Good digital radio news from Pakistan on the Digital Radio Mondiale front.
On July 30, Radio Pakistan began construction of a powerful 1,000 kW DRM transmitter at Rawat near Islamabad in the northeastern region of the country. The digital signal will cover the entire country and will easily spill over into neighbors, including India, Afghanistan, China, Tibet and eastern Iran along with weaker signal penetration of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Nepal plus Oman, the United Arab Emirates and other parts of the eastern Arabian Peninsula.
The announced budget is four billion Pakistani rupee (more than €12.6 million). It “is part of Phase 1 of a three-phase DRM digitization plan of the Pakistani public broadcaster,” according to an announcement. In addition, the construction of the transmitter facility is being fast-tracked for a one-year timeline instead of a two-year schedule.
The site will also host a “media city” making it more than just a transmitter site. Pakistani Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzebb headed the groundbreaking. “This project is a major milestone in our mission to revolutionize Radio Pakistan, upgrade its capabilities to international standards and improve the quality and reach of Radio Pakistan,” the minister said in a tweet.
The move into DRM should improve Radio Pakistan’s signal quality along with cutting operational costs through energy efficiency.
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