The 2015 FM Switchover Discussed
In Show 54, we discussed the plans to switch all FM and AM services over to digital by 2015. Here's our transcript
Listen to FrequencyCast Show 54 - The FM Switchover |
The end of FM as we know it?
Plans to switch the UK to digital radio continue apace. Here's a transcript of our thoughts so far...
Carl:
... Follows on from review of View Quest wi-fi radio
Well, I'm really glad we've had a look at one of those, because we're all going to have to have one of those soon, aren't we? - because FM's going off, isn't it? Going oorf!
Pete:
We've had a lot of emails and texts on this one, following a speech by Mr Vaizey last month.
Carl:
Ah, Mr Vaizey - he sounds like a Mr Man, doesn't he? Who is he?
Pete:
Ed Vaizey, he is the minister in charge of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and he did a speech primarily aimed at the radio industry, talking about the proposed FM switch off.
Carl:
When does that happen?
Pete:
Well, they're still targeting 2015 as the date to do a switchover to digital.
Carl:
That's not far away really, is it? I haven't got a digital radio - what am I going to do?
Pete:
Well, what Mr Vaizey has said is, we won't be switching over to digital fully until the vast majority of listeners have voluntarily adopted digital radio.
Carl:
Oh right - that's going to take us ages, isn't it? - all those little old people. How many people have done that so far?
Pete:
According to Mr Vaizey, 24% of all radio listening at the moment is digital. So I see from this, we've got to get to 50% before we do the switch.
Carl:
50%? - that's not far off really then, is it?
Pete:
Well, we're half way there.
Carl:
Ooh dear.
Pete:
He also says, the switch won't happen until the coverage of digital is the same as the coverage of FM.
Carl:
Oh, so we're a long way off then.
Pete:
We're getting close there as well, more digital transmitters are coming on.
Carl:
But all I hear is comments about the quality.
Pete:
A fair point - yes, at the moment a lot of the stations are very heavily compressed, and the quality isn't as hot as FM's quality.
Carl:
So is that assured that the quality will improve, once we've got rid of FM, then?
Pete:
No guarantees.
Carl:
I'm not really sold yet.
Pete:
It is this idea that the stations that we currently listen to on FM will be going digital, and you won't be able to get them on FM any more.
Carl:
So if FM goes, there's going to be a lot of people without radio any more? People are going to be banging the top of their radios with their saucepans, aren't they? "Come on ... talk to me, damn it!!"
Pete:
Well, if you think about it, there's 60 million of us in the UK, and we've all got more than one radio. There's only been 11 million of these digital radios sold, so there's a lot of people that are going to have to spend a fair amount of money to get their radios replaced, which is not ideal. The tricky one, of course, is in car, where you've got a car radio that people listen to their FM radio on. If FM does get switched over to digital, FM won't actually go, they're not going to completely switch off FM. What they're going to have is local community radio stations on there. The big downside to that is, if you're in your car, and you drive from town A to town B, you're going to be listening to a local station, it will fade away as you get to town B, their local station could come in. So you're not going to be able to drive from a big town to another town, and keep listening to the same radio station.
Carl:
Well, that shouldn't be a problem, as long as they're all owned by the same company. They'll be outputting the same stuff anyway.
Pete:
You're all heart, you are. Anyway ...
Carl:
That was a pun, wasn't it?
Pete:
So the in car bit is critical, and Mr Vaizey tried to address that by saying he's going to be talking personally to the major car manufacturers, with the aim of getting a digital radio in all new cars by 2013.
Carl:
Right - so what about all the older cars?
Pete:
Well, he's got an answer for that. What we've got is these things like the Pure Highway that we reviewed last year. These are little devices that are DAB radios. They stick pretty much like a satnav to your windscreen, and pull in a DAB radio signal, and then retransmit it onto your FM car radio.
The Highway, from Pure, for In-car DAB
Carl:
He's covered everything, hasn't he? But it's all at a cost, isn't it?
Pete:
Yeah, these little adaptors are £80 a pop at the moment.
Carl:
Ouch! - for something you already own, the radio?
Pete:
Yes, there you go. Or of course, you can buy a brand-new DAB car radio for about £250 and then pay £100 to get it installed.
Carl:
Oh, that's all right - that's a lot cheaper.
Pete:
He came up with one other idea as well - he's planning to talk to phone manufacturers, and get them to put DAB radios into phones by 2013.
Carl:
Is he going to ask very nicely?
Pete:
I can just imagine him knocking on Steve Jobs' door, and saying, "Could you put a DAB radio in the iPhone 5 please?"
Carl:
I don't think they'll be doing that - they're having enough trouble picking up reception of other phone calls.
Pete:
Yeah, we'll come onto that in a minute actually. It's an interesting time for this FM switchover. 2015, it's getting closer - a lot of people are very unchuffed about this.
Carl:
I don't know about you, but I think this all sounds a bit pathetic. Are there any campaigns or petitions up at the moment?
Pete:
Yeah, go to our show notes, we've put a couple of links up to a Save FM campaign, and also to a petition that's got a rather large growing number of signatures. So yeah, do have your say, and save FM.
More: Go to radioswitch.co.uk
Carl:
That's one of the good things about the internet - I like that bit. Actually, that's surprising - is there any campaign on the internet about this iPhone 4 thing? - because haven't they come down now? Haven't they agreed that they've mucked up, there's a little bit of bish in their product?
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Listen to FrequencyCast Show 54 - The FM Switchover |
More information:
- RadioSwitch - Information and campaigns to save FM
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