Radio News: Norway turns off state radio and pirates emerge

Dec 21, 2017 10:50 pm
Paul Riismandel at Radio Survivor reports that while social media feeds that many people saw recently suggest Norway is shutting down its FM radio band, that is decidedly not the case. The government there did shut down some state-run FM radio stations last week, but got all sorts of resistance. There are many reports of unlicensed FM broadcasts in Bergen, Tønsberg, Ålesund, Fredrikstad, and Førde. Norway is shutting down analog broadcasters, to have them switch over to digital signals that need new receivers to be heard. In Norway's largest city, Oslo, the CEO of a radio company and the chairman of the Norwegian Local Radio Federation told the CBC’s “As It Happens” show that he has not turned off his transmitter. While he is facing $10,000-a-day fines for staying on the air, he said, "The main question is, why do you switch off a system in Norway where we have 10 to 15 million radio receivers? And you just say to the public, you’re not going to use this anymore because you need to buy new ones. What sort of logic is that for media companies to operate that way? I mean, you operate on behalf of the listener. Here, the big players are saying to the listeners: 'No. You need to go out and buy new radio receivers.'" A recent poll found that 56 percent of Norwegians are “dissatisfied” with the conversion to digital radio. The country has a little more than five million residents, but 15 million FM radio receivers that, until last week, could receive all the signals. Another poll found that half of Norwegians don’t have a Digital Audio Broadcasting radio in their car, and have no plans to buy one. So while, from a glimpse at a social media story, it may seem like Norway is doing away with FM radio, it is really involved in another attempt to sell something. In this case, a different sort of radio. And, so far, Norwegians aren't buying.
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