Digital Radio

Since 2003, the Australian broadcasting industry has actively participated in three Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) Radio Trials – a trial conducted by Broadcast Australia in Melbourne, a Sydney trial managed by Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) and a Broadcast Australia/SBS Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) trial in Canberra.

Since the introduction of compact discs in the 1980s, listeners’ expectation of sound quality has increased substantially. Digital Radio offers listeners an exceptionally high quality of sound, eliminating the hiss, crackle and interference experienced with a poor analogue reception. It enables the broadcaster to provide multi-channel services (which cannot currently be provided because the allotted analogue spectrum is virtually at capacity) and provides added features not available on analogue services.

Digital Radio will enable the listener to select specific shows from an electronic program guide (EPG) even if they are not being broadcast at that immediate point in time. The shows can be recorded and, in real time, rewound to listen to specific songs or paused without missing any of the program.

Other novel features introduced by Digital Radio include: a simplicity of station tuning where the radio tunes to the station and not the frequency so there is no need to retune whilst travelling; station selection by means of a simple menu selection facility; the ability to show scrolling text information and even picture information (e.g. logo, CD label, maps) on an LCD display. Text could provide news headlines, sports results, track or artist listings and special offers.

In October 2005 the Australian Government announced its policy framework for the introduction of digital radio. Under the terms of the policy, digital radio services will begin in 2009 in each of the state capital markets.