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20 years ago, Germany decided to stop FM broadcasting in 2015. Digital radio (DAB+) was heavily advertised. Despite a fear campaign ("your radio will stop worki
by lqet 2y ago
20 years ago, Germany decided to stop FM broadcasting in 2015. Digital radio (DAB+) was heavily advertised. Despite a fear campaign ("your radio will stop working soon!"), almost nobody cared or replaced their working cheap kitchen or car radio. The plan to stop FM broadcasting was finally abandoned in 2011, because radio stations would've lost 80% of their listeners. My parents bought a DAB+ kitchen radio in 2009, but never liked it and it stopped working after a few years. They replaced it with a new FM radio.
- empath75 2y agoYeah to me, it seems like FM radio + internet audio over cellular is a great mix of choices, and "digital radio" is pointless. If you want to do digital radio, make a carplay/android app.
- TylerE 2y agoDigital radio allows for far more efficient use of spectrum than FM
- randomdata 2y agoImagine: Instead of three radio stations all playing the same song, you could have 100 stations all playing the same song!
- crote 2y agoOr perhaps they could play different songs! In my country DAB has station dedicated to playing classical music, jazz, youth-oriented pop music, current affairs, religion, rock music - not to mention dozens of local radio stations! FM allows for only a very limited number of stations, which means it ends up in a bidding war between the large commercial stations - who in turn have to play fairly generic music to attract a large number of listeners. With DAB there's plenty of space left over for niche stations, as they can transmit essentially for free.
- randomdata 2y agoOnce you get beyond the cities, there is still plenty of open FM spectrum. Getting a frequency isn't the real hurdle. Human effort and licensing are the much greater challenges. Especially licensing. Even on commercial radio you can regularly catch them playing "10 second" clips of different songs, to stay within fair use, that they wish to play but cannot legally do so. The college stations are more brazen about it and will flat out tell you that they can't play different jobs for legal reasons. Indeed, commercial radio does have to appeal to an audience, but that audience would unquestionably enjoy other music – at least within the same genre. But playing it for them opens up a huge legal minefield. It is a lot easier to pick a small catalog that you can properly audit and disallow anything beyond that.
- bayindirh 2y agoUsing the spectrum more efficiently doesn’t make a system automatically better. I don’t think Switzerland is crowded enough to have 10x more radio stations sustainably.
- TylerE 2y agoIt's not to have more radio stations, it's to have more bandwidth to allocate to things that AREN'T commercial radio.
- martinald 2y agoGenuinely interested - what is using the FM frequency instead?
- TylerE 2y agoWell, nothing right now because it's still allocated for FM.
- georgeplusplus 2y agoI believe he was saying what else could that portion of the spectrum be used for, if not for FM radio?
- martinald 2y agoCorrect. I don't see a huge amount of use for ~20MHz (probably less) of very long range spectrum. Potentially for smart meters and other IOT stuff, but current cellular networks deal with that pretty well (and there are other alternatives available). Plus I don't know much equipment that could use it at least out of the box so it is going to be fairly custom and very expensive.
- TylerE 2y agoIt’s valuable precisely because it’s relatively low frequency, which means it works for things that need to punch through buildings.
- asdefghyk 2y agoapparently, digital radio has less range than FM
- JohnFen 2y agoSame with digital TV, but digital TV also brought a significantly worse viewing experience, at least in my area.
- vel0city 2y agoDigital TV brought massively better viewing experience in every area I've lived in.
- JohnFen 2y agoI've heard others say similar things. Apparently, how good or bad it was depends a great deal on where you are. Around here, following the digital switchover, most people could no longer receive all stations, but which ones depended on exactly where they were. And those that can be received are of exceedingly low quality. Very heavily compressed and relatively low resolution. But each station now provides multiple streams. On the positive side, that did help me finally stop watching TV entirely!
- ale42 2y ago> If you want to do digital radio, make a carplay/android app. Rather a streaming service with an open protocol, and then users use whatever they want to listen. Fine if there's also an app for those who want, but I don't want to install an app to listen to a specific audio stream. I have VLC and it's enough. The other problem is people without cellular data and/or cellular phone, and those with limited data plans. But if most radio stations stay also on FM, that's basically a non-issue.
- pdntspa 2y ago> Fine if there's also an app for those who want, but I don't want to install an app to listen to a specific audio stream. I have VLC and it's enough. "But muh branding!!!" - Every marketer and UX designer everywhere
- crote 2y ago2015 was WAY too early for that switch. However, since December 2020 the EU mandates that all new cars equipped with a radio must be able to receive DAB+. In H2 2019 only 22% of cars sold in Germany were equipped with a DAB+-capable radio, in H2 202 this already rose to 80%.[0] So yeah, in 2015 they'd indeed lose around 80% of listeners. But it's a completely different story in 2024, as anyone with a car bought in the last 5 years would support it. Give it another 5, and the switchover might be possible without anyone really noticing. As for Switzerland? 99% of cars sold in 2019 were already equipped with DAB+, so they probably mandated it even earlier. [0]: https://www.worlddab.org/system/news/documents/000/012/060/original/WorldDAB_press_release_DABPLUS_RADIO_AS_STANDARD_IN_NEW_EUROPEAN_CARS_23.6.21.pdf https://www.worlddab.org/system/news/documents/000/012/060/o...
- Cheer2171 2y agoThose figures are for new cars sold. People drive cars for decades.
- ComputerGuru 2y agoThe average (mean) age of vehicles on the road in the USA is, I believe, 12 years. I don’t know about Switzerland, but I presume it isn’t under five.
- dumbo-octopus 2y agoMy car was made in 2004. It isn't particularly old. I'll probably drive it another 5+ years. By that math I won't have DAB until 2045.