RÚV allowed to shut one radio channel – merges them into Channel 1.5

A new bill allows the national broadcaster RÚV to stop running two radio channels. The broadcaster has already announced a solution it says will please all listeners equally, or annoy them equally: Rás 1 and Rás 2 will be merged into one, Channel 1.5.

“We looked at whether to close Rás 1 or Rás 2 and found that we would lose half our listeners either way,” a RÚV spokesperson told Mysan. “By merging them we will hopefully only lose about 75 percent.”

The Channel 1.5 schedule has already been announced. The morning exercise slot will be done to techno, the lunchtime news read in rhyme and the radio theatre will now stage the latest hits as audio drama. On Friday nights the symphony orchestra will play listeners’ requests.

Steinunn, 74, a listener in Hafnarfjörður, has listened to Rás 1 since 1962. “This morning I heard the death notices over something my grandson called a ‘banger’. I don’t know whether to mourn or dance. I did both.”

A young Rás 2 listener says he too has noticed the change. “I turned on the radio in the car and there was a man reading a poem about moss for fifteen minutes. Then a song. Then more moss.”

The bill also cuts the broadcaster’s funding. RÚV says it will respond by broadcasting Channel 1.5 on only half a frequency.

The ministry says that if this goes well, it may consider merging the TV news and the children’s news in a similar way. The news would be the same, just better explained.