Confirming its belief in the future of digital radio, 2GB has set up a listening panel of people, including some in the media, marketing and advertising industry, who have been supplied digital receivers.

This means that the station has contact with about a third of the near 300 people in Sydney listening on digital radios.

The panel has been set up by 2GB assistant PD Trevor Long who is one of the industry’s strongest advocates for digital transmission. He told RadioInfo: “We have split our signal into four components. 2GB on the main channel, 2GB PLUS featuring new and re-packaged programming, DATA scrolling text showing news, who’s on and station branding and ERROR PROTECTION which is a small amount of bandwidth used to increase reception in some areas.”

The station is currently looking for an Executive Producer to work with the 2GB Programming Department on new concepts along with a couple of production people who will produce audio for playout on the digital channel as well as podcasting.

Long says they have several new and exciting projects which these full-time staff will be required to get underway. “A number of these program concepts will be revealed in the coming weeks. Needless to say they are niche programmes which have a clear target audience, a demonstration of how Digital Radio and podcasting can be customised to suit a specific part of the audience.”

He says he really believes that people who don’t embrace the possibilities of digital radio now run the risk of being left behind.