The story
Kringkastingsselskapet A/S, a privately owned company and the predecessor of NRK, started regular radio broadcasts in Norway in 1925. NRK itself was founded in 1933. Based on a model similar to that of the BBC and located in Oslo, it was a replacement for privately operated radio stations in larger cities. NRK initially set out to cover the entire country and had a monopoly on broadcasting in Norway. The monopoly came under intense pressure when Norwegian TV companies began broadcasting from abroad in addition to international cable TV. Cable TV started in 1982 and satellite TV in 1986 (the launch of TV3 in 1987 and TVNorge in 1988). It was not until the launch of TV 2 on 5 September 1992, that NRK's monopoly on television broadcasting in Norway ended.
During the Nazi German occupation, Norwegian transmitters were used to broadcast Nazi German war propaganda to Northern Europe (particularly Scotland and the northern half of Ireland, where the sea path ensured a good signal) and Scandinavia.
Prior to the Nazi German occupation, NRK had also been partly financed by radio commercials.
NRK was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union, which was founded in 1950. In 1954, NRK started broadcasting television shows, on a trial basis. Regular broadcasts started in 1960.
On 14 September 1970, it began providing television services to Longyearbyen in Svalbard. In 1970, NRK would adopt their iconic logo design.
NRK was the last of the major European public broadcasters to introduce a second radio station, officially starting as late as 1984. In 1993, NRK launched a third radio station, the youth-oriented P3. A 24-hour station for classical music, Alltid Klassisk (now called "NRK Klassisk"), introduced in 1995, was the first of its kind to be broadcast digitally using digital audio broadcasting. The 24-hour news station Alltid Nyheter started in 1997, followed by a radio station for teenagers, mP3 in 2000, which mostly plays pop music.
On 1 September 1996, a second television channel called NRK2 was launched. The original television channel is now known as NRK1. On 3 September 2007, NRK launched its third channel: a youth channel called NRK3. Later that year, on 1 December, NRK launched its fourth television channel, NRK Super, which is aimed at children. NRK3 and NRK Super share the same channel, with NRK Super broadcasting from 06:00 to 19:30 and NRK3 from 19:30 to 06:00.
In 2000, following NRK Interaktiv's relaunch as NRK.no, NRK redesigned its corporate logo (that was introduced in 1969), so that it could be similar to its old version. This new version of NRK's corporate logo made its first appearance in an ident in 2001 by making its overhaul to NRK's radio and television channels.
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A traditional music radio station, NRK Alltid folkemusikk (now known as "NRK Folkemusikk") was launched in 2004 on DAB and internet radio.
NRK's international radio transmissions, known as Utenlandssendingen, began shortwave transmission in 1948. Initially broadcasting in Norwegian, English-language programs were added later. The service was discontinued on 1 January 2002. All NRK broadcasting activities on shortwave ceased on 1 January 2004. NRK's mediumwave transmitter at Kvitsøy on 1314 kHz used to be widely heard internationally and was one of the most commonly heard trans-Atlantic DX signals in eastern North America. The frequency carried a mixture of NRK's radio channels P1 and P2, and was called Europakanalen (lit. 'The Europe Channel'). However, these mediumwave transmissions were discontinued on 1 July 2006.
All of NRK's radio stations are now available on the internet. Several of NRK's television programmes are also available on the internet.
On 16 April 2015, the Norwegian Ministry of Culture announced its intention to eventually switch off all FM transmitters in the country, with the first such transmitter expected to be switched off on 11 January 2017, therefore making Norway the first country in the world to completely transition to digital radio. According to the Ministry of Culture, the decision was justified because transmitting through the FM network was eight times more expensive than transmitting through digital audio broadcasting, and because only five national radio stations are transmitting on FM, compared to the 42 digital radio stations allocated in Norway, with 22 stations transmitting on the latter. NRK Radio is expected to transition from FM to digital radio before commercial radio stations do so.
NRK claimed to have the longest-running radio show, Lørdagsbarnetimen (lit. 'The Saturday Children's Hour'), which ran from 1924 to 2010.
Redevelopment of Marienlyst and relocation of its headquarters
In 2017, NRK asked five architectural firms to present sketches for possible development and use of NRK's area at Marienlyst, should NRK move rather than improve the property. In 2019, work began to find the best site for a new building, and in 2020 the property on Marienlyst was sold to Ferd Eiendom for NOK 3.75 billion.
Close to 100 different locations were considered for the new head office, but Gamle Oslo, Bryn, Storo Løren, Lillestrøm-Puls and Lilleaker were the most relevant options. Director of relocation Jon Espen Lohne in NRK, said in 2020 that they have ambitions to get the country to choose a site before the end of the year. In May 2021, it was announced that NRK had decided to move to Ensjø, and that the price for the property was NOK 800 million.
FM radio switch-off
Norway was the first country to announce a complete switch-off of national FM radio stations, including NRK P1 with regional services, NRK P2 and NRK P3, NRK mP3 and NRK Alltid Nyheter. Switch off started on 11 January 2017, and ended on 13 December 2017.
From 2018, all FM transmitters are replaced with broadcast via DAB+, internet and cable.
From Wikipedia’s article on NRK, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5