Norway is going to become the first country to officially switch off its national FM radio service in just a couple of years. The country is going to take this step in order to complete the transition to digital radio. Norway is going to pull the plug on FM radio in 2017, the country’s Minister of Culture announced earlier this week.
It will take a considerable amount of time before all countries around the world, or at least a majority of them, sunset FM radio. It has severed them for decades and will continue to do so in the years to come, but its time is up in Norway.
People in Norway will get access to more diverse content on the radio courtesy of Digital Audio Broadcasting, better known as DAB. It already plays host to 22 national channels in Norway and a recent survey shows that 56 percent of Norwegian listers are tuning in through digital radio.
Head of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, Thor Gjermund Eriksen, said that this announcement will allow them to concentrate their resources even more upon what’s really important: creating high quality and diverse content for listeners.
Several other countries in Europe and Southeast Asia are also in the process of transitioning to DAB completely, but Norway will be the one that takes the first step on the podium.