Commercial Radio Australia and Grant Broadcasters began a trial of DAB+ digital radio transmissions in Darwin this week. Hot 100 and Mix 104.9 and a digital only service called Top Country NT will begin broadcasting in DAB+ immediately, and an additional new digital only station will follow soon.
The signal will be at relatively low power for the trial and in the first couple of weeks there may be minor interruptions as the start up procedures are fined tuned but it is still expected to cover a large part of Darwin and will be broadcast from Broadcast Australia’s Deloraine Road transmission tower.
Grant Broadcasters has interests in 33 commercial stations covering every Australian state and territory. Director of Grant Broadcasters Grant Cameron says:
“We are supporting the digital radio trial to ensure the people of Darwin get to experience the benefits of digital radio first hand. We are excited to be able to offer additional multi-channeling and data to our listeners as part of the trial.
“We also want to demonstrate to Canberra that people and broadcasters in regional Australia are just as interested in digital radio as those in the five capital cities that have already been given the right to have permanent digital radio services.”
Commercial Radio Australia chief executive officer Joan Warner says the trial in Darwin shows how enthusiastic regional commercial broadcasters are to provide digital radio services to their clients and listeners.
“The family owned and operated Grant Broadcasters has been a leader in local regional radio for more than 60 years and is representative of the enthusiasm for, and interest in, DAB+ digital radio in regional areas.”
Broadcast Australia is working with the broadcasters on the transmission technology. The company is “committed to working with the radio industry to support digital radio trials in regional centres,” according to Broadcast Australia Business Manager Salvatore Mattera. “We actively support CRA, the commercial and national broadcasters in their rollout of the new technology.”
Harvey Norman and Dick Smith will be supporting the digital radio trial in Darwin by stocking DAB+ radios to allow Darwin listeners to sample the new trial services but consumers will need to remember that until the Government commits to making provision for DAB+ digital outside of the five major cities, these services will remain trial services.
A Commercial Radio Australia press release announcing the trial does not mention participation by either ABC or SBS.
All sectors of the radio industry have made detailed submissions to the Federal Government’s Digital Dividend Green Paper requesting the allocation of vacated VHF Band III spectrum for digital radio as analog TV switches off and that this allocation take precedence over the reallocation or sale of this spectrum for other new services.
The industry recently released updated figures indicating there are already 523,000 people listening to digital radio across the five metropolitan markets and almost 150,000 digital radios sold.