Yes! We have no frequencies. We have no frequencies today

Michael Hedges March 2, 2009

Frequency plans are the nuts and bolts of the regulators job. Broadcasters want licenses and coverage. Regulators, mostly, want order. Sometimes confusion reigns supreme.

Switzerland’s Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication (DETEC) faced a problem. In reassigning local FM broadcast licenses (concessions) last year in a long process of granting renewals and allocating a few new concessions changes were made in the Zürich zone. Long established Radio Energy – 25 years in Zürich – was not granted renewal. Needless to say, Radio Energy’s owner – gigantic publisher Ringier – was not amused.

Also controversial was the decision denying renewal to a long established Geneva local station. DETEC found itself in a swirl of uncomfortable questions about how and why local private sector FM radio concessions are assigned and whether or not special considerations played a role in the Federal agency’s decision making. The Geneva problem was solved, DETEC’s grumbling aside, when the winner ‘gave’ their new concession to the loser. The Radio Energy Zürich problem is headed for Federal Administrative Court.

One possible solution posed by Swiss broadcasters would be to create a fourth local FM assignment in the Zürich-Glarus concession zone, which includes most of Canton (state) of Zürich, population slightly more than one million. Zürich is roughly the same size as Dublin, Ireland in population. Dublin is served by seven local and two national private sector radio stations, plus five public channels. Zürich has three local stations plus a dozen available from the public broadcaster SSR-SRG. Certainly, comparing Zürich to Dublin is apples to oranges. Switzerland has, just to bring you up to date, mountains, which are very unforgiving to FM signals. Too, Ireland is surrounded by water while Switzerland is surrounded by other countries.

DETEC put and end (February 27) to the idea of finding frequencies in the Zürich concession zone…almost. Consulting with media and telecom regulator OFCOM (Office for Communication), technical experts and a representative of Radio Energy DETEC concluded “there are no available frequencies in the short term.” (See DETEC statement here – in French) “Additional frequencies could be found only through a laborious and complicated process. The Department did not consider this for constitutional and political reasons.”

The experts, according to DETEC, considered several options for an additional allocation for both the Zürich metropolitian and Zürich-Glarus concession zones. This might include taking a frequency from public broadcaster DRS2, shuffling frequencies of other stations or taking away the FM frequency of community station Radio Lora. “These options could take six to twelve months,” said the DETEC statement. “A fourth transmitter network would be possible in the medium or long term, but there are disadvantages to other radio stations and planning and investment costs. Furthermore, it would be necessary to obtain the agreement of the authorities responsible for frequencies in neighboring countries.”

Radio Energy manager Dani Büchi saw a bright side, saying DETEC’s statement was just a “stage,” to Tages Anzieger (February 27). A fourth frequency is “in principle technically feasible,” said the experts report. DETEC, said Büchi, “ is saying the opposite.”

“We are not prepared to change the rules in the middle of the game,” said DETEC spokesperson Daniel Bach to Tages Anzieger. "We have never said a frequency exchange was not feasible.”

DETEC is a department of the Swiss Federal government. OFCOM is the broadcasting and telecom regulator and administers decisions of the Federal government.