From Radios du monde on Facebook.
2 October 2021

In 2017, news that Norway was the first country to abandon the FM band for the benefit of DAB made headlines.

I wouldn't dare to say it was a hoax, but rather a false information.

What abandoned FM was NRK public radio and some commercial networks.

As in many countries, the main recipient of this operation was public radio: concentrating the four national networks in the same multiplex, surrender hundreds of broadcast sites (they were 700), stopping the maintenance of antennas and downgrading the End of life FM transmitters. All of this would have resulted in great economies of scale.

Only 40 % of the remaining frequencies were cut off by private networks and major commercial radio stations, especially in the capital and major cities.

The Norwegian FM band still has 552 frequencies operated by 100 radios, many of which say on their website that they are proud to continue in analog.

Some stations have also activated DAB multiplexers to keep up with the news.

Broadcast will continue, at least, until 2026: Mari Velsand, director of the Norwegian Media Authority has recommended that the government extend FM licenses for an additional five years, believing that the diversity of the media would be compromised if the closure occurs end of 2021, as expected.

Another country that is forced to postpone the end date of the FM. Despite all efforts, DAB+ is unable to offer coverage at least equal to FM.

Sources: blog.radioreporter.org and jaerradioen. No no