Opinion from Ben Downing.
When I sit at home and scan through the DAB stations available, I can’t help but feel disappointed. On paper, digital radio was meant to be a step forward — more choice, better sound, and the freedom to experiment beyond the limitations of FM. In reality, what greets the listener is often the opposite. Endless decade-based stations that blur into one another. Services running at 16kbps that sound like the music is being piped through mud. Multiplexes crammed full of stations, not because there is a genuine desire to broaden choice, but because it minimises licensing and streaming costs. As a listener, the question becomes unavoidable: where is the innovation?
DAB+ should be the perfect home for experimentation. It removes the brutal ratings pressure of FM, where mass appeal is everything and risk is punished immediately. Digital radio is supposed to allow broadcasters to target smaller, passionate audiences — audiences that may never be big enough to justify an FM frequency, but are still large enough to be commercially viable. Instead, much of what we hear feels like safe duplication: slightly tweaked playlists, recycled brands, and formats that already exist elsewhere, just with fewer presenters and lower audio quality.
What’s missing most is genuine niche programming. There are so many genres and communities that are either poorly served or not served at all on Australian radio, yet would make perfect sense on DAB+. LGBT-focused radio is an obvious example. This isn’t about politics or activism; it’s about culture, music, community voices, and storytelling that resonates with a specific audience. Likewise, a musicals or theatre-focused station — whether that’s Broadway, West End, film scores, or contemporary stage productions — would never top FM ratings charts, but it would attract a loyal and engaged listenership. You could even joke that the two formats could be combined, but the point remains: these are audiences that exist, are underserved, and are actively looking for content that speaks directly to them.
The frustration is heightened when you look overseas and see what’s possible. I recently had the fortune of travelling to London, and the contrast could not be more stark. The variety available on DAB there is phenomenal. Comparing London’s digital radio landscape to Australia’s feels like that iconic scene in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy opens the door and the world suddenly shifts from black and white to colour. There are stations dedicated to niche music genres, youth subcultures, community interests, alternative viewpoints, and experimental formats that would never survive on FM. Some are rough around the edges, some sound incredible, but all of them feel purposeful.
Importantly, not every London DAB station sounds perfect, nor should they have to. The difference is intent. The stations exist because someone believed there was an audience worth serving, not because it was an easy way to spin up another decade playlist. That sense of diversity creates discovery. You scan through stations and stumble across something unexpected — a genre you didn’t know you liked, a presenter with a unique voice, or a format that doesn’t exist anywhere else. That sense of exploration is almost entirely missing from the Australian DAB experience.
Part of the problem is structural. DAB multiplexes in Australia are often treated as cost centres rather than creative platforms. Audio bitrates are squeezed to the bare minimum, stations are packed in tightly, and innovation becomes secondary to efficiency. While this may make sense on a spreadsheet, it erodes listener trust. If digital radio doesn’t sound good and doesn’t offer anything new, why should audiences bother with it at all?
There is also a mindset issue. Too many broadcasters still treat DAB as an afterthought — a place to park extra services rather than a space to test new ideas. This is a missed opportunity. Digital platforms thrive on loyalty, not mass appeal. A niche station with a smaller but dedicated audience can still attract advertisers, sponsors, and partnerships, particularly when that audience is clearly defined and engaged.
Ultimately, DAB+ should be where radio takes risks.
It should be where formats are born, where voices are trialled, and where communities find representation.
Instead, it often feels like a digital extension of FM’s conservatism, stripped of personality and ambition. Until broadcasters start viewing DAB as a creative opportunity rather than a compliance exercise, listeners will continue to scroll, shrug, and ask the same question: with all this technology at our fingertips, why does so much of it sound so uninspired?
If digital radio is to have a meaningful future in Australia, it needs colour, courage, and curiosity — not just more of the same, compressed and repackaged
About the author:
Ben Downing is a Legal Technology Specialist. He doesn’t work in radio, but is a keen observer of digital entertainment technology.