It’s interesting to note than the UK, the “digital use of radio” doesn’t mean the UK equivalent of HD radio per se (although their version of that is clicking right along – in a marketplace with much less existing choice than we have in the US). “Digital Radio” means the use of radio via any digital means: Internet, Cell Phone, Podcasting, etc.
Indeed, it is THIS that is taking off there, according to this article:
Rajar said almost 8 per cent of people aged 15 and above listen to the radio on their mobile phones, a 24 per cent increase over the same period of 2005. A quarter of 15- to 24-year-olds said they tuned in this way. Listening over the internet rose by 10 per cent and by 9 per cent on digital television. Podcasts are also more popular. More than two million people, the equivalent of 17 per cent of all owners of MP3 players, listen to the audio downloads – a rise of 15 per cent on the previous three months. The figures are likely to rise as more content is made available as a podcast. Jenny Abramsky, the BBC’s director of audio and music, said: “It proves radio still plays an incredibly important part in people’s lives and, despite the range of new media available, listeners continue to value the close relationship they have with radio.”
As I have long argued, digital radio exists aplenty. The key is for your station to be where the audience wants you – not to create new, scarce, and unfamiliar pathways that you would prefer them to traverse.
Radio is not about us. It’s about them.