In preparation for the upcoming mass arrival of DAB + digital radio in Belgium, RTBF is continuing its process of extinction of the medium wave by reducing the hours of daily broadcast of its transmitter Wavre 621 kHz.
Since 31 May, this transmitter that covers all over Belgium and beyond, operates every day between 6 am and 8 pm (instead of 5 am to midnight previously). This reduction is part of a plan to phase out amplitude modulation (AM) emissions at RTBF, as in all of Europe .
The mode of diffusion in amplitude modulation (which includes the medium waves, the long waves and the short waves) was the first mode of diffusion of the radio in the last century, before being gradually replaced by that in modulated frequencies ( FM) from the 60s.
Over the past ten years, with the gradual development of DAB + digital broadcasting technology, which is taking over from AM and then FM broadcasting , most of the large radio stations that broadcast in amplitude modulation have decided to stop old technology. This has been the case for some time now with our neighbors VRT and Radio France for example. Just like the British BBC World Service broadcaster stopped a few years ago, we can now listen in DAB + in Brussels. It must be said that all these transmitters that operate in this old analog technology are extremely greedy electricity.
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