Over 60,000 petitioners want the government to rethink plans to begin phasing out FM radio next year. Private radio entrepreneur Roger Schawinski, who started the petition, said on Wednesday that the phasing out of very high frequency waves (VHF-FM) is contrary to the federal law guaranteeing free access to radio. Campaigners also cited media expert Urs Saxer, who has said the phase-out means the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC, SWI swissinfo.ch’s parent organisation) won’t be able to fulfill its mandate of providing a radio service to the population. In January the government announced it had reached an agreement with the radio industry on switching off analogue FM transmitters. The SBC is set to make the switch to digital audio broadcasting (DAB+) in mid-2022, with private stations to follow by January 2023. This is earlier than planned: initially authorities had announced the switch to DAB+ for the end of 2024. Financial support is available to radio broadcasters for...
