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Norway to end FM Radio Broadcasting

That *is* a surprise. I wasn't expecting that, not at all. Norway were ahead of us in digital TV switch-over but only by a 2 or 3 years.

Just across the North Sea here in the UK, and analogue radio switchoff still feels light years away. LW is about dead, but MW is hanging on in there and FM is still by far the most common way to tune in.......most car radios are still AM/FM- including mine.

To be fair that article only says 'conditions are met'- it doesn't give a switchoff date and one could still be a few years away.

99.5 percent population coverage is very high in a sparsely populated country like Norway!!
 
BMR said:
99.5 percent population coverage is very high in a sparsely populated country like Norway!!
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More accurately, Norway is a highly urbanized country. Most of the population is concentrated in several large metro areas.
 
They have quite an extensive DAB network, which covers much more than just the major cities. Coverage maps are available on NRK's DAB website. They were going to cut off FM by 2017, but moved the cut off date out, and will leave FM open for local & «nærradio» stations (their equivalent of LPFM's). DAB has only so many channels available, and the NRK channels take up many of them. LW still survives in the north, for mariners.
 
I wouldn't say LW is dead. I (over here in the U.S) DX LW a lot, and can sometimes pick up BBC 4 on 198kHz. LW is better than MW I'd say, because of a much larger coverage area. But hey, I'm old fashioned.
 
In Norway it's to provide NRK P1 coverage for the fishermen -- and the fishing industry (as well as much of their oil industry) is obviously maritime based. Longwave fulfills its purposes -- similar to those of some of the larger MW stations here.
 
BMR said:
That's actually a very good point, Landtuna.
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Even so, they have made sure that much of the countryside has DAB coverage, probably not much less (or different) from the FM network coverage, as the maps on the Norwegian DAB website show.
 
The End of FM

The country of Norway just announced it is switching off FM in 2017 and going to digital broadcasting. Could the US be following their lead?
 
FRR said:
Could the US be following their lead?
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Radio in Norway is all government owned. Not so here. Very different situation. This is something the Norwegians have been working on for 20 years. Neither the FCC nor Congress have even begun considering it here.
 
TheBigA said:
Radio in Norway is all government owned. Not so here. Very different situation. This is something the Norwegians have been working on for 20 years. Neither the FCC nor Congress have even begun considering it here.
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The deeper reports indicate that a significant motivating factor for the government operators of radio service is the cost savings of being able to operate fewer transmitters with lower powers while providing the full channel array even in the smallest Norwegian towns.

It's significant to note that this is a country of just over 5 million people... a bit bigger than the Phoenix, AZ, metro. A whole different set of logistics and much more of a "nanny state" environment as well.
 
Maybe some of those cost savings can be used to engage a pressure washer for the every square inch of Oslo that for the past 20 years has become a graffiti jungle. First they should translate it all so that they know what is going on in their little country. They can report it all on their new digital radio stations.
 
DavidEduardo said:

It's significant to note that this is a country of just over 5 million people... a bit bigger than the Phoenix, AZ, metro. A whole different set of logistics and much more of a "nanny state" environment as well.
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And, interestingly, one of the most researched "happy" countries in the world.
 
Norway probably has the highest standard of living in the world right now. Well run country.

They have several popular commercial radio stations, some of which have FM frequencies in every major city, so although the government there controls the FM channels (like the FCC and it's Canadian counterpart control frequency allocations here), there is privately owned and operated radio there.

The last I read, the Norwegian government may still allow for private, commercial FM radio and local radio on FM after the switchover.
 
boombox4 said:
Norway probably has the highest standard of living in the world right now. Well run country.

They have several popular commercial radio stations, some of which have FM frequencies in every major city, so although the government there controls the FM channels (like the FCC and it's Canadian counterpart control frequency allocations here), there is privately owned and operated radio there.

The last I read, the Norwegian government may still allow for private, commercial FM radio and local radio on FM after the switchover.
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All the local (not national) stations outside of the three or four largest cities will be left on FM. That is over 200 stations.

The government, in a manner similar to the BBC, operates a number of national radio services. There are some national private stations. All of these will go to DAB.

This is not a large country. In area, it is about 15% smaller than California and in population it has just 15% of the population California. The total population is about that of the Phoenix, AZ, MSA.

Additional reports indicated that less than 25% of Norwegians have DAB radios at present and the entities pushing for a digital conversion are all involved closely with the new systems, and their manufacture and installation. The listener has not been consulted.

Norway, outside of a couple of Emirates, has the highers per-capita production of petroleum in the world. This accounts for the average per-capita income being in the top 10 world wide and finances Nordic style welfare state.
 
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