News

Commercial radio achieved another best-ever result in GfK Survey 5, with weekly listeners up 8% year on year to more than 12 million people across the five metro capitals. The result was boosted by increased in-car listening and a surge in younger listeners. Commercial DAB+ stations, which include 80s, 90s, hip hop, country and heavy metal music formats, enjoyed a 41% year on year increase to 2.6 million weekly listeners.

Norddeutsche Rundfunk (NDR) is planning new transmitters and enhancements for digital radio DAB+ in Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. This emerges from the planning documents of the Federal Network Agency.

AirZen, the first “100% positive” radio station dedicated to wellness, and the only new national French radio station licensed by the CSA in 20 years, launched on Oct. 12, 2021. It was the brainchild of Mediameeting Group founders, Anne-Marie de Couvreur, Frédéric Courtine and Jean-Louis Simonet, as an incentive to help French people live better. AirZen set up its main facility in Bordeaux to broadcast on the DAB+ M1 Multiplex that covers the area from Paris to Nice, including Dijon, Lyon, Marseille and Avignon. Towercast and TDF are its broadcast operators, and it also streams via the web. For its DAB+ broadcasting, the encoding starts from the offices in Bordeaux and is sent via optical fiber by Towercast to the Paris headend.

In mid-April, the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) published a list of people wanting to broadcast in DAB+ as part of a nationwide multiplex. There are two contests. In the first one, three Polish broadcasters known for their analogue services could participate. Grupa RMF, which had previously been critical of DAB+, and Redemptoryści, which includes Radio Maryja, chose to apply. Wirtualnemedia asks why the results of the competition are still unknown.

České Radiokomunikace wants to actively participate in the development of DAB+ digital radio next year and offer commercial stations adequate coverage and enable the development of their business. Miloš Mastník, the operator's new general manager, stated this in an interview with Televizníweb. The development of private multiplexes is expected in the next year, thanks to the steps implemented by the ČTÚ. "It would be very unfortunate if the coverage of DAB ČRo and private radios were different. In order for DAB to make sense to listeners, it must be able to receive not only the public broadcasts of CRo, but also private radio stations. As soon as we go full DAB+, we will want to cover the entire territory of the Czech Republic as quickly as possible," stated Mastník.

"Hossa! Party non-stop" is the motto from now on Schlager Radio plus. The offshoot of Schlager Radio broadcasts in Berlin on DAB+ (channel 7B), and via the Internet, via app and Skill. Schlager Radio station director Norms Sträche: "Hossa! Party non-stop" brings happiness and a party atmosphere back to the radio. The hottest party hits run without any time limit, pure Ballermann atmosphere!"

Ofcom has announced the winners of the small-scale DAB multiplex licenses for Bedford, Coventry and Swansea. They go to In2DAB Limited (Bedford), Coventry Community Digital Radio CIC (formerly Spark FM Limited) and Swansea DAB Limited. Simon McAusland, Chief Executive of Radio Plus says “As more and more people are now listening to radio via digital platforms, it’s vital that Community Radio doesn’t get left behind. With the introduction of these new Small Scale DAB Multiplex Licences, Ofcom has shown that they recognise, understand, and are addressing many of the challenges that community radio stations face. If successful, we hope that our new community-owned multiplex model could become a blueprint for future licences.”

The decision has been made to set up a regionalised DAB+ platform in the northernmost federal state with almost three million inhabitants in the near future. The Media Council of the Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein Media Authority (MA HSH) decided yesterday to allocate the tendered DAB+ transmission capacities to Media Broadcast GmbH as the platform operator. The assignment was preceded by a constructive mutual agreement process between the three applicants, moderated by the MA HSH. Platform operation is planned to start in the first quarter of 2023, and listeners can then look forward to up to 16 new and well-known stations in different formats.

In another of our series of short interviews with WorldDAB members exhibiting at IBC2022, Lars-Peder Lundgren, Marketing Director for the Paneda group says they'll be showcasing DAB Break-In, the latest development for its DAB Head-End platform.

The SwissRadioDay is the largest meeting of the Swiss radio industry, with the 2022 edition taking place next Thursday, 25 August, in in Zurich's Kaufleuten and accompanied by a live video stream. Ahead of his session at the event, Paul Chantler - director of Fix Radio, Podcast Radio and Arena Radio in the UK - told us how DAB+ fuels the growth of niche radio stations.