DR Radio

DR Radio[1] is the part of DR, the Danish national broadcasting corporation, concerned with radio programming.

Analogue radio

Map showing P4's 11 regions

The regional P4 channels are:

DR also has a mediumwave station (called P5 Mellembølge until late 2009) carrying three daily news bulletins, a gymnastics programme, and weather and other reports for seafarers. The programming is transmitted from Kalundborg, the site of the powerful long-range analogue longwave P6 Langbølge which officially ceased transmissions in 2007, but has since carried low-power digital DRM test transmissions and briefly resumed analogue transmissions at full power from 16–31 October 2009. In addition, Danmarks Radio has operated Radio Denmark on short waves, which was originally broadcast from Denmark in Danish and English, and later from transmitter sites in Norway in Danish only.

DAB stations

The first trials of DAB were carried out in 1995.[3]

In 2002 DR began broadcasting eight new DAB channels: pop station DR Boogie Skum, parliamentary channel DR Demokrati, jazz station DR Jazz, classical music station DR Klassisk, news station DR Nyheder, cultural station DR Plus, rock station DR Rock, and soft music station DR Soft.[4] In 2003 DR Litteratur was added to the line-up [5] and 2004 saw the launch of DR Sport and DR Event.[6]

In December 2004 a second transmitter network was launched, broadcasting DR Gyldne Genhør (drama, comedy and popular music from the archives), DR Kanonkamelen (programmes for young children), DR Erhverv (economic and financial news), as well as digital versions of P1, P3 and P4 Danmark.[7] DR Barracuda (programmes for older children) was added in 2005.[8]

In August 2005, the commercial radio stations Sky Radio (now defunct) and Radio 100FM began broadcasting on the DAB network, reducing the space available for DR and obliging it to abandon three of its DAB channels: DR Erhverv, DR Event and DR P4 Danmark (a nationwide version of the regional channel).[9]

On New Year's Day 2006 the popular music station DR Soft was closed down, but following protests it was soon brought back.[10] Initially, it was intended it would remain on air until the launch of a new channel called DR X, but as Sky Radio had ceased broadcasting in November 2005, DR Soft and DR X were able to continue alongside each other. DR Soft was finally closed down towards the end of 2006. A privately operated station called Radio 100FM Soft launched in its place.[11]

December 2006 saw major changes to the line-up when the granting of exclusive use of one of the two DAB transmitter networks to the commercial stations meant that DR Gyldne Genhør, DR Kultur, DR Litteratur, DR Soft and DR Sport all had to close. They were replaced by DR P2 Plus, a resurrected DR P4 Danmark, and DR P4 Hit.[12]

As part of a cost saving plan, DR X was closed in October 2007. It was replaced by DR Dansktop, which had previously broadcast solely on the Internet.[13] Towards the end of 2007, DR closed down two other DAB channels: the cultural channel DR P2 Plus and the children's channel DR Barracuda.[14] These were replaced by two pop music channels: DR Coco and DR MGP.[14] Meanwhile, DR P2 Klassisk and DR P4 Hit changed their names by dropping the reference to their analogue parent channels and becoming DR Klassisk and DR Hit.

DR P2 joined the DAB platform in the summer of 2008.[15] On November 18, 2008, DR launched DR P5000.[16] This meant that DR Coco was closed down. At the same time, DR MGP became a web-only channel and was replaced by DR Pop DK.[17][18]

On November 2, 2009, P4 Danmark is replaced by DR P5.[19]

After Radio 100FM went bankrupt in early 2010, DR temporarily added to of its web radio channels to the DAB line-up on February 5, 2010. Those channels were DR Country and DR Electronica.[20] DR Electronica was only available for a month before it was replaced by a music channel called DR Unga Bunga.

During 2011, DR relaunched and consolidated its various DAB, web and FM channels. The new channels launched at various points throughout the year, but after the changes were finalised on November 1, 2011, the line-up of DR stations on DAB was as follows:[21]

In 2014, DR decided to close down DR Mama and DR Ramasjang/Ultra.[22] DR Mama closed down on September 30, 2014, while the children's channel remained until January 1, 2015.

DR P4 wasn't properly available on digital broadcast until March 3, 2015. It was broadcast using the DAB+ standard, unlike the other DR stations that were using the older DAB standard at the time.[23]

DAB+

It was announced on 28 September 2013 that transmissions would convert to the DAB+ format on 1 December 2014. DR broadcasts will move to the second DAB national network (which can be regionalised)and the first network would be sold to a private broadcasting concern[24]

Web radio

All of the above FM and DAB stations are streamed on the internet. DR previously provided a further 13 music channels available only via web radio. As of November 2007 these were:

However, these additional stations have now closed and DR Radio currently streams over the internet only those channels also available on DAB and FM.

References

  1. "DR in brief". DR. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
  2. 2.0 2.1 "DR Press Release regarding P1 & P2 changes" (Press release). DR.
  3. "De digitale kanaler" (Press release). DR. October 10, 2002.
  4. "12 timers litteraturradio om dagen" (Press release). DR. August 25, 2003.
  5. "Følg hele EM-slutrunden på ny digital radiokanal - DR Sport" (Press release). DR. June 3, 2004.
  6. "DR klar med seks nye DAB-tilbud" (Press release). DR. November 11, 2004.
  7. "DR Barracuda starter i dag". radionyt.com. 17 May 2005. Archived from the original on 2015-04-18.
  8. "Sky og Radio 100FM på DAB" (Press release). DR. August 12, 2005.
  9. "DR lytter til lytterne og genåbner DR Soft" (Press release). DR. 6 January 2006.
  10. "DR nedlægger DR Soft - i stedet lancerer Radio 100FM ny soft kanal". radionyt.com. 10 November 2006.
  11. "Fire nye kanaler på DAB" (Press release). DR. December 14, 2006.
  12. "Godt nyt til Dansktop-fans" (Press release). DR. October 22, 2007.
  13. 14.0 14.1 "DAB i 2008: Noget for alle - og enhver" (Press release). DR. 9 January 2008.
  14. "Nu er P2 også kommet på DAB" (Press release). DR. June 30, 2008.
  15. "P5000 - stærke sager!" (Press release). DR. November 13, 2008.
  16. "DR opfrisker DAB-platformen". Mediawatch.dk. November 13, 2007.
  17. "DAB : DR rokerer rundt og åbner to nye kanaler". Radiodays.
  18. "P5 - lyden af søndag, hver dag". DR. November 2, 2009.
  19. "DR klar med to midlertidige DAB-kanaler". DR. 5 February 2010.
  20. "DR DAB line up from November 1, 2011".
  21. "DR Radio vil være endnu mere aktuel". DR. 4 March 2014.
  22. "Nu er P4 også at finde på en DAB-radio". DR. 3 March 2015.
  23. "Danish Culture Ministry announcement on DAB+ conversion". Kulturstyrelsen. September 28, 2013.