Nearly two years after shutting down its analog FM broadcasts, Switzerland’s public broadcaster has restored FM service to approximately 80% of the country’s population.
The SRG SSR analog FM reactivation took place Thursday. According to our count, 33 transmitter sites have been reactivated, including locations such as Chasseral, Säntis, Uetliberg and Rigi.
DXer Lucas in Lyon, France, captured the return of SRG SSR on Nov. 12 of signals approximately 75 miles away in La Dôle, Switzerland, near the French border.
Across SRG SSR’s SRF, RTS and RSI networks, 98 FM frequencies are back online as a result of the activation. The public broadcaster has made a list of active sites available online.
It’s an about face from the beginning of 2025, when SRG had sunset analog FM and directed listeners to its digital radio DAB+ broadcasts.
But Switzerland’s parliamentary transport and telecommunications committee pointed to data collected by Swiss-based research firm Mediapulse that showed a 25% decline in listenership after the switch-off.
In a Nov. 2 release, SRG said the move was in response to the Swiss Parliament’s vote to postpone the nationwide switch-off of analog FM transmitters until the end of 2031. “The SRG understood Parliament’s decision to continue FM broadcasting as a mandate,” Susanne Wille, director general of the SRG, said in an English translation of the release.
The network believes that analog FM serves as a bridge, giving radio listeners more time to transition to digital reception methods. Broadcasting via FM has not been mandatory in Switzerland since 2020.
Almost nine out of 10 minutes of radio listening now takes place via DAB+ and the internet, SRG said. That adoption, SRG said, was the basis for the country’s intended digital transition and FM switch-off.
Early adopter
Switzerland’s FM sunset plan dates back to 2014. Public and private broadcasters were originally on board with a migration plan to end FM transmissions by 2024, though the Swiss government previously extended that final deadline to the end of 2026.
SRG SSR moved ahead of the pack and converted entirely to DAB+ at the beginning of 2025.
But as we covered in August, SRG SSR said that with a changed political landscape it could no longer afford to continue foregoing FM broadcasting and, consequently, many listeners. OFCOM, the country’s broadcast regulator, granted SRG back its FM licenses and approved it for tests on FM in July.
Cost
“The additional costs incurred by the reactivation of FM must be reconciled with the ongoing savings program mandated by the Federal Council, currently amounting to around 6.5 million Swiss francs annually,” the Nov. 2 SRG release stated in an English translation.
Full analog coverage in the past cost approximately 15 million Swiss francs per year, SRG said.
SRG will determine further expansion steps based on listener usage and a review of its operational and financial framework, according to the release.
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