd and Phil Riley launched the station – firmly aimed at the over-50s – in February last year with modest ambitions. “The original plan was to carry it on digital radio in London first and, if that worked, then we would think about rolling it out nationally,” says David, 61. Fast forward to today and Boom is, well, booming. Officially Britain’s fastest growing radio station with 443,000 listeners, it’s also rapidly becoming a home for established – read, older – DJs looking to return to their roots.

Südwestrundfunk (SWR) continues to expand its transmitter network for DAB+ digital radio reception in Rhineland-Palatinate. In the northern part of Rhineland-Palatinate and on the Middle Moselle, there will be a wide variety of programmes in future thanks to the DAB+ commissioning of the Traben-Trarbach and Mudersbach sites.

Rivierenland Radio is further expanding its reach via DAB+. The radio station can now also be heard in the Apeldoorn and Achterhoek region on DAB+ via channels 6B and 6D. On Rivierenland Radio, you will hear a mix of music from the '70s to contemporary hits. Since December last year, the radio station can already be heard in parts of North Brabant via DAB+ on channels 7B and 6A.

The draft of the Guidelines for DAB tenders, i.e. the selection procedures for the assignment of rights of use for planned networks in local catchment areas to digital network operators for radio broadcasting, has been published by the Ministry of Enterprise and Industry. On the merits, the adoption of the Resolution, approved the "Provisional National Plan for the Assignment of the Frequencies in the VHF band - III for the DAB+ digital radio broadcasting service (PNAF-DAB)", thus creating the necessary prerequisite for the Ministry to proceed with the granting of the rights of use on the networks planned by AGCOM.

MDR is expanding its DAB+ transmitter network in Central Germany: the commissioning of five new sites will further improve and stabilise DAB+ coverage in individual regions. "We are already very well positioned with digital radio reception in Central Germany. Now it's a matter of closing individual coverage gaps and optimising the reception of all MDR radio programmes via DAB+ as a whole," says Niels Schulze, Head of Programme Distribution at MDR. Parallel to the current network expansion, MDR SACHSEN-ANHALT is launching the DAB+ channel "MDR SACHSEN-ANHALT extra", which will begin regular operation on 15 December. "MDR SACHSEN-ANHALT extra" will be used primarily to broadcast events and sporting events from Saxony-Anhalt.

The new, convergent marketing bundle of ad.audio offers advertisers new possibilities in the future to address their target groups in an even more diverse and comprehensive way. It combines the touchpoints of car radio and OOH. Under the title AudiOOH, the new bundle can be booked with ad.audio and Ströer from 2023. The package consists of high-quality DAB+ placements of the ad.audio marketing combination, the DAB+ display ad and public video placements of the marketing partner Ströer. The target group of DAB+ listeners is addressed via classic radio spots. In parallel, the advertising message is made visible via the displays on the DAB+ receivers and spatially synchronised via a DOOH space. ad.audio is the first audio marketer in Germany to commercially market the DAB+ Display Ad.

Since Tuesday, December 6, the city of Limoges has had another way of listening to the radio with the arrival of DAB+. The local Limoges multiplex is made up of 13 radio stations. The COMEQUIP company deployed its technical know-how by ensuring the distribution with two sites in SFN. Today, COMEQUIP broadcasts three local multiplexes, namely Bordeaux, Toulouse and Limoges.

For the final survey of 2022, the 80s stations (WSFM,GOLD,97.3 KIIS,Mix,96FM) lead the DAB+ stations with 373,000 listeners in the five metro areas. The 90s group (KIIS,97.3,Mix,96FM) are only just behind with 370,000, followed by RnB Fridays on 329,000. Elf Radio picked up 37,000 listeners while CADA has 167,000 and BENDER BEATS debuted with 77,000.

France Bleu Picardie is now available on DAB+. With the commissioning of three new DAB+ transmitters, the local Picardy radio station has seen its broadcasting channels extended. France Bleu Picardie can now be received in DAB+ digital radio by almost 675,000 inhabitants. This new broadcasting enables France Bleu to complete its global offer in DAB+ digital radio.

The UK media regulator Ofcom is seeking views on proposed changes to its digital television and digital radio technical codes. These codes define a common minimum set of technical standards for the way that terrestrial TV and radio signals are transmitted in the UK. There are separate technical code documents for TV and DAB services. Ofcom says: "We routinely update these Codes to ensure our rules remain relevant as the digital broadcasting environment develops. Following separate incidents affecting the operations of the Bilsdale TV and radio transmitter and a broadcast centre in London, a number of our proposed changes seek to strengthen our requirements relating to network resilience and disaster recovery."