NRK FM to be switched off in eastern Norway

The radio switchover began in Nordland county in January, and throughout the year the national broadcaster has stopped FM transmissions in most parts of the country. Now it is eastern Norway’s turn. 

The switchover will end on the 13^th of December this year. All nationwide radio stations will have stopped broadcasting on FM when the process is completed in Troms and Finnmark. One of the reasons for digitalising radio is to make room for more stations and increase choice in the districts. Most local radio stations will continue to broadcast on FM until 2021.

Experiences so far

The Norwegian Media Authority’s impression is that the technical aspect of the switchover has turned out as planned, however, there is a need for guidance among the radio listeners. 

- There is no doubt that the digital switchover asks a lot from radio listeners, says Line Langnes, Senior Adviser in Medietilsynet.

- Therefore it’s important that listeners have access to good information. Among other things, we see that many radio listeners are not aware that NRK and nationwide commercial stations broadcast in two different DAB networks with different coverage rates. This causes confusion about access to channels. In addition, NRK's DAB network is divided into regions, which means that if you do not have an automatic frequency change function in the car radio, you must manually scan channels when entering a new region, explains Langnes.

Eastern Norway: commercial and local radio switchover in December

The nationwide commercial stations Radio Norge and P4 turn off their FM broadcasts in Oslo, Østfold, Vestfold and Akershus on the 8^th of December. As well as local radio stations Radio Metro Stor-Oslo, P5 Oslo, Radio Rox, The Beat Asker and Bærum, P7 Klem, Radio Metro Follo (Ski, Oppegård), and Energy Oslo. Other local radios in these counties can continue to broadcast on FM if they wish. For more information, see Medietilsynet’s digital radio information pages.