M94.5 Is Being Taken Off FM

This translation was generated automatically.

My former training radio station, M94.5, where I learned the craft and spent many years, is at risk of losing its 94.5 MHz FM frequency. The BLM, which assigns frequencies, apparently wants to give it to Rock Antenne, a repeater station for Antenne Bayern—an unlistenable, formula-radio monster.

The BLM’s statement is blatant mockery; the shutdown seems like a done deal.

The radio committee will discuss assigning Munich’s 94.5 MHz frequency to another programme, possibly, on February 9, 2017. The broadcast of afk M94.5 via DAB+ and the internet would of course continue. Potential technical reach would not change. In the state media authority’s view, FM is not necessary to achieve the training objectives. Rather, it sees afk as a spearhead of digital development.

The BLM has received expressions of interest in the 94.5 MHz frequency from Rock Antenne and egoFM, both of which are satellite radio programmes that can in principle receive FM relay frequencies.

Strategic partnerships with private radio providers are needed to develop training channels further. Both Rock Antenne and egoFM could make an important contribution.

Translation: Rock Antenne gets the frequency. egoFM is already available across Munich on 100.8 MHz. That amounts to shutting down M94.5. DAB+ receivers are comparatively rare, and mobile radio streaming over the internet is practically irrelevant in Germany because of restrictive mobile contracts. Anyone who thinks a radio station without an FM frequency has a chance of being heard should look at the problems facing BR Puls: namely, no listeners. Without listeners, you might as well close the station entirely.

Germany missed the boat on digital radio. Switching off FM will take decades. The regulator wants to take listeners away from the only training station and instead increase Rock Antenne’s advertising reach by a few cents. This is incredibly short-sighted and has a very unpleasant smell of a “strategic partnership” between Antenne and the BLM.

I’m asking my listeners to support M94.5. Without it, there would be no Bits und so, Sprechkabine, Walulis sieht fern, or many other colleagues who got their start in media at M94.5.

Sign the petition: “We ask that the training radio station M94.5 be kept on FM.”

M94.5 statement: Consequences of a possible loss of frequency