Switching Off FM is a Stupid Idea

Norway announced last week to switch off FM starting in 2017. The move is forcing everybody to use digital radio (DAB). I just had a car loaner with DAB. Get ready to listen to radio with lots of gaps of silence.

Norwegian government announced according to radio.no (via Giz) last week that they will switch off FM radio starting 11th of January 2017. Digital Radio will take over as the only option going forward. DAB has been around since years now and frankly it sucks in cars. I just had loaner car, a brand new Porsche Macan, with DAB and driving it in urban area of Munich for a day. Listening to radio station on DAB was a horrible experience. 

The broadcast gets interrupted extremely often with very short gaps of silence. Radio over airwaves is mostly used for in car use. In homes the Internet and cable has taken over the delivery of radio for the most part.

Norwegian car drivers can look forward to listening to only taped music in cars instead of live radio starting in 2017. This means no more traffic notifications and DJ’s cracking jokes. I am surprised that the Norwegians are not rising up to protest this decision. Not only will they get a crapy service, but also they have to upgrade all their radios to DAB receivers.

Sometimes old technology does not necessarily mean bad technology. Analog broadcasting can smooth over short reception issues and we humans don’t even notice. Digital broadcasting does not have that “human” quality. It reacts with silence as soon as their is an issue with the reception.