Norway This Week Becomes First Country to Begin Hard Cutoff of FM for DAB

Norway this week becomes the first country to begin a hard switch off of FM transmissions to complete the transition to Eureka-147 digital audio broadcasting radio services, said Digital Radio UK, the group that’s promoting a DAB switchover in the U.K. During a Wednesday ceremony in the Arctic city of Bodø, at precisely 11:11 a.m. local time, a giant dial will be moved from FM to DAB to signify the moment of the transition, the group announced Monday. The Norwegian switch off will be implemented region by region across six regions, ending in the northern regions of Troms and Finnmark Dec. 13, it said. DAB digital radio services launched in Norway in 1995, and now cover 99.7 percent of the country, it said.