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Milling Broadcast Services GmbH has been granted a long-term license by the Medienanstalt Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate media authority) to operate the DAB+ media platform around Bad Kreuznach, a town about 80 kilometers west of Frankfurt in western Germany. The unanimous decision marks a shift from pilot to full commercial operation, with the license valid for 10 years from April 1, 2026.
The platform has been running as a pilot on channel 12A since 2021, covering Bad Kreuznach and surrounding areas, including the town of Bingen on the Rhine and parts of the Stromberg/Hunsrück region — rural areas characterized by hills and valleys where FM coverage can be challenging. With the new license, the network will transition from test phase to stable operation.
Milling says its goal is to make digital local radio affordable, using open software and cost-efficient infrastructure built on the open-source Open Digital Radio toolchain. The long-term license, it adds, provides greater planning certainty for investment, operations and monetization, something that has been difficult under the short pilot arrangement.
What it means for broadcasters and listeners
For local and regional stations in Rhineland-Palatinate, the decision ensures a decade of stable DAB+ capacity. That makes it easier to plan programming, marketing and advertising strategies, while also lowering the barrier to entry for smaller broadcasters. The use of the ODR toolchain is designed to cut costs across encoding, multiplexing and transmission, without compromising audio quality or reliability. Listeners in the valleys and hilly terrain of the Hunsrück can expect more robust coverage compared to FM.
Germany is gradually transitioning from analog FM to digital DAB+, and several federal states are encouraging local multiplexes to strengthen coverage in less urbanized regions. The Bad Kreuznach project, moving from pilot to long-term license, represents one of the first examples of a local DAB+ network in Rhineland-Palatinate making that leap.
The region lies between two of Germany’s major urban corridors — the Rhine-Main area (Frankfurt/Mainz) and the Rhine-Ruhr area — and is seen as a test case for cost-efficient digital local radio in smaller markets. Observers say the model may inform how other federal states in Germany approach local multiplex development.
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