<story><title>Norway to switch off FM in 2017</title><url>http://radio.no/2015/04/norway-to-switch-off-fm-in-2017/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lordlarm</author><text>Although this perhaps makes sense from a technical, maintenance and cost perspective it&amp;#x27;s, contrary to the NRK owned radio.no&amp;#x27;s opinion, an absolute horrible deal for a large part of the users.&lt;p&gt;«55 per cent of households have at least one DAB radio, according to Digitalradio survey by TNS Gallup», which leaves 45% not currently having access to a DAB radio. Many of the having _one_ radio has this in their home and perhaps not in their most important place: the car.&lt;p&gt;In order to elegantly implement a DAB radio in your car you need to attach a dongle to your window and run cables into a (sometimes) new radio altogether. Whilst this may be a simple procedure for _some_ it&amp;#x27;s for the vast majority a huge burden - both in terms of time and money (often costing around 3000NOK - 380USD).&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s well and fine that they started the implementation of DAB in Norway in the mid-90s, but it&amp;#x27;s just in recent times that we&amp;#x27;ve seen cars come with DAB reception by default. They should at least wait until 80-90% of all cars have access to DAB before switching over - which could take I&amp;#x27;m guessing up to 10 years.&lt;p&gt;This is like only supporting Chrome on important governmental sites - which would rightly cause an uproar on HN. Radio should be about accessibility and content, not the medium - which should change naturally and over time.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>goodmachine</author><text>Bad luck, Norway.&lt;p&gt;The UK is in a roughly similar position, but our govt is unlikely to switch off FM until 2020-ish at the earliest (was 2015, then 2018... now &amp;quot;whenevs&amp;quot;).&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s sad to consider how governments foisted DAB on listeners exclusively for the benefit of state broadcasters - the list of fails is extensive here: DAB gives you demonstrably worse reception, poorer sound quality, more expensive hardware, added costs to replace old hardware, added costs to run (4x power consumption), etc.&lt;p&gt;The magic carrot of &amp;#x27;more channels&amp;#x2F; more choice&amp;#x27; thing never happened either: thus, a bum deal all round.&lt;p&gt;I would guess the upside for broadcasters (cheaper infrastructure, more listeners) may have been significantly overstated too.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;sep&amp;#x2F;25&amp;#x2F;digital-radio-sales-dab&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;sep&amp;#x2F;25&amp;#x2F;digital-radio-s...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;dec&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;digital-radio-switchover-2020-ed-vaizey&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;dec&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;digital-radio-s...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;24 problems with DAB (2010)&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;2010&amp;#x2F;apr&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;dab-radio-problems&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;2010&amp;#x2F;apr&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;dab-r...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Norway to switch off FM in 2017</title><url>http://radio.no/2015/04/norway-to-switch-off-fm-in-2017/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lordlarm</author><text>Although this perhaps makes sense from a technical, maintenance and cost perspective it&amp;#x27;s, contrary to the NRK owned radio.no&amp;#x27;s opinion, an absolute horrible deal for a large part of the users.&lt;p&gt;«55 per cent of households have at least one DAB radio, according to Digitalradio survey by TNS Gallup», which leaves 45% not currently having access to a DAB radio. Many of the having _one_ radio has this in their home and perhaps not in their most important place: the car.&lt;p&gt;In order to elegantly implement a DAB radio in your car you need to attach a dongle to your window and run cables into a (sometimes) new radio altogether. Whilst this may be a simple procedure for _some_ it&amp;#x27;s for the vast majority a huge burden - both in terms of time and money (often costing around 3000NOK - 380USD).&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s well and fine that they started the implementation of DAB in Norway in the mid-90s, but it&amp;#x27;s just in recent times that we&amp;#x27;ve seen cars come with DAB reception by default. They should at least wait until 80-90% of all cars have access to DAB before switching over - which could take I&amp;#x27;m guessing up to 10 years.&lt;p&gt;This is like only supporting Chrome on important governmental sites - which would rightly cause an uproar on HN. Radio should be about accessibility and content, not the medium - which should change naturally and over time.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>acjohnson55</author><text>Yeah, it&amp;#x27;s kind of surprising that they didn&amp;#x27;t mandate inclusion of DAB-capable radios in cars years earlier. Had they done that, it seems like the consumers would be much more prepared for a hard switch. This sounds like it&amp;#x27;s going to be pretty disruptive.&lt;p&gt;Also, why do the radios require a dongle?</text></comment>