News

Ofcom has awarded five more multiplex licences in Round 3 of the small-scale DAB process. Darlington & Bishop Auckland goes to Durham Digital Limited, Leicester to Leicester Digital Partnership CIC, Llandudno & Betws-y-Coed to Sound Bay Community Digital, Middlesbrough & Redcar to Erimux Limited and Warminster, Devizes & Trowbridge to West Wiltshire Digital Radio CIC. Today’s awards mean 11 of the 20 areas in Round 3 have been awarded, with nine still to go.

Leicester Digital Partnership has been awarded the small-scale DAB multiplex in the city. By the closing-date of 25 April 2022, Ofcom received two applications for this locality from SubDigital Leicester Limited and Leicester Digital Partnership. Ofcom noted that all five participants in the Leicester Digital Partnership’s application proposed to provide community digital sound programme services in the locality. Of these, four (St Matthews Community Solution Centre Limited, Kohinoor Media Limited, 2Funky Arts Limited, and Takeover Radio Children’s Media Trust) are existing providers of analogue community radio services in Leicester.

A new radio station for Thuringia: ANTENNE THÜRINGEN expands its digital portfolio with antenne OSTALGIE. Under the motto "Weils zu uns gehört" (Because it belongs to us), antenne OSTALGIE can now be heard via DAB+ in the regions of Erfurt and Weimar. Jochen Fasco, Director of the Thuringian State Media Authority, is pleased that Thuringia's radio bouquet has been expanded by the station, making DAB+ even more attractive. "As a result, listeners in the Free State with an affinity for rock will also get their own Thuringian programme," Fasco says.

As in previous years, Talpa has already started broadcasting Christmas music via DAB+ on its Sky Christmas themed channel. Sky Christmas will take over Sky Radio Nice & Easy's broadcast slot on DAB+ channel 9C until the end of the year.

With Ulm, the regional network for DAB+ in the Allgäu and Donau-Iller regions now has a prominent new addition. The transmitter is the sixth location in channel 8B and optimises digital radio reception in the cities of Ulm and Neu-Ulm. In addition, the commissioning of the DAB transmitter in Bavaria improves DAB coverage in the districts of Neu-Ulm and Günzburg. This is also associated with better mobile DAB coverage on the A8 Stuttgart-Munich motorway on the section from Ulm to Augsburg.

The first national DAB+ multiplex with four programmes from Deutschlandradio and nine private stations has added a transmitter at Unterringingen near Nördlingen in Bavaria. The ensemble on channel 5C is broadcast with a power of 10 kW.

The latest GfK radio ratings across the five major metro markets show commercial DAB+ stations again performed strongly with nearly 2.8 million weekly listeners, up 35% from 2.04 million a year ago. Nearly 4.2 million people listened to commercial radio via a DAB+ radio. “We’re thrilled that commercial radio is continuing to break audience records with each survey and is growing listeners across all parts of the day,” said Commercial Radio & Audio chief executive officer Ford Ennals.

The 90s stations (KIIS,97.3,Mix,96FM), remain as the top digital DAB+ stations across the five metro markets with 365,000 listeners in Survey 6. The 80’s stations (WSFM,GOLD,97.3 KIIS,Mix,96FM) have 358,000 listeners, with OLDSKOOL HITS 90’s with 350,000 and Coles Radio with 306,000.

The National Broadcasting Council (Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji / KRRiT) has announced that it has received 46 positions from broadcasters, organisations and institutions and 12 opinions from private individuals as part of the consultation on the switch-off of analogue FM radio broadcasting. Small and Catholic broadcasters are counting on state financial support for the transition to DAB+.

Six years after TV broadcasts switched from analogue to digital it is now time for radio to follow suit as the regulator seeks to clear the crowded airwaves in major cities. The principal broadcasting engineer from Tanzania Communications Authority (TCRA), Mr Andrew Kisaka, said the regulator has been forced to move from analogue due to the challenge of signal saturation extended to radio stations in various cities. “These FM radio stations use analogue technology signals which vary from megahertz 87.5 to 108….In big cities these waves are full,” said Mr Kisaka. Mr Kisaka said the regulator would not stop using the current FM signals but instead, it will utilize them simultaneously until the technology transfer is as user-friendly as television was when people watched high-quality images.