Radio service in Argyll and the Highlands after the digital switchover

As we reported earlier, part of the UK Government’s plan to rescue the ailing DAB (digital) radio service from low consumer take up, is to set a date for switching off the familiar analogue radio transmission, The thinking is that this will leave people with no alternative but to buy DAB radio sets. The plan is unthought in many ways

• It ignores the fact that an already high and fast increasing percentage of people now tune into radio via the Internet – and that a wifi Internet radio set is infinitely more capable than a DAB set. Wifi Internet radio sets look like small conventional radios and can be carried around the house and into the garden. A computer, of course, will act as your radio in this case so a single piece of equipment can provide a wide spectrum of services.
• It has not considered, as our earlier report highlighted, that vast areas of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland will never have a DAB service anyway. Ofcom’s DAB transmission licenses are hugely expensive and our local populations are too small to return on media companies’ investment. Switching off the analogue signal would leave all of the Highlands and Islands except Aberdeen with no radio service at all.

For Argyll brought this matter to the attention of Alan Reid, Argyll’s Westminster MP, asking him to pursue it with the responsible department of Culture, Media and Sport. Mr Reid has now had an answer from the Minister, Andy Burnham. When you remove the waffle intended to disguise the Government’s alarm at the failure of DAB and the actions it is taking to shore it up (to what purpose?) the letter does offer some hope.

Following our raising of the issue, Mr Burnham says that the Government’s new Digital Radio Working Group (DRWG) ‘has suggested in areas where ‘the roll-out of DAB’ may not be appropriate or where the cost of doing so is prohibitive, then the BBC should continue to provide its services on FM’.

This is reassuring to many people who rely on radio for information and company through the night, often the elderly and those with impaired sight.

See our earlier report: Highlands and Islands may lose radio service for good as Westminster plans to switch off the signal