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If it's not broke. Don't fix it? FM yes DAB No!

From a purely British POV I simply can't see the point in investing the amounts the BBC is investing in DAB coverage only to indefinitely duplicate four of the same channels on FM (and a fifth on AM). It might not be this decade, but I do think we should switch off the UKs national FM networks eventually.

That's not to say the FM band should fall silent, far from it. FM is perfect for local, small scale and community broadcasting and switching off the national FM networks would give much more space for this. A really radical future might include open access to at least part of the FM band, with the only regulation being power output and basic taste and decency rules. I'm not sure British regulators would go that far, but there are plenty better uses for FM than bandwidth heavy national networks rebroadcasting what is already on DAB.
 
You gotta be kidding! DAB is too little, too late! Here in the USA, we're dealing with HD Radio, which has been a cropper itself.
 
Eventually radio will be mostly online and the DAB vs. FM thing will be moot. FM will probably be around for another 25 years or more in one form or another -- maybe even in the Nordic countries where it's being phased out.

Local radio services may use it, as has been proposed in Norway, where DAB seems to have taken off. The FM receivers will still be around and working, just as AM receivers are still around here in the U.S. -- millions of AM receivers even though AM is ancient technology.
 
boombox4 said:
Eventually radio will be mostly online and the DAB vs. FM thing will be moot.
Click to expand...

Maybe. But I wonder whether we will ever have reliable enough unlimited internet connections on the go. Good enough to give rock solid reception at 70 mph rolling down the motorway?

I think the very long term future for TV is probably online, because TV sets tend to be fairly static things, and used mostly inside homes. I'm not 100% that the portable nature of radio is well suited to an online only future.

But lets see what the 20s and 30s bring......
 
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