Government group proposes radio digital switchover
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008Analogue radio shutdown begins
Plans have been put forward for a digital radio switchover in a report by the government led Digital Working Group.
The report said that no date for the switch had yet been fixed, but experts estimate that it could be completed by 2020. Listeners would be given at least two years’ notice of the transfer from analogue to digital radio.
In the report, the Digital Working Group said that all national and regional stations should switch to DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) in the medium term, while small local and community stations continue to air on FM. Before a switchover could take place, coverage would have to be improved across the country and the signal strengthened. Car manufacturers would also have to be persuaded to fit DAB as standard.
Whilst every home in Britain will have switched over to digital TV by 2012, the future of digital radio is less certain, with a number of smaller digital stations having shut down already because of lack of support. Fru Hazlitt, chief executive of GCap Media, the largest group of commercial radio stations in the UK has declared that investing in DAB was “not economically viable” for the group: “In the short term, without massive investment and improbable changes in government policy, it is not a platform in which we can grow.”
In May this year, GCap dropped Planet Rock and TheJazz, two of it’s niche DAB stations. Planet Rock was recently saved by the intervention of Queen guitar legend Brian May, whilst TheJazz, unable to muster support, faded into digital obscurity. The infamous Birdsong radio station - which plays an uninterrupted stream of bird noises - has also recently warbled its way back on to DAB.
