The medium wave frequency will be vacated on 27 June 2011, and in the future the Weather Forecast, the morning "Body and Movement" exercise programme and Maritime Safety Information can be heard via a new long wave transmitter.
If you prefer the extended Weather Forecast, need Maritime Safety Information or exercise to "Body and Movement", there is good reason to retune your receiver in the immediate future, if you want to continue to receive the Service Programmes from Danish Radio.
On Monday 27 June 2011, DR will close the medium wave frequency and revive the long wave frequency on 243 kHz, which has been silent since 14 February 2007. In the future, all the present DR programmes from medium wave will be transmitted on this frequency.
The target group and some of the core listeners of this channel are export truck drivers, fishermen, yachtsmen and to a lesser degree Danish expatriates, as these increasingly listen to DR on the Internet instead.
-We change from medium wave to long wave because DR is now the only one to transmit on 243 kHz. Longwave has a more stable and better coverage than the medium wave channel, which in reality only reaches to Hamburg and Oslo, explains DR’s Head of Operations, Puk Astrud.
Turkey has left the frequency
When DR previously transmitted on long wave, the frequency was shared with Turkey, and the long wave channel only reached as far as the Alps. But now the Turks no longer transmit on this frequency. In the period from Thursday 16 June to Monday 27 June, the programmes are transmitted in parallel on long and medium wave, until medium wave is phased out by the end of this month.
-We had a completely new transmitter installed in Kalundborg for the long wave transmissions, and apart from the fact that the programmes can now be heard far into Central and Southern Europe, the change also benefits DR by a significant cut in power costs, Puk Astrud explains.
Part of Public Service obligation
A survey made by DR Audience Research shows that less than 1.2 percent use the AM channel, and more than half of those use it less than once a month.
-It is a part of DR’s Public Service Contract with the Ministry of Culture to have a channel for such [service] messages, and there are also European Union rules in this field, Puk Astrud explains.
Original Danish version:
www.dr.dk/DRPresse/Artikler/2011/06/15/162856.htm
The new long wave transmitter is fully automatic, and the three Næstved‐technicians Jesper Byrnild, Peter Rothmann og Roald Jensen are trained in the advanced technology by engineer Aaron Debaie from the supplier Nautel.
Photograph © 2011 by NIELS DREIJER
