LONDON, 27 SEPTEMBER 2010. “Digital radio switchover is unlikely to ever happen in the UK” writes radio specialist Grant Goddard in his new book ‘DAB Digital Radio: Licensed To Fail’ published 1 October 2010 by Radio Books in the UK and US.
Goddard uncovers a secret deal struck between the government and the UK commercial radio industry to force DAB radio upon the British public. In return for the radio industry promising to press ahead with DAB, the government bowed to pressure from the largest commercial group to amend the law so that its most profitable national FM radio licence could be renewed without a public auction.
Goddard also exposes a wealth of inaccurate and distorted data published by radio industry lobbyists as part of their campaign to convince the government and consumers that take-up of DAB radio has been a success in the UK and overseas.
However, while the radio industry was assuring the government of its commitment to DAB as ‘the future of radio’, Goddard’s book reveals that the largest commercial radio group was quietly closing its digital radio stations and selling off its investments in DAB radio licences.
Goddard estimates that the UK radio industry’s investment to date in the DAB radio system is almost £1 billion and has contributed significantly to the current lack of profitability in the commercial radio sector. He concludes that UK radio’s misplaced faith in European DAB technology has destroyed the viability of much of the UK’s previously profitable local commercial radio industry.
Written as diary entries between 2008 and 2010, Goddard’s 314-page book uses charts and graphs to chronicle a critical period in DAB radio’s implementation in the UK. The government had launched a number of initiatives intended to solve the problem of slow consumer take-up of DAB radio – the Digital Radio Working Group, the Digital Britain consultation, Digital Radio Upgrade and the Digital Economy Bill. The book documents these efforts and their culmination in the last-minute legislation of the Digital Economy Act during the final days of the outgoing Labour government in 2010.
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Author Grant Goddard is a London-based media analyst specialising in the radio broadcasting sector. For thirty years, he has worked in the radio industry as a senior manager and consultant, in the UK and overseas, and has written extensively about the radio business for consumer and trade magazines.
Radio Books publishes books and reports about the radio broadcasting industry for the consumer and professional markets. Radio Books can be purchased from Amazon (UK and US) and other online book retailers.
TITLE DAB DIGITAL RADIO: LICENSED TO FAIL
AUTHOR GRANT GODDARD
PUBLISHER Radio Books, London
ISBN 978 0 9564963 0 0
FORMAT paperback 297×210 mm, 314 pages
PUBLISHED 1 October 2010
SUBJECTS media, broadcasting, radio, technology, DAB, digital radio
PREVIEW book excerpts available
CONTACT http://kontactr.com/user/radiobooks
WEB SITE http://www.radiobooks.org
