It’s really happening. Swiss broadcasters are moving forward with the switchoff of FM transmitters. The FM “fade out” was a topic of much discussion at the 25th Swiss Radio Day on August 29 in Zürich.
Marco Derighetti, director of operations for SRG SSR, provided a look at the Swiss public-service broadcaster’s plans to switch-off its FM transmitters at year-end 2024. Back in June, SRG SSR made the commitment for economic and listenership reasons. According to SRG SSR, around 80% of listening is happening via DAB+ and other digital channels, along the energy efficiency and cost-savings of DAB+ compared to FM, justify the accelerated switch off.
Derighetti was joined by Philippe Zahno, president of the Union Romande de Radios Régionales (RRR), and Peter Scheurer, managing director of the Verband Schwizer Privatradios (VSP), and Juan Widmer from the board of directors of the Union nicht-gewinnorientierter Lokalradios (UNIKOM), who provided a look at the switch off from the perspective of private broadcasters — commercial and non-commercial alike.
The FM switch off is being described as a “fade out” because broadcasters in different regions and situations will transition away from FM between now and year-end 2026. For example, stations in the French-speaking western part of Switzerland, plan to maintain FM operations until year-end 2026, in large part, according to the RRR, due to strong competition from broadcasters from across the border in France.
In contrast, Scheurer said that about half of VSP member stations, which operated in the German-, Italian-, and Romansh-speaking parts of the country, plan to start switching off their FM transmitters in early 2025. He stressed that each station will make its own decisions about when to fade out its FM signals based upon what makes economic and competitive sense.
