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During the change from Radio people so that we can actually do
Frontier to WRS in September more live news, more radio content
2013, the Swiss Government gave and more information about what's
us one month on the previous FM going on. If more and more people
wavelength to facilitate the change. listened to us and switched to DAB,
During that month we spoke about we would be able to charge more
DAB all the time. No-one should for advertising and we would invest
have been surprised when the FM that increased revenue back into
wavelength ceased to function, and people and content. This would
we did not receive many telephone enable us to be more engaged with
calls asking us what had happened. the community. That's what we
aim to do. We are all working very
So, people know about DAB. We hard, but in my role as programme
have our own preferred fitter who controller I know that we should be
is able to put DAB equipment into doing more.
cars -- he has converted 400 cars
in the last three weeks and this Q: Is there anything you want
shows no signs of slowing down. to say to our readers and/or
People have been buying DAB ra- your potential audience?
dios in recent years. In some cases
they did not realise that their FM Bear with us and understand the
radio was also capable of receiving situation that we are in. We know
DAB broadcasts. It was only when from the comments that we have
they were forced to check it out been receiving that people do
that they found they were already understand that we are building
capable of receiving DAB. From this radio station from scratch.
now on, it will be increasingly diffi- Mark Butcher and Jaimie Guerra We are not yet equivalent to the
cult to go to a shop and buy an FM former WRS. We cannot provide the
radio. It is the equivalent of trying to of encouraging people to move number of news programmes that they
buy a black-and-white television! We everything to DAB. We would have did because we just do not have the
are very encouraged about the level of liked them to allow us to use it for staff.
DAB take-up. We know that cars are a another couple of years enabling us
bit of a challenge but people are buying to achieve a sound financial footing One of the best ways in which people
car radios for about CHF150.-, and for and creating a better service. What it can help us is by listening to the com-
a little bit more you can have them means is that the audience is getting mercials on our radio and understand
fitted. You end up with an invisible less service from this radio station. that these are companies who have put
fitted radio in your car. their faith in us to deliver their mes-
There is a general policy across Europe sage to an audience. These are busi-
Obviously, we would have preferred to switch FM off in 2018 -- the sche- nesses that want to engage with the
to stay on FM because it would have duled change-over date. However, international community. So I would
given us the opportunity to increase this will probably not happen -- I sus- say that if you hear an advertisement
our advertising revenues from the out- pect that there will be a bit of slippage on WRS and if you are thinking of,
set. This has had a big impact on the in some of these deadlines. Never- for instance, buying a new car or as-
level of service we can provide. When theless, Scandinavia is already quite king for financial advice, think of the
we began negotiations with the Swiss advanced along the DAB path. The people who have advertised with us.
Broadcasting Service (SSR) about United Kingdom says it will be making They have taken the step of engaging
taking over WRS, we promised them the switch in the next couple of years. with the international community
that we would take on half of the staff There is no question that it will happen and would obviously be delighted to
of the old radio station -- as long as we because European governments have hear from you -- and it would be very
kept the FM wavelength. When the FM spent a fortune in making the DAB helpful for us as well because they will
wavelength was rejected by the Swiss networks function. say: "It worked". It is in this way that
Government, we had to go back to the people could help this radio station to
SSR and say that there is no way we Our advice to anybody these days is survive. Please do not buy their pro-
can take all these people on. In fair- that if you are buying a new car make duct if you don't want it, but bear in
ness to the SSR, they fully agreed and sure that it has DAB in it. If you were mind when you do hear that company
released us from that commitment. to sell your car in a few years' time, the advertise that they have stepped up
Barring a few of the contributors, we FM radio will no longer work. to engage with us, they want to reach
haven't actually taken any of the for- the international community, and they
mer staff of the old WRS on because Q: What is likely to happen in the should be given a chance to receive
we simply could not afford it. short term/long term about En- your custom.
I
glish-speaking radio in Geneva?
Q: Has the old WRS wavelength
been given to someone else? WRS is in many ways now a brand-
new radio station. What we would like
No, the SSR switched it off. It's part to see is for our audience to increase
of the Swiss Government's philosophy which would enable us to recruit more
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