Yesterday on NPR, I heard that Norway is getting rid of FM radio. By 2017, all radio in Norway will be digital. According to the Minister of Culture:
"Listeners will have access to more diverse and pluralistic radio content, and enjoy better sound quality and new functionality. Digitisation will also greatly improve the emergency preparedness system, facilitate increased competition and offer new opportunities for innovation and development," she said.
Norway has roughly the same square mileage as New Mexico, and digital FM has only very-local/metro-area coverage; if you tried to make that entire U.S. state digital-only, there would be a huge number of rural folk left out, which would certainly not expand their options or help in an emergency. Norwegians seem sold by the idea though..
Posted by: StarHalo | April 22, 2015 at 03:54 PM
I guess a lot of analog radios from Norway will be going up for sale on eBay.
Posted by: Gary | April 22, 2015 at 08:09 PM
I'd need to know more about Norway's infrastructure to know for sure----but this strikes me as a bad idea.
Posted by: Angelo | April 23, 2015 at 04:56 AM
I've feared this happening here since they made every old TV practically useless a few years ago. Thankfully it was just IBOC that some stations started using, and not a complete changeover.
Didn't the UK kill a band for DAB?
Posted by: Drive-In-Freak | April 23, 2015 at 01:53 PM
What in the hell is a "Minister of Culture"?
Posted by: Michael Brent | April 23, 2015 at 08:24 PM
It's a bad idea for sure. Norway is a big country but with few people. The move to DAB is heavily criticized for a lot of obvious reasons.
But at least they built a brand new powerful long wave station for ships at sea, in Germany they will have to (try to) use DAB at sea after they close the medium wave transmitters at the end of this year (after closing the long wave transmitters last year), good luck with that...
Posted by: Tomas | April 24, 2015 at 08:20 AM
It looks like the demise of FM radio stations in Norway was exaggerated a bit.
http://swling.com/blog/2015/04/norway-fm-radio-stations-were-not-dead-yet/
Posted by: Gary | April 30, 2015 at 01:32 PM
FM Radio not yet dead in Norway:
http://www.radioworld.com/article/fm-radio-not-%E2%80%94-yet-%E2%80%94-dead-in-norway-says-nlf%C2%A0/275701
Posted by: Gary | April 30, 2015 at 04:29 PM