Danish public-service broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR) is shifting some of its programming from medium wave to longwave in late June.
On June 16, a new 50 kW transmitter on 243 kHz was activated at the Kalundborg transmission site in Denmark’s western province of Sjælland. DR will simulcast programming on the longwave channel until June 27, when it will end its medium-wave broadcasts from the site on 1062 kHz. The existing medium-wave broadcasts use a 250 kW transmitter.
Previously, DR used a 300 kW longwave transmitter at Kalundborg until February 2007. The channel has been entirely vacant in Europe since October 2008 when Turkey ended longwave broadcasts on 243 kHz from a 200 kW transmitter in Erzurum in eastern Turkey.
DR Operations Manager Puk Astrud told RadioNyt.com that DR expects the longwave broadcasts to be more stable and to provide better coverage than medium wave, reaching as far away as Oslo, Norway, and Hamburg, Germany.
Astrud also noted that the new transmitter is much more efficient and will run at a significantly lower power level, which should result in cost savings for DR.
