DON'T PANIC: No FM Death Date next month, minister confirms

Wow. The UK is getting rid of FM radio? Seriously?

I could get behind the switch over to digital TV, but FM radio? What's the point? Sure it might be better, but think of all the cars out there with suddenly useless radios. It's not like you can get a set-top box for your car.

I think the 50% mark may take decades to reach, if ever

OK, I don't drive so I don't need it in my car right now, but my home radio listening is all done through my tablet (and powered speakers if I'm in the living room) - magically delivered through the magic of a wi-fi broadband connection.

So, no need for DAB at all, and the UK only incompatibility problems are hardly likely to increase uptake. Plus ever increasing uptake of 4G and the ensuing decrease in price and increase in "unlimited usage" data plans that are already happening - as we all basically demand wireless internet everywhere - mean that DAB might be something that never really takes off.

Maybe the Wi-fi standard could even be extended to allow the frequency bands that are currently used for DAB to be used as a kind of nationwide openly accessible broadcast only wi-fi signal?

FM - not so much loved as entrenched.

Tallying the number of radio units in my home; hifi tuners (4 for some reason), radio/CD player portables (3), MP3 players with FM (4 ?), old phones with FM (6?), Freeview telly with many radio stations not available on FM (1). Add to that internet radio.

With 20 or so means of listening to the radio already, even the offer of a £40 Sony DAB radio at a car boot sale for £8 just didn't seem that tempting.

Fact is, I mostly listen to Radio 4 and Radio 5. Any promise of extra stations on DAB is about as exciting as the multitude of, to me, redundant radio channels on Freeview or Freesat .

If DAB is the answer

It must have been a fucking stupid question

You know what.....

...I've never had the desire to buy a radio that has a brushed steel effect kitchen cupboard handle glued on top of it.

Other than how DAB ever got past the basic testing phases all those years ago, I'm still puzzled that this (what 25+ years now?) tech hasn't reached 'given away free with 4 litres of oil' status yet?

I can't see the point in clearing Band II of FM - Apart from allowing it to be polluted by junk OFDM in-house PLT or from a cabinet to home g.fast crap.

The band has no real commercial use in the telecoms market, so why not just leave things alone?

Our Audi has DAB and Internet radio, we use the latter due to far more choice of stations, and better reception of Giff Gaff's 3G than DAB. We can also add the channels on myaudi online portal.

C'mon people. Stop treating this as some sort of conspiracy and see it as the clusterfuck that it is. DAB was a brave effort, but too little too soon, and in a world where standards matter the intentions of the people who brought it to market, noble as they were, should not be criticised. instead, blame the rent seekers who want something for nothing and push an inadequate standard for their own ends (ie. OfCom).

I can remember when Radio 1 was not on FM at all, and Radio 2 shared its spectrum with Radio 4, so the lack of coverage is not the fault of the technology. DAB could work if it was resourced properly, starting with a switchover to DAB+ (which is no more an issue than when DVB-T digital terrestrial went from 2k to 8k base modulation, rendering many early and unsupported STBs obsolete). Almost all sets sold in the last decade are already dual standard or can be upgraded (although there seems to be an issue with the AAC codec and the licensing of said codec).

Might be some wait!

Funny thing about radio is that it is a WORLD-WIDE standard. Unless other part of the world (like here in the USA) start going with DAB it just won't take off. Radio manufacturers won't care that the UK market wants DAB. There are all sorts of people that like the current FM broadcasts. When 4 channel stereo FM broadcast was being offered (I have intimate contact with the people involved, but not that type of intimate!) the lobby of the blind people that thought they would lose their reading channels (SCA subcarriers) brought it to a screaching halt as the attempts to answer all the form letters stalled the rule making.

In lots of markets here in the USA, the engineers are waiting to flip the switch to OFF as soon as possible as it just doesn't measure up to FM in its many uses (both fixed AND mobile). My recent experience was driving around in a friends car and noticing the difference in audio quality as we went into a tunnel and the DAB dropped off. It was quite dramatic.

Almost like digital TV (don't get me started) this looks like a reason to deliver more channels of lesser quality audio to the unsuspecting public.

All politics, not one bit of good engineering!

BBC Local Radio

I listen to BBC Radio Lancashire, but I live outside its coverage area.

I can mostly receive on FM at home and in my car. At home - though not during live football coverage - I can listen over t'internet, getting better results. At no time can I receive the DAB signal; BBC Local radio is not transmitted on Freeview or Freesat.

However, during live football coverage, the internet feed is cut, and FM is the only way I can listen to that station. I understand the licensing reasons for cutting the feed at these times, but that doesn't help me at all. They're also rather tardy at switching it back on afterwards, so you don't get the half-time and post-match discussion either.

If FM was cut, I could only listen to the station when at home, and only while live football is not being covered.

On top of that, with their multiple FM frequencies (covering different parts of the county), they are able to cover more than one match simultaneously - this excellent service would be ended by an FM switch-off.

Oh, and listening on my phone while leaving the football ground - great now on FM, but I'm not holding my breath for DAB support on my phone.

Streaming you say? No, they haven't restarted the stream at that time, and in any case mobile data is choked when you've got many thousands of people all converged in a small area.

Battery life

For the last 10+ years I've been using a small LW/MW radio to listen to cricket during the winter nights. I can get through 5 test matches and a few one-dayers on 4 or 6 AAA batteries, probably about 25+ days' of usage on average. Call me when there's a DAB or internet radio the size of a wallet that can get anywhere that. I suspect that will be... never.

DAB Fail

By most measures DAB is, IMV, no replacement for FM:

Audio quality : FAIL

Coverage : FAIL

Price : FAIL

Battery life : FAIL

User interface : FAIL

It's only saving grace is the number of channels available but invariably that just means more of the same.

*IF* we need to go digital then we should be looking at using DRM+ which is far more useful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Radio_Mondiale

After all:

"[In] 2011, the paneuropean organisation Community Media Forum Europe has recommended to the European Commission that DRM+ should rather be used for small scale broadcasting (local radio, community radio) than DAB/DAB+."

When will they understand that DAB does not work?

In a top floor flat (3 stories) with views over the city I got DAB reception in only one room. That was the kitchen, so my DAB radio alarm clock may as well have been a chocolate teapot.

Imagine what the reception is like in the narrow streets below where Satnav sometimes fails to maintain a lock from the tall buildings.

And remember:

FM with poor reception - slightly fuzzy reception, but can still pick up the news in an emergency.

DAB with poor reception - forget it.

One of the biggest problems I can currently see with DAB is that the frequency used happens to coincide by that generated by LED lighting, ergo: turn on an LED light and all DABs near by lose signal! Great for trolling, of course, but terrible for a technology. Almost as bad as the whole DVB/4G thing...

Can't we just scrap DAB? IP stream digital radio over 3G, 4G etc. Leave FM alone as a backup, for older kit and for areas with poor mobile reception.

OH aye DAB.

Excuse me while I just go out and spend HUNDREDS replacing all my radios. And change the head unit in both the cars, all for something I DONT NEED AND DIDNT ASK FOR.

Get bent.