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On 12 March, maRadio.be, the cooperative society representing 90% of the French-speaking Belgian radio audience, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary, brought the sector together at the 2024 edition of Digital Radio Day, during which it presented the results of the 6ᵉ wave of its study devoted to monitoring the digital transition of radio in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. In the space of just a few years, digital channels for listening to radio have come to the fore. At the same time, FM is continuing its meteoric decline: while it accounted for 82% of listening volume in 2018, it now accounts for just 54%. Only 23% of Belgian listeners listen exclusively to analogue radio. On the digital side, there has been steady growth, with 46% of listening volume, including 21% via DAB+, 17% via the internet and 9% on television.

Bauer Media Audio UK has today announced that it will increase the distribution of its LGBTQ+ dedicated station, Hits Radio Pride. This April, listeners will be able to access the station on DAB across even more areas in the UK, including Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham and Swansea. The change will grow Hits Radio Pride’s reach more than threefold, broadcasting to over 32m across the UK. The station, launched in August 2020, was the UK’s first national commercial LGBTQ+ radio station by a major broadcaster.

Austria's digital radio landscape is becoming more colourful and growing - and with it Austria's largest private radio station kronehit. The media authority KommAustria has granted the broadcasting network operator ORS licences for the construction and operation of a nationwide multiplex platform as well as for five regional multiplexes for the transmission of a total of 28 new DAB+ stations. Broadcasting is authorised from the end of June. The nationwide programme bouquet includes two completely new kronehit stations: "Radio Rot Weiss Rot" and "Super 80s". The other two future kronehit radio programmes are included in a regional multiplex platform for Lower Austria and Burgenland. They are called "Eurodance X-Press" and "Pirate Radio".

Multilingual radio diversity in Berlin: The Media Council of the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (mabb) has decided to award two free Berlin DAB+ programme slots to the French-German programme "FG CHIC. Berlin" and the Turkish-German programme "Metropol FM". "The Berlin-Brandenburg radio landscape is also unique thanks to its diversity of languages and topics," says Martin Gorholt, Chairman of the mabb Media Council. "From now on, listeners will have even more opportunities to discover this special diversity of our radio landscape for themselves. With 'Metropol FM', an established station for Turkish-speaking citizens can now also be received via DAB+. And 'FG CHIC. Berlin' is another station that brings the French music and creative scene to the capital region."

ORS receives one nationwide and five regional digital radio licences and begins expanding the DAB+ platform with immediate effect. From 21 June 2024, a diverse and exciting new programme bouquet will be launched in Austria with 28 new radio stations. Last summer, the licences for nationwide and regional digital radio coverage via DAB+ were put out to tender by RTR. The Austrian Communications Authority has now granted ORS comm the licence to operate a further nationwide terrestrial multiplex platform for digital terrestrial radio in the DAB+ standard (MUX III). A total of 14 very different radio programmes can now be broadcast nationwide, providing a diverse audience with information and colourful entertainment - including many well-known radio brands as well as some newcomers.

The Austrian Communications Authority (KommAustria) has granted the Austrian broadcasting network operator ORS comm GmbH & Co KG (ORS) a total of six licences for the construction and operation of a nationwide multiplex platform as well as for five further regional multiplexes for the transmission of a total of 28 DAB+ digital radio stations. This brings the total number of existing and future DAB+ stations in Austria to 58. With the licences, ORS will be able to broadcast a planned programme bouquet of 14 DAB+ radio stations in a nationwide coverage area with a population reach of 79% from the end of June 2024. Also from the end of June, broadcasting operations can start in the five regional coverage areas with two to five programmes each, totalling a further 14 programmes.

English text of the speech by Ángel García Castillejo, RTVE's Director of Audiovisual Policies, Public Service and International, at the launch of DAB+ broadcasts in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Murcia and Bilbao on World Radio Day, 13 February 2024. "If we are not able to offer the DAB+ service, they are not going to come to the radio. If we are not able to take those steps, radio will disappear. There are no more excuses," he says. "We need, and I believe that this is the challenge where the whole radio sector has a common denominator, a new national technical plan for digital radio, where we can somehow redress the mistakes made in the past and where the whole radio sector feels comfortable to evolve to this new offer that is closer and more appropriate to the reality that our listeners, the Spanish citizens, are demanding of us today."

Arcom's "Ma radio DAB+" reports for La Réunion that "two experiments in broadcasting radio services in DAB+ are authorised by Arcom in Saint-Denis from March 1, 2024." It is understood that the Fédération des Radios Associatives de La Réunion (FAR) multiplex is on air and includes: Radio Arc en Ciel, RIL, Kontak, ACB, Radio Soleil, Mixte 9, Salazes FM, Pikan and Sud Plus; and that 23 radio stations are licensed in total, including 15 new to the area.

Muxnet UK is celebrating helping to launch the UK’s 50th Small Scale DAB multiplex in Shropshire on 11 March. The first Small Scale DAB multiplex went on air in December 2021, and there has been a steady pace of launches, reaching the 50th landmark in just over two years. The new DAB multiplexes have been licensed across the country, ranging from large city-based multiplexes bringing tens of new radio stations to listeners, to more rural multiplexes. The rate of licensing and build has exceeded the speed of previous licensing initiatives, meaning community and small stations can start their migration from analogue to digital at a time where RAJAR shows analogue listening decline is accelerating.

If you like listening to the radio, it's high time you switched to DAB+. This digital standard, which will be widely deployed in France in 2024, offers much better sound quality than venerable FM. No reason to miss out! Even if it is suffering increasingly from competition from the Internet, and social networking in particular, radio remains a very popular medium. According to Médiamétrie, it still attracts nearly 40 million listeners every day in France, across all stations. Whether at home or even more so in the car, many of us 'switch on the radio', in the morning to get fresh information or during the day, to follow a programme or simply listen to music. And it has to be said that radio has a number of advantages. Not only is it free, but it doesn't take up all our attention: unlike screens, we can enjoy it while doing other things (cooking, cleaning...) or even while working!