Radio 24 soon to go digital throughout German-speaking Switzerland
From August 1, the Zurich station Radio 24 will be available throughout German-speaking Switzerland via digital radio. A test phase will initially take place in July.
Then, just in time for the national holiday, the digital distribution of the FM program will start. Listeners traveling from Zurich to Bern or from Basel to Lucerne, for example, will be able to listen to Radio 24 without interruption, the station announced on Wednesday. Radio 24 applied for the DAB+ broadcasting slot at the end of 2010, program manager Karin Müller told the news agency SDA.
The Zurich radio station was now in waiting position one and then took over the broadcasting slot of the Basel radio project Open Broadcast. For financial reasons, the operators of the latter had decided not to broadcast via DAB. The DAB+ broadcasting slots are allocated by network provider Swiss Media Cast SMC.
Since October 2010, digital broadcasting has been interesting for radio stations because they can now broadcast their existing FM first programs, Müller said. Previously, they would have had to develop their own programming. Digital radio can also be heard in an underground car park, for example. However, it needs a so-called DAB+ digital radio to receive it. Radio 24 can still also be received via FM, the Internet or on mobile devices.
