I don’t understand why and there will be 100,000s of annoyed and confused listeners.
They are already spending money on TV ads. What will the authorities do with the FM frequencies, which will still be used in other countries.
The Swiss did the same with DAB radio some 10 years ago, changing to DAB+. I had to change my car !
https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/ukw-abschaltung-ukw-sender-bleiben-bis-ende-2024
That’s not only quite dated, it’s outdated.
Latest shutdown is 2026, “Promised and totally definitive” (same as the previous two times).
What’s the deal with DAB radio these days? Just about to order a new Android stereo/nav system for my wife’s car. She likes to listen to the radio when driving, but I don’t, so I’ve not bothered in the replacement units in my cars, using internet music ‘radio’ stations instead.
So what’s the range of stations available, what languages? Are there regional differences?
It’s only a little but more to get a DAB dongle, but I don’t want to get it if its not needed. OTOH I could always get one at a later stage if needed (the unit has DAB support built-in, but not the receiver itself).
It was planned to stop FM radio at the end of this year but the Swiss Govt extended this to 2026, how many broadcasters will take advantage of this I do not know.
Best idea is to get a car radio that supports DAB, so far as I know they all do today.
Bluetooth support is a good idea as you can access internet radio with your mobile phone and hear it on your radio over Bluetooth so useful if you are out of the country and have a Swiss station you like or if you like foreign channels not on DAB. There are some very good American Jazz stations on the Internet and the good old BBC.
Thanks for the list. What do the different “blocks” mean? And what’s the stuff in the right-hand column all about (it’s beyond my German ability and even when translated it doesn’t seem to mean very much to me)? And importantly, are all these channels available all across Switzerland?
With an Android head unit there’s no need to use your phone, I just load apps directly on it, so I don’t need to fiddle with the phone while driving, just using it as a wifi hotspot, which works better than bluetooth. Too complicated with multiple vehicles to get duplicate SIM cards.
None of them seem to come with DAB as standard, all need the additional dongle AFAICT.
Sigh more questions
Gleichwellennetz means they try to cover so large a geographic area as possible with a single radio frequency so you do not have to jump frequencies when driving
When they are labelled " landesweiter" they are available nationally.
So far as I understand a DAB dongle is something you plug into an existing radio to add DAB functionality, for example, to android. So if you have an Android head unit then you will need a DAB dongle.