Perth was Australia’s first market to officially switch on DAB+ transmissions this week. radioinfo checks in with DMG General Manager Gary Roberts to see how it is going in the first week on air.
radioinfo: Did the switch on go successfully?
Roberts: Yes, no problems. Both Nova 93.7 and Novanation are on air in DRB+.
radioinfo: These early weeks are especially for testing interference. Any technical problems reported yet from listeners or other media (particularly tv)?
Roberts: Nothing yet! And we are hoping it stays that way!
radioinfo: How many digital radios in your station?
Roberts: Six.
radioinfo: How many digital radios do you reckon are on sale in Perth overall at the moment?
Roberts: I don’t have numbers but the major retailers like Harvey Norman and Retravision are already advertising their availability. Here’s a picture from Retravision’s catalog (above right).
radioinfo: Have you seen any in local shops?
Roberts: Not personally, but I know they are there.
radioinfo: Apart from running the digital radio ads, is your station doing anything special to let listeners know about digital radio and that Perth is officially the first city to switch it on?
Roberts: There was a major story in The West this week which is probably a little premature seeing that we are still in the testing stage. However, we have rebadged our Saturday night show as Novanation and we are running sweepers on air for Novanation.com.au.
radioinfo: What are your thoughts about the future of digital radio?
Roberts: CRA and the industry are very confident that DAB+ has a bright future.
radioinfo: How long will it take for Perth listeners to all have a digital radio? 5 years, 10, 50? What do you think?
Roberts: We expect the transition to be gradual and it is unrealistic to think that people will replace all their radios with digital in the short term. Certainly dmg is making access to the digital stations easy having them both on-line and providing free Apps for both Koffee and Novanation for those people with iPhones.
radioinfo: Any other observations so far?
Roberts: We are receiving lots of good word of mouth about both Koffee and Novanation.