Norway Switches off FM Radio, but This Station Is Defying Government Order

Megalith

Megalith

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In a world first, Norway has switched off its FM radio service, but not everyone is celebrating the move to digital. Despite government orders, Svein Larsen, CEO of Radio Metro and the chairman of the Norwegian Local Radio Association, has continued to broadcast on FM in Oslo.

Officials say the move to digital will save money. Ole Torvmark, the head of Digital Radio Norway, was confident people would embrace the switch and said it would allow for more radio stations. But broadcaster Svein Larsen isn't convinced.
 
Fool! You must NEVER defy your overlords! What is he thinking? Nay! WHY is he thinking?
 
Switching to digital is all well and good, but unless they have provisions in place for everyone to be able to access digital it’s a poor move.

Like when the US switched OTA TV signals to all digital. They had programs for people to be able to acquire inexpensive tuners and converters. Does Norway have something similar for people to be able to use with all of their FM Radios?

I know if the US did it I’d be screwed. My vehicles are new enough but I’m still using FM and not digital HD radio afaik.
 
I don't understand how the move would save money. That makes no sense to me unless the government is subsidizing a bunch of worthless FM stations in which case the government made it expensive.
 
c3k said:
Fool! You must NEVER defy your overlords! What is he thinking? Nay! WHY is he thinking?
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Not sure what is he thinking, but in most countries frequencies are licensed, and what is he doing is the fastest way to lose that license.
 
faugusztin said:
Not sure what is he thinking, but in most countries frequencies are licensed, and what is he doing is the fastest way to lose that license.
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The frequency is reserved to FM that no-one can use, we cannot interfer with other traffic due to neighboring countries and so on that have not shut off FM.
It is only in Oslo local radio stations aren't allowed to use FM, needless to say I have Bluetooth, internet radio, Spotify, touchscreen and what not in my cars and still no DAB.
DAB was out of date when they decided it, it has worse coverage than internet so I really really really don't see the reason (being from Norway).

For the most part I don't listen to my national channels anyways, and on longer trips I can be bothered to start spotify.
 
ole-m said:
The frequency is reserved to FM that no-one can use, we cannot interfer with other traffic due to neighboring countries and so on that have not shut off FM.
It is only in Oslo local radio stations aren't allowed to use FM, needless to say I have Bluetooth, internet radio, Spotify, touchscreen and what not in my cars and still no DAB.
DAB was out of date when they decided it, it has worse coverage than internet so I really really really don't see the reason (being from Norway).

For the most part I don't listen to my national channels anyways, and on longer trips I can be bothered to start spotify.
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Why do you guys even need to save money on radio WHEN YOU STOLE OUR OIL

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Sweden has been flirting with DAB and DAB2 for what it seems forever. But it uses fairly low bitrates so it isn't sounding much better when it works, but worse is it seems to have way less penetration ability than FM, which means the digital stream keeps getting interrupted. Which in turn means you either hear the broadcast or you don't. and on the move in a car it is just completely useless. So the suggestion was more transmission towers combined with better antennas on cars (yeah, everybody! Do third party installment of antennas on all your cars!)... Well, after doing calculations the situation would be worse than with cell phone towers. It simply isn't good enough. When FM gets a weak signal you still get what they are saying and on the move it is use-able the whole time. DAB, in spite being transmitted here on all the same towers, is so much worse that noone who has an all compatible radio ever uses DAB. So it is dying. Forcing it on people is probably going to be the same as just making people stop listening to broadcast radio altogether.
 
DAB is awful. Only good if you love listening to music with the sound of a coffee peculator in the background.

Our Govt. wants to switch off the superior FM too but we are resisting. Even worse that the standard of DAB chosen in the UK was the worst one.

The other thing that bugs me is that by now DAB radios should be like £5 or less as the tech has been out so long. But no, the cheapest DAB radio on Amazon UK is around £22 or $30.00.
 
How do you do emergency broadcast without AM or FM radio? How do you replace thousands of portable devices and save money?? Also why turn off a perfectly working technology?
 
Again, this is more of a regression thing, sort of like how cell phones have killed the home phone. It's great to take a phone with you, til the towers aren't working due to some natural disaster and you have no service. Copper lines were incredibly durable and resilient, working during major power outages, but the entire copper network is being replaced by fiber optics. Great for speed, but if there's a power outage, chances are you aren't getting service.
 
JosiahBradley said:
How do you do emergency broadcast without AM or FM radio? How do you replace thousands of portable devices and save money?? Also why turn off a perfectly working technology?
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Twitter is the answer, grandpa.
 
JosiahBradley said:
How do you do emergency broadcast without AM or FM radio? How do you replace thousands of portable devices and save money?? Also why turn off a perfectly working technology?
Click to expand...

Here in the USA we have HD Radio. Its a similar technology but has been very slow to get implemented in fits and starts here and there. AFAIK here in the US they have not planned to shut off FM but to supplement FM with HD. The benefits of HD radio are supposed to be cleaner digital audio and data capabilities. I've had HD Radio for several years now and when you are in an are that has stations with the service and a decent signal it is pretty sweet. Like digital TV the stations will have more than one channel with different things on. Also see some things like album art getting displayed on the stereo screen too. What sucks is at the edge of reception - then its drops back to analog which is more often than not less than seamless meaning you will get pauses, delays, dropouts, etc. They also seem to be working out the kinks in keeping the analog and digital streams in perfect sync which is part of the problems with seamless transitions between analog and digital. On one station when I first tune it starts as analog then changes to digital and there is literally a 5 second shift in the track playing. GM had HD radio available in multiple vehicles for several years then dropped it for a couple of years then started offering it again. Crap like that and the growing pains has slowed the growth of HD radio here.

I imagine DAB has all the same issues.... simply tying to kill FM is not a solution.
 
JosiahBradley said:
How do you do emergency broadcast without AM or FM radio? How do you replace thousands of portable devices and save money?? Also why turn off a perfectly working technology?
Click to expand...
dgz said:
Twitter is the answer, grandpa.
Click to expand...

Nope, cellphone broadcasts is the way to go! Works quite good and send out emergency messages to everyone with a mobile phone connected to selected towers... And since almost everyone has a mobile... But turning of FM is dumb, try to build a FM radio it's relatively easy, now try to build a DAB radio it's also easy you just go to amazon and click buy....
 
MRAB54 said:
Who is "saving" the money by switching? Surely not the millions of people with now useless radios.
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Yeah, but at a certain point we have to upgrade if something is noticeably better. For example, why in 2017 do I still get standard definition channels? Nobody should have an SD TV anymore. I've had a 1080P TV since 2008. 1080P should be the new "SD" and HD channels should be 4K.

I would support a move to get rid of SD channels. Anyone without an HD TV can go buy one for $200.00

So back on topic, if there is something noticeable to be gained from digital radio I say go for it.
 
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