Another smaller player in UK radio has spoken out against any rush to make Digital Audio Broadcasting - or DAB - the standard radio platform in the UK.
As previously reported, some in radio say broadcasting the same services on both FM and DAB isn't cost efficient, and the sooner FM is turned off forcing listeners onto DAB the better. The government backs a speedy switch off of FM because then it can flog off that airspace. But others in radio say that UK radio listeners are not ready for a total switch from FM to DAB, and forcing that switch in 2015 - as the government is proposing - will favour the bigger radio firms over the smaller operators.
Certainly, big boys Global Radio and Bauer Radio seem more supportive of a rapid switch to DAB than the smaller players. Meanwhile both UTV and TLRC-UKRD have hit out at the 2015 deadline for FM turn off, both quitting RadioCentre over the issue, accusing the commercial radio trade body of been to tuned into the interests of Global when it comes to DAB.
Now Adam Findlay, the boss of New Wave Media, which owns Wave 102 in Dundee, has supported UTV and UKRD's viewpoint. On Radio Today he is quoted as saying: "From the outset more than a decade ago the handling of DAB has been one of infliction against the radio industry. Radio operators were 'incentivised' to apply for the DAB multiplexes since the late 90's, since which millions of pounds has had to be written off and an untold number of radio jobs lost as operators try to absorb the huge losses incurred over the past decade".
He continues: "[Therefore] one understands [the bigger radio firms] wish now to recoup some of that 'investment' [by rushing the switch to DAB, but by switching off FM] smaller stations throughout the UK will be put at a terrible disadvantage, particularly those in rural and island locations. Some could even disappear from the airwaves due to monopoly ownership of DAB transmitters resulting in uneconomic pricing or simply the lack of DAB in a given area".
You can read Findlay's full piece at www.radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.5587.
As previously reported, it has been mooted that those in the industry who support a rapid move to DAB are considering a radio scrapping programme where consumers get a discount on their digital radio sets if they hand over an old FM set when they buy it, a bid to take FM radios out of service. The body overseeing the move to digital - Digital Radio UK - has admitted it is a proposal they are considering.
Needless to say, the boss of the aforementioned UKRD, William Rogers, isn't impressed with that proposal. He told Radio Today: "This is yet another typical example of those who support this ridiculous piece of legislation [the 2015 target] trying to find assorted pieces of sticking plaster to cover over the cracks of a flawed piece of policy. Half baked proposals like this are clearly designed to respond to the ever increasing reality that the present strategic policy and direction is being exposed as a tarnished and inappropriate route to take".
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