Tuesday 18 May 2021

Swiss Radio Industry Veteran In Fight Against FM Switch-Off

"You don't want to admit that DAB was a mistake, and now you try the crowbar”

Political resistance against the proposed FM switch-off is mounting. And the Zurich media pioneer and Radio 1 CEO Roger Schawinski wants to prevent the forced shutdown of FM. At the beginning of May he launched the petition “Save FM” and announced a complaint to the Federal Administrative Court. Already 21.500 people have signed the petition "Rettet UKW". In an interview in Neue Züricher Zeitung Schawinski says that thanks to IP and 5G, all applications will soon only run on a single platform. All except DAB +. Because it is a 35 year old intermediate technology. It needs its own terrestrial infrastructure, and consumers need their own devices. This is complete nonsense.

Thursday 13 May 2021

Ban On Local FM Radio Commercials Is Proposed in Norway

A desperate Government attempt to save the DAB radio project

In a consultation proposal, the Ministry of Culture proposes that local FM radio stations in Oslo and four other metro cities should not be allowed to continue broadcasting commercials. - The purpose of the license condition is to protect the Parliament's previous conditions that these radio stations must have a non-commercial operating base. During the current period, the Norwegian media authority has experienced that the permit condition has been circumvented through market adjustments in order to be able to include analogue broadcast blocks in the switch-off areas in advertising sales, the ministry writes and believes that a ban on advertising is better. - But what is the real story here?

Thursday 6 May 2021

FM Radio Mandatory For Smartphones In Brazil

The major broadcasting platform will extend its national reach

Mobile phones marketed in Brazil from June 1 this year must come with FM radio reception activated. The ordinance came from the Communications Minister Fabio Faria. The media authority Anatel will be responsible for regulating the new measure.
The measure is a long-standing demand from the broadcasting industry and has always faced resistance from major mobile device manufacturers. According to Fabio Faria, the activation will bring almost no burden to companies because most mobile phones already have the chip capable of capturing and converting the FM radio signal.