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Wherever you’re driving to this summer, you need the perfect in-car soundtrack. So take all your favourite digital radio stations with you on the road, and don’t miss a thing this summer by upgrading to digital radio in your car. If your car has a pre-fitted DAB/DAB+ digital radio then you’re all set! If it doesn’t then it’s easy to upgrade to digital by fitting a replacement DAB digital radio or adapter or connecting your smartphone to your car stereo

From 1 July 2021 Yellow Radio, the deep electro-pop dance radio, will be available in DAB+ on the French Riviera and the Italian Riviera. Yellow Radio, a 100% digital radio station, is a creation of Studio 21, based in Arras.

Premium Radio will be launched in DAB+ on the French Riviera and the Italian Riviera on July 1st. Raphaël Warny is leading this new project. For 15 years, this young Belgian has developed many radio projects in Belgium and Luxembourg before now tackling Monaco and the French Riviera.

In an opening keynote, VW Group’s Head of Entertainment & Car Functions Martin Koch, affirmed that radio in the car is important not just for listeners and broadcasters, but also to car manufacturers, with their customers’ demand for broadcast radio in the car is as high as ever, and radio still taking the major share of ear in the car.

The Australian commercial radio industry has joined a global working group of broadcasters, carmakers and tech experts collaborating on the innovation of radio in Android Automotive, Google’s infotainment operating system being built into new connected cars. Speaking at the WorldDAB Automotive 2021 virtual conference Ms Warner said it was important that broadcast technology remains the foundation of delivering radio in the connected car because of its reliability, with internet providing enhanced features such as richer content, images such as album artwork and interactivity.

The EBU Connected Cars and Devices group is looking at the car industry and is in close touch with many car producers in Europe, studying the best ways for standardizing the radio entertainment system option for the European market. Work is also being done in the area of voice-activated devices. Radio is not under threat but we need to be innovate how radio is distributed in the connected dashboard to ensure it remains an attractive service and that it utilizes all the possibilities that connection offers.

A record-breaking 500+ delegates from over 70 countries registered to attend this live event, unique in bringing together the broadcast and automotive sectors to collaborate on securing the future of digital radio in the car. Radio industry leaders Joan Warner from CRA Australia, Antonio Arcidiacono from EBU and Caroline Beasley from the US were unanimous in their message: broadcasters need to work together through their industry bodies to optimise the in-car radio experience to ensure that radio remains prominent and easily discoverable in the car.

In the second half of 2020, more than 80% of new cars in the main European markets were equipped with a DAB+ receiver as standard.

Best DAB radios Buying Guide: Welcome to What Hi-Fi?'s round-up of the best DAB radios you can buy in 2021.

Paneda and its exclusive partner Agile Broadcast have completed the supply and commissioning of Paneda DAB+ headend software and hardware to Telstra Broadcast Services (TBS), facilitating a highly reliable and redundant DAB+ Broadcast System.