Swiss radio listeners will soon have to toss out their old sets, as the country plans to end analog FM broadcasting on December 31, 2024, in favor of a total conversion to digital.

The move has been a long time coming in Switzerland, which has largely already transitioned to Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB+, an evolution of standard DAB that was designed to address early issues). More than 99 percent of the country have access to a DAB+-compatible receiver and fewer than 10 percent of radio signals in the country still being broadcasted in analog FM, according to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation.

FM receivers in automobiles are nearly completely gone in Switzerland, with 99 percent [PDF] of vehicles sold in the country shipping with DAB+ radios as of 2019. That put Switzerland second to Norway in DAB+ penetration prior to enforcement of the EU's Electronic Communications Code, which mandated digital radio receivers be included in all new vehicles as of 2020. 

Norway became the first country in the world to phase out analog FM radio signals when it began the process in 2017, and other countries in the EU have followed suit as well, with Denmark, Italy, Poland, Belgium and others all planning to switch their analog FM broadcasts off in coming years. 

Swiss officials tout DAB+ as not only an improvement for listeners, but also an environmentally friendly switch. The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation claimed elimination of dual-signal FM/DAB+ distribution will save "several gigawatt hours of electricity … each year," and will also eliminate maintenance costs of aging FM infrastructure. 

DAB+ also cuts down on "electrosmog," a term for the EM fields and radiation admitted by pretty much every bit of electrified technology we use, SBC said, because it emits far less waste energy, and antennas would be located in more remote, high-elevation areas outside of population areas. 

But not everyone's crazy about DAB+

While some countries in the EU and beyond have readily embraced DAB and the phaseout of analog radio, not everyone is as excited as the Swiss or Norwegians about the transition.

Critics of DAB+ have expressed concerns over signal interference, poor audio quality due to broadcasters squeezing more channels into a single signal ensemble, signal delay between antennas and other issues. 

DAB+ deployments have failed in several countries, Finland, Ireland, Hungary, Canada and Hong Kong among them. Several of those rollouts were abandoned due to lack of interest, low availability of DAB+ receivers and the rise in satellite and internet-based radio broadcasts. 

Germany was even due to shut off all of its analog FM radio stations in 2015, but in 2011 German MPs voted to abandon the effort. DAB+ rollouts in Germany have continued in various forms across Germany's various states, but even those efforts aren't going entirely well - Bavarian officials decided late last year to push their FM shutdown back to 2035, saying they weren't sure the technology was economically viable yet. 

German leadership may have cause for concern that phasing out FM radio would be disastrous for public safety after the 2021 floods in Europe that killed 184 people in Germany and called into question the effectiveness of flood warning systems. 

Emergency FM broadcasting is one of the major reasons officials in India have asked mobile phone manufacturers to include FM radio receivers in mobile phones. Basic feature phones that lack internet access are common in India, which relies on emergency radio broadcasts more heavily than nations with broader mobile data network coverage. 

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation didn't respond to questions for this story. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/07/02/switzerland_to_end_2024_with/