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Laurence Harrison, Market Development Director, Digital Radio UK reflects on the digital switchover events in Norway. A calm sea, fishing boats, no snow, and even something resembling daylight provided the backdrop to the long anticipated FM switch off in Nordland. The moment that Digital Radio Norway have been working towards for over five years was marked by a perfectly pitched ceremony at Bodø Library which was broadcast live on national television.

Norway has become the first country to switch off FM radio despite concerns about the move being premature. The northern county of Nordland stopped broadcasting using analogue frequencies on Wednesday as the Government plans to roll out digital-only radio over the course of the year.

Norway is the first country in the world to switch off its analogue radio signals. Ford Ennals, chief executive of Digital Radio UK, defends the decision on the Today programme, saying FM stations are "full up". He argues that to make way for innovative new stations we need to move to digital, which he calls "the future".

Laurence Harrison, Market Development Director, Digital Radio UK reflect on his trip to Norway ahead of the digital switchover.

“A digital radio wave moving across Europe, with Norway leading the way,” is how Patrick Hannon, WorldDAB president, described Wednesday’s switch-off of FM broadcasts in Nordland county.

Today, Norway will start shutting down analogue radio signals nationally, becoming the first nation in the world to broadcast digital radio only.

The Norwegian government has said the cost savings will let broadcasters invest more in programming, and give listeners a better and more reliable sound that will be more easily receivable in a country with lots of mountains and rocks.

The Norwegian government has said the cost savings will let broadcasters invest more in programming, and give listeners a better and more reliable sound that will be more easily receivable in a country with lots of mountains and rocks.

The decision to completely switch off all FM services is not one which has been taken lightly by Norway’s government, and was announced two years ago in April 2015 with the process to begin this month, in January 2017.

The digital switchover doesn't mean there is suddenly FM silence across Norway. If you switched off everything at once everywhere there would probably be difficulties. The digital switchover is a year long process. Norway is divided into regions and the switch off will happen region by region.