Fiamminghi in FM

Dopo il Belgio francofono, che come forse ricorderete sta introducendo una nuova regolamentazione delle frequenze FM, ecco la situazione che riguarda il Belgio fiammingo, dove in effetti la regolamentazione, decisa da una authority separata, era già entrata in vigore. La situazione ci viene descritta da Herman Boel, compilatore della Euro-African Mediumwave Guide ma anche grande conoscitore della banda FM (vedi il link al suo sito sulle stazioni delle Fiandre).

Welcome to one of the most complex issues in Belgian media. I'll try to explain as easy as possible.
Belgium is a federal country (which is not really true but I'll spare you the semantics). There are two communities (Flemish and French-speaking) but 3 regions: Flanders, Brussels, and Wallonia, and all in all about ten governments. Yes, very efficient indeed. Anyway, the authority of media lies with the communities. So the Flemish community deals with media in Flanders and Brussels; the French-speaking community does this in Wallonia and Brussels.
A few years ago the FM frequency allocations had to be renewed. Flanders made a (very bad) new frequency plan and installed it. Wallonia 'forgot' to do so. The result is that de facto all Walloon and Brussels French-speaking stations were actually broadcasting without a license. However, many new stations -that had not had a frequency before- came on the air without a license too, heavily interfering other, legal, stations, often in Flanders. This was especially the case in large cities were Turkish and Arabic stations came out of nowhere...
As the authority of media lies with the communities, so does the dealing with complaints. At the Flemish side, complaints were dealt with very quickly, at the Walloon side, nothing or little was done with them. As a result the interference problems remain.
Recently the French-speaking community has finally drawn up a new frequency plan and the stations were now asked to apply for the various frequencies and packages of frequencies.
The result of this is not yet known but should be made public soon.
For the current radio situation in Flanders, please visit my site: www.radioinvlaanderen.info
For info on the French-speaking stations, please visit www.tuner.be