The Government of Norway announces
[April 16], the Ministry of Culture announced a national FM-switch off, to complete the transition to digital radio. Norway is making [a] historical move into a new radio era, being the first country in the world to decide upon an analogue switch-off for all major radio channels. With DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) and digital radio, listeners will be provided with more radio channels and greater diversity in content.
[...]The DAB-coverage in Norway now exceeds FM-coverage. DAB provides Norway with 22 national channels, as opposed to five channels transmitting nationwide on FM.
[...]Switch-off starts in Nordland county 11th January 2017 and ends with the northernmost counties Troms and Finnmark [13th December] 2017.
Official announcement in Norwegian. Also covered at Ars Technica.
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Tuesday April 21 2015, @07:29PM
I'm pretty sure that broadcast band AM radio is what is meant. Otherwise.. yah, FM isn't going away any time soon either due to ham radio traffic.
(Score: 2) by subs on Tuesday April 21 2015, @09:37PM
Yeah, we're mixing terms here a bit with modulation & frequency band. I think he meant analog AM on mid- to long-wave. That shit's here to stay, because it's dead simple, reliable and works with pretty much anything under the sun. Beyond line-of-sight is also quite a neat feature, especially out on sea (it's used extensively over the Atlantic and elsewhere by commercial airplanes to do position reports and such crap).