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DAB radio broadcasters need to better communicate what they have to offer to in-car listeners, and collaborate more effectively with each other to make the medium grow. This was the message delivered by WorldDAB President Jacqueline Bierhorst as she opened the WorldDAB Automotive 2024 on June 13, 2024. The one-day conference was held in Prague, Czech Republic, in front of an in-person audience and streamed online. WorldDAB is the international association spearheading the adoption of the DAB digital radio transmission standard globally. “Last time I was here was for Radio Days Europe 2023, when we were celebrating 100 years of Czech Radio,” Bierhorst told her audience. “This anniversary is a great example of what the UK media consultant and DAB operator Matt Deegan called ‘radio’s relentlessness.’ But we can’t be complacent. We can’t rest on our success. The dashboard is critical to our future.”

The Association of Austrian Private Broadcasters is very positive about the planned increase in funding for private broadcasting: "The initiative motion submitted to the National Council today is an important measure to strengthen broadcasting services in Austria," states Mario Frühauf, Chairman of the VÖP Executive Board. The digitisation fund is to be increased by 1 million euros per year. This fund supports the costs of digital terrestrial radio broadcasting via DAB+. "From June, 30 new radio stations will be launched via DAB+ and will make the radio offering in Austria even more colourful and diverse," says Corinna Drumm, VÖP Managing Director. "This will give Austrians even more choice, completely free of charge and with a low threshold. However, refinancing these stations is difficult, especially in the first few years, so this start-up funding is important to stabilise the offering."

On 12 June 2024, the DGTEL of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy (MIMIT) published on the Ministry's website the list of expressions of interest received by the same Ministry of consortium companies admitted to the procedures for the assignment of rights to use frequencies for the terrestrial digital radio broadcasting service under the PNAF-DAB for the following catchment areas: no. 03 - Lombardy; no. 10 - Umbria and no. 19 - Sicily.

At a total of nine locations in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Thuringia, the majority of Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandfunk Kultur programmes will be broadcast digitally in future. Together with Deutschlandfunk Nova and the special channel Dokumente und Debatten (Dlf DokDeb), the two programmes can already be received digitally locally via DAB+. In view of the very good regional DAB+ coverage, parallel analogue broadcasting via some smaller FM transmitters with a limited range will end on 30 June 2024. In Bad Tölz, Bavaria, a new DAB+ transmitter will go on air on 19 June; FM broadcasting (87.8 MHz) will also end here on 30 June. Another frequency will be switched off on 17 September, when Deutschlandfunk's FM broadcasting in Pfronten, Bavaria (96.5 MHz) will end.

The first final DAB network for commercial radio was launched on 12 June from the Prague-Zizkov transmitter. The R15 regional network was built following a licensing auction. The signal of this network, which broadcasts 14 radio stations, will cover more than 1.5 million inhabitants of Prague and Central Bohemia. While until the end of May it was possible to tune in to the CRA DAB+ multiplex from the Žižkov transmitter on channel 7A, it is now broadcasting on channel 6B, which was auctioned by the Czech Digital Group (a subsidiary of CRA) as Regional Network 15 in a frequency auction organised by the Czech Telecommunications Office.

A new radio station using the name Atlantic 252 is set to launch on DAB. The station has a modern version of the original Atlantic 252 logo and will commence broadcasting at 8am on June 24th, 2024. Whilst the people behind the revival want to remain anonymous, the station voice-over will be Jim Merkel, who was the voice behind the original station. Atlantic 252 won’t be on 252 LW, but in certain areas of the North West on DAB, including Stockport, Bury, Bolton, Tameside, Rochdale and Oldham with plans to expand across the UK and Ireland as the year rolls on.

Cumbria.Digital has announced plans to apply for the small-scale DAB multiplex licence covering Carlisle and Penrith. The company plans to reserve capacity for six community stations, surpassing Ofcom’s minimum requirement of four, to better serve the diverse communities in Carlisle, Penrith, and the surrounding rural areas. “We are looking to provide a platform that gives communities and organizations a voice, opening up the power of radio to all and bringing greater choice to listeners in the area,” said a spokesperson for Cumbria.Digital. “We will support the existing community stations in Carlisle and Penrith, ensuring they have capacity on the multiplex if they wish alongside supporting new stations.”

80er90er Megamix is a new special-interest channel from Antenne Vorarlberg, which will be broadcast on the regional DAB+ multiplex for Austria's westernmost province from 21 June. The station has already started test operations via the Internet and the live stream can already be found on aggregators such as TuneIn and Airable. According to the notice of approval for 80s90s Megamix, a 24-hour daily programme is planned that is aimed at the target group of over 30-year-olds in Vorarlberg. The music programme in AC format will mainly (but apparently not exclusively) include hits from the 80s and 90s.

Fun Kids has launched a new spin-off pop-up service and hired 10-year-old Martha Sheehan to run it. Martha is managing Fun Kids Space Station, which launched on the morning of June 8, 2024, during a special sleepover event held by Fun Kids at the National Space Centre in Leicester. It will air on DAB Digital Radio in Leicester and the Fun Kids app for the next month and focuses on space and space exploration, aimed at kids between 6 and 12 years old. Fun Kids Content Controller James Lloyd said: “We like to put young people in the driving seat. They have the most creative ideas. So when we thought about launching a space radio station just for kids, we needed someone who knew what our audience wanted to hear, and we couldn’t have been more pleased with the job Martha has done.”

Life Radio is expanding its range of radio programmes: with the launch of the new station "Flash90s", which is being launched as a nationwide DAB+ service, listeners throughout Austria can look forward to a musical journey back in time to the 90s. Under the motto "The cool sound of the 90s - every hit flashes!", Flash90s will be launched as a new digital audio brand in Austria from 21 June 2024, focusing on the lifestyle of the 90s. With its own programme team and morning show, the best hits from this unique decade will be celebrated around the clock. "Our aim is to revive the lifestyle of the 90s and to offer our listeners a unique music programme that is currently unparalleled in Austria," says Christian Stögmüller, Managing Director of Life Radio and the newly founded LR Digital Audio GmbH.