All EEP 3A
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HD radio is very poor for AM stations - some have switched off HD or are now as a subchannel on an FM broadcaster whereas they are on equal footing with FM on DAB+.
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I’m glad we don’t have it, let AM be AM. I think they should have never introduced DAB at all. Evidently it is never going to replace analogue radio. So we’re left with just an extra expense for something very few people use, that offers a poor service
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Yes, it is. And sounds weird on music. There are very few AM stations running HD on AM in the US.
But we should have gone with HD on FM in Australia. Sure, you can’t have as many sub services per FM station. But all we’ve ended up with here are a bunch of low quality jukeboxes on the DAB+ multiplexes.
If we had adopted HD radio, it would be a lesser cost to each FM station and they would be in direct control of their output.
More importantly, it would have allowed easy adoption in regional areas, with FM stations simply upgrading their transmission equipment. In some cases the transmitters are already HD capable.
Instead it’s likely that most of regional Australia will never get digital radio, with the cost of building out DAB+ being off the charts in these times of difficult financial circumstances.
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No Broadcast Tech in the US enjoys HD Radio, and I think many station owners despise the license fees, hardware costs, etc. 
DRM on-band may be a better option for Australia, at least in regional areas - I don’t know. IBOC as an idea is good because it lets broadcasters choose their own adventure, but the actual implementations can be very challenging and leave everyone a bit underwhelmed.
Given our investment in DAB+ already, what I think we really need is a more flexible licensing regime for DAB+ in regional areas - like the UK has been doing with their small-scale DAB trials. There would probably be a few companies keen to invest in shared multiplexes and lease the capacity out to incumbent and start-up broadcasters. When only incumbents have access by law, there’s not much of an incentive to get DAB+ off the ground.
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I hate to say it, but unless industry and government pulls their collective fingers out and does something drastic to expedite the roll out of digital radio, it’s going to go the way of the dodo.
Places like the Upper Hunter, where the lack of choice, especially in public funded services, would have benefitted from digital radio. Sadly, I don’t think it ever will because of chronic inaction.
When they chose the standard, I wonder if regional and rural areas were ever thought about in the selection process.
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Maybe as an afterthought, but definitely not as the initial consideration.
You’re absolutely right though that uptake would have been far better in the regions if it had been rolled out there, especially early on. Imagine telling people with only two commercial stations available locally that they could get all this additional variety if they got a new radio - it would have been an instant hit.
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Yes agree. It would have been a hit in the regions for sure, providing desperately needed variety of stations that continues to this day. I feel like it’s all too late now, people have moved or are moving to streaming.
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100% this is what’s needed. we also need to have government funded satellite radio with the ABC and SBS, plus regional players like CAAMA radio for the outback. this could be subsided install based on your radio reception. if others want in like Vision, charge them a station fee for this. similar to Sirius in the USA but free and targeted at the bush
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They screwed up the implentation. I’ve used digital radio as an example in classes of how not to roll something out.
Exactly. Australians have shown we can pick up new tech very quickly, when given the right impetus.
I get it, the distances would have been an issue. But surely this should have been thought of at the very beginning.
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Me watching the downfall of DAB+
It’s not just a bad rollout, that it doesn’t suit the size of the country and that it’s been superseded by 5G (not to mention that DAB superseded itself with DAB+ within less than a decade, while AM/FM is closing in on being 100 years old and radios from 40 years ago still work fine) it’s also that it doesn’t sound any good, it doesn’t work properly in terms of reception, nobody wants to scroll through a huge list of stations and most of those stations are unappealing to most people. In the words of Tom Gleeson… “Out!”
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If DAB+ allowed AM services to be turned off it would have had a much better take up, but the fact that AM is still running even in the capital cities says a lot. Streaming + 5G has eaten DAB+’s lunch now.
DRM may get traction to supersede AM but the consumer electronics side of the technology is far from economical at present.
LiSTNR and iHeart is where the programming $$$ are now going
A telling moment recently was when 3SYN’s FM signal went down for the weekend and whoever was running their social media told people they could still listen on “the website, or DAB+ digital radio apps.” The wording clearly implied they thought “digital radio” meant smartphones. A station aimed at and run by young people. And even the people who work there did not even understand what DAB+ even is. If that’s not the nail in the coffin I don’t know what is.
If I had a dollar every time someone confused RDS for DAB.
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Or “I’ve got a Digital Radio - see, it shows 104.5 on the digital display” 
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Difference between MediaSpy user V non-Media Spy user
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Exactly. It really is a very sad indictment on how badly DAB was communicated (or not) by the industry that so many people still have no idea what it actually is, so many years later.
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It should have been promoted a bit more like Digital TV was, clearer reception and more stations. They did promote “better sound quality”, which is a bit of a joke considering all of the 32kbps stations on offer nowadays.
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Agree. But with the “better sound quality” they could have leaned in to its advantages over AM at least.
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Digital TV makes a lot more sense though. It is genuinely an improvement. SBS World Movies ch32 these days is widescreen and in 1080p. I fully accept that is a step up from 4:3 analogue TV. But if anything the opposite is the case with digital radio. It sounds worse. I think “more stations” also hits better in a TV context, like cable. Also I guess with a TV it tends to be mounted to one particular spot whether you either have reception or you don’t, while radio involves walking or moving around and thus more dropouts
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