DAB Is Dead, Long Live FM

Things are not looking good for DAB Digital Radio in the UK. After a strong start powered by innovative programming and promotion by the BBC, sales today are at an all-time low and set to get worse.

Let’s face it; DAB has been handled very badly. When we bought our set, not cheap, we were promised ‘near-CD quality sound’. We learned that more stations meant reduced sound quality for existing stations. The sales pitch changed to reflect this, promising us ‘more choice’ and something called ‘digital quality sound’, a clever tag-line created when Advertising Standards ruled they could not get away with the ‘near-CD quality’ line any more.

And we did have more choice; from a talking-books station through to Classic Rock and the best comedy and drama on DAB saviour BBC7. The launch of theJazz was the icing on the cake, the most successful start-up to date.

Then the industry turned on DAB. Station after station closed; theJazz moved presenters and programming over to Classic FM and actively marketed the change playing on the failings of DAB, saying it was ‘widely available on FM’, focusing on the patchy reception of DAB.

Little Chance Of Recovery

New stations from Channel 4 Radio have been scrapped and our local licence for DAB in Derbyshire which should be on-air now is asking permission to delay until next year.

Our commercial provider leaves dead air where the failed stations used to be, announcing these as tests for new national networks as the industry tries to back out of supplying them.

What Are We Left With?

A few stations we can hear with better sound and coverage on dear old FM and an industry so desperate to keep us on DAB, it is reduced to transmitting birdsong...

We just keep a DAB radio for BBC7 and grit our teeth to listen to Rick Wakeman on Planet Rock with its 'near-cassette' audio quality. Takes us back to the days of Radio Luxembourg just as everyone was abandoning AM.