Wednesday 10 September 2014

German Radio Pioneer Warns Against FM Closure

Photo: FFH nh
Media policy statement at radio award ceremony
The journalist and editor of the magazine Focus, Helmut Markwort, has received  the "German Radio Award 2014" for his services to the German private radio sector. Markwort is one of the pioneers of private radio in Germany and the founder of HIT RADIO FFH 1989. 
In the acceptance speech on stage in Hamburg for the Deutscher Radiopreis 2014 Helmut Markwort took the opportunity for a statement against a switch-off date for FM in order to force the transition to digital radio:
For the future I'll make a note: we're all FM people and a lot of people listen to FM, but there are DAB + - this is a fair competition, many listen to FM, but few listen to DAB+. That may change. What I do not think is OK, that this competition is to be completed by dictatorship. He says this will means that millions can not hear FM, 140 million radio sets are scrap, are thrown away. I think the audience will decide how to listen to the radio, with what equipment, and not a forced dictatorship.