Switch off for FM radio eminent .

[DREAMER NO2]

Well a new one to think about.
Diabolical idea , this is for the closing down of all transmissions on the FM band .
And all cars that have built in to the dashboards FM radios, will no longer be able to use them ,on stereo . And will be for show only . Gov minister for radio broadcasts said 40 % of people use digital radio now, so the switchover is on the cards asap . What do you think .This is for older car owners that have FM radios .And thinking about this i have a lot of expensive stereo equipment .That will be worthless if this goes on.

 

[L John]

Needs a gov petition but they'll still switch it off as the economy will get a boost of new radio sales.

I think radio stations have been paying double licence fees during the side by side transmitions so they will be happy, unless advertisers don't pay as much due to fewer listeners until everyone has upgraded.

It would be nice if they allowed at least a few stations to broadcast as they are now but that wont happen. Maybe pirate stations will start up again?

 

[DREAMER NO2]

I hear that for some will have a few local stations that will still be transmiting on FM ..

 

[Naraic]

As I have said elsewhere...this is not new.

The switch off has already been delayed once before I believe.

 

[Ken_R]

It was originally planned for 2015, but then the Govt realised that the roll-out of Digital had reached nowhere near any form of acceptable level, and it was postponed.

I don't think much has changed in the interim.

 

[Xtractorfan]

We should have the ability to switch off the Government from time to time.

 

[davemercedes]

I don't think the "powers that be" will get serious about turning FM off in UK until at least 2020. In the meantime they will listen to how it goes in Norway (who have switched FM off and you must have a DAB radio).

- Currently the Norwegian public are not too pleased about it.

 

[Frontstep]

He's touring this year .....

 

[-ralph-]

I see a massive market in DAB radios for older cars coming up

 

[Ricardo_e220]

Fm covers most of country DAB certainly doesn't...

Not worried have both in our cars apart from the slk - but still can't see the fm signal being switched off until coverage is improved

 

[LostKiwi]

You can get DAB adapters for FM radios if you want to retain your head unit.

 

[alexanderfoti]

In addition DAB stations in the UK are worse quality than their FM counterparts. Most of the stations broadcast at between 64 and 128kbps mono MP2!

BBC National Dab MUX is currently the only one I can get in the S class with no drop outs. The rest are crap.

 

[kid-jensen]

That figure of 40% DAB usage doesn't tie-in with my asking-around, so it's plainly wrong!

remember, 87.35% or all statistics are mad up on the spot.

I wouldn't want DAB even if the government paid me to scrap the head unit, and that's not likely to happen.

 

[Some guy on the internet]

Is this for Cardinal Radio only?

 

[Steed]

In addition DAB stations in the UK are worse quality than their FM counterparts. Most of the stations broadcast at between 64 and 128kbps mono MP2!

BBC National Dab MUX is currently the only one I can get in the S class with no drop outs. The rest are crap.

DAB system in my 2015 VW Golf is excellent.

 

[alexanderfoti]

DAB system in my 2015 VW Golf is excellent.

The antenna system is probably much better. Doesn't change the bit rate issue though unfortunately.

 

[Blobcat]

Political suicide, yes they'd like to switch off FM so they could sell on the frequencies and the broadcasters would love to switch off FM so they don't have to pay for another format to broadcast on. However it's not the same as Digital TV switch over due to the way that most consumers get their radio is via an FM receiver and until that changes significantly then no political party would stick it's neck out and close down FM. Most ministers still listen to R4 on Long Wave in their ministerial cars, If I ever had to do work on Droitwhich I had to avoid Today and PM because of the ministers in their cars.