By the end of 2017, Norway will become the first country to turn off all its national FM radio transmitters, switching to digital audio instead of the FM analog signal.
The changeover was decided and announced last year, but as it begins, some Norwegians are concerned about the switch. The BBC reported a poll taken in December by the newspaper Dagbladet showed two thirds of Norwegians think the government has rushed too quickly into the change.
While national networks will make the transition by the end of the year, local networks are being given five years to make the switch, the initial cost of which could be high for their small budgets. But cost savings is one big reason Norway’s government decided to switch; it costs about eight times as much to run an FM signal as it does the digital option, the BBC reported. The sound quality is also better, and more channels are available with digital.
For listeners, however, switching to digital could mean buying a new radio. About 40 percent of cars driven there, around 2 million, are not equipped with the digital technology known as DAB, the BBC noted. About 30 percent of homes are not equipped with DAB either, although many of those may listen to the radio online rather than through traditional channels, according to CNN Money.
One concern critics of the plan have expressed is that some Norwegians won’t get safety broadcasts under the new plan, particularly those in their cars who might need to access weather information or emergency reports.
Norway’s hilly, even mountainous terrain makes FM radio signals problematic and unusually expensive, however, so the switch to digital makes sense to many.
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