To the point: trouble is programmed
There were many nostalgic looks back at Radio Day, which took place last week in Zurich. The event celebrated 25 years of local radio in Switzerland.
There were many nostalgic looks back at Radio Day, which took place last week in Zurich. It celebrated 25 years of local radio in Switzerland. The glorious times, when everyone was still a pioneer and one was even a pirate, were already a topic of conversation over coffee in the morning. People reminisced, and as always at such anniversary events, they remembered the old days, when so much was better and simpler. Well, that's what one means in retrospect.
Today, the industry is unsettled and impatiently awaits the outstanding concession decisions. After all, 21 of them have not yet been decided. They are controversial because there is more than one applicant in the queue. The impatience is understandable, since a lot of money is at stake: fee money beckons. But it is also about the future of those stations that will not receive a license. What will happen? A distinction must be made between local radio stations and local television stations. While the latter can continue broadcasting without a license, without collecting license fees and without the must-carry rule of the cable network operators, the radio stations are concerned with survival. Without a license, there is no frequency, and without a frequency, there can be no broadcasting. So the losers have only two options: either to stop broadcasting or to switch to the Internet. DAB is not yet an alternative.
Anyone who had hoped that the first appearance of Media Minister Moritz Leuenberger at a Radio Day could be a signal that he would announce the coveted licenses on this day was certainly naïve. One cannot blame Leuenberger for not doing so, since the orderly course of Radio Day would have been over the moment the winners in the concession tussle were announced. Because, as has often been said, the spat is programmed. No matter what the media minister decides, no matter how meticulous and careful the preparatory work of the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom), the losers will lodge a protest. According to Matthias Ramsauer, Bakom's vice-director of radio/TV, the outstanding licenses should be granted before the winter session, i.e., by the end of November. There will be a press conference, but so that radio broadcasters don't have to find out from their own media who the winners and losers are, they will be informed directly in the morning before the media conference. How tactful.
After Moritz Leuenberger's speech, who wished for "the fresh, flexible and cheeky spirit of the pirate era" to return, Radio Day saw a beaming Roger Schawinski. For him, Leuenberger's words were a "clear rejection of radios that have more marketing people than editors." Let's wait and see.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
pc.meier@werbewoche.ch
Today, the industry is unsettled and impatiently awaits the outstanding concession decisions. After all, 21 of them have not yet been decided. They are controversial because there is more than one applicant in the queue. The impatience is understandable, since a lot of money is at stake: fee money beckons. But it is also about the future of those stations that will not receive a license. What will happen? A distinction must be made between local radio stations and local television stations. While the latter can continue broadcasting without a license, without collecting license fees and without the must-carry rule of the cable network operators, the radio stations are concerned with survival. Without a license, there is no frequency, and without a frequency, there can be no broadcasting. So the losers have only two options: either to stop broadcasting or to switch to the Internet. DAB is not yet an alternative.
Anyone who had hoped that the first appearance of Media Minister Moritz Leuenberger at a Radio Day could be a signal that he would announce the coveted licenses on this day was certainly naïve. One cannot blame Leuenberger for not doing so, since the orderly course of Radio Day would have been over the moment the winners in the concession tussle were announced. Because, as has often been said, the spat is programmed. No matter what the media minister decides, no matter how meticulous and careful the preparatory work of the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom), the losers will lodge a protest. According to Matthias Ramsauer, Bakom's vice-director of radio/TV, the outstanding licenses should be granted before the winter session, i.e., by the end of November. There will be a press conference, but so that radio broadcasters don't have to find out from their own media who the winners and losers are, they will be informed directly in the morning before the media conference. How tactful.
After Moritz Leuenberger's speech, who wished for "the fresh, flexible and cheeky spirit of the pirate era" to return, Radio Day saw a beaming Roger Schawinski. For him, Leuenberger's words were a "clear rejection of radios that have more marketing people than editors." Let's wait and see.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
pc.meier@werbewoche.ch
