News

The radio industry is to launch a new wave of ads to support digital radio starring a Barry White-style soul figure called D Love who will encourage listeners to "spread the love" for digital radio.

Although 15 per cent of British drivers already have digital radios in their car, 41 per cent say DAB radios are the next big thing for in-car technology.

At the Drive 2 Digital conference held by Digital Radio UK at BBC’s New Broadcasting House today, Broadcast Minister Ed Vaizey announced that the countdown to radio switchover now had inevitable momentum and that Government would announce a decision on radio switchover in 2013.

Factum Electronics, world-leading supplier of equipment for digital multimedia broadcasting, has once again been developing state-of-the-art technology to the broadcasting market. The latest addition to the product family is the new ALL-IN-ONE-ONE test system, in which the system contains of multiplexer, data server, management system and a 4-channel DAB/DAB+ encoder in the very same single 1U hardware.

The Minister said that digital listening had increased to nearly a third of all listening and that a quarter of new cars were now fitted with digital radio as standard. He said that this great progress demonstrated that listeners love digital radio and that the car industry was fully engaged with the transition to digital.

Speaking at Digital Radio UK’s Drive 2 Digital conference he said: “Digital radio continues to go from strength to strength and the decision on whether we are to switch to an all-digital future will be made next year. We are already looking at the logistics of how and when a full switchover would be possible.”

The range-topping EX also gets front and rear parking sensors, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror and DAB digital radio.

Radio in Norway will step into digital transition as national channels, public and private, leave analogue FM for digital DAB in 2017.

A spokesperson told us: “We are always evolving and developing our radio brands and as part of our ongoing strategy, Gold has replaced LBC on DAB in Yorkshire.

In A6 and A6 Avant models, the S line equipment list is further expanded by a BOSE surround sound system, DAB digital radio and the Audi Music Interface (AMI) for iPod connection.