Another local FM station close to my QTH is SRC FM. Another local FM station close to my QTH is SRC FM. But rather than local radio it is a good example of the new regional strategy in The Netherlands. Local radio was legalized in the late 80’s in The Netherlands, and soon every town had their own local FM station. In those days internet wasn’t common and it was seen as a good vehicle to distribute local news.
Today the situation is different. Many of the local radio stations merge, and this is not only driven by the fact that municipalities merge into bigger entities as well. I learned that there is actually a government plan that forces local radio stations to merge and from 2028 onward there should be no more than 80 regional stations (currently there are 200). More info about this plan can be found on this web page of the NLPO.
Do I like it? Well, as many local radio stations are depending on tax payers money to make things work I can understand that this saves money and improves quality at the same time. At the same time the stations are at risk to lose their local identity which is why they came to be in the first place.
Let’s look at SRC FM. This is the regional radio formed by SPO-BRCV, SPO-Tiel (from Tiel) and Nova Media (from Neder Betuwe). As far as I know BRCV stands for the merger of RTV Betuwe from Buren and Stads Radio Culemborg (SRC) and Vianen. All in all SRC now targets an area between the rivers Lek and Waal, 50 kilometers west to east with. An area in two provinces Utrecht and Gelderland, with as far as I know quite a bit different identity and orientation on major cities… we’ll see how it will work out.
Thanks to the pretty powerful 2 kW transmitter from Vianen on 95.6 their coverage area is substantially bigger, covering areas in the provinces of Zuid-Holland, Noord-Brabant and even Noord-Holland.
To cover the region SRC FM is active on 6 frequencies. I sent a report for my reception of SRC FM on 105.1 MHz, as with 40 kms the transmitter in Tiel is a bit more “DX” than the transmitter in Vianen (only 17 kms). Mr. Kans was so kind to confirm my report with a brief reply on my email to info@src.fm .
