So much radio, so little to listen to

Can digital radio save Irish listeners from the monotony of their FM dials? Jim Carroll tunes in to what's on offer elsewhere and asks how long the format will take to get up and running here.

The next time you turn on your radio, flick from one end of the dial to the other and count the empty spaces. It may be hard to believe, but the FM band is running out of space for new stations. Yet timid, unadventurous licensing decisions and bland programming by both commercial and public-service broadcasters mean that what stations there are churn out monotonous, largely homogeneous content, with little or no choice bar that between talk and music. There really is nothing new on the radio.

Like thousands of others you may have decided that your only option is to switch off - which is why digital radio cannot come too soon. Broadcasting's brave new world will provide room for the choice and content that analogue radio has largely abandoned in pursuit of the lowest common denominator. It can also offer the sound quality that conventional radio has long lost to hiss and crackle, bringing with it additional information-based services.

Although many digital radio stations are already accessible via the Internet and digital-television platforms, such as Sky, digital audio broadcasting (DAB) in its purest sense uses terrestrial transmitters. By bundling stations together and using the medium's compression facilities, digital multiplexes transmit up to 10 stations per frequency with no loss in sound quality.

Currently available or being tested in 35 countries, digital radio is growing astonishingly fast: in Britain alone more than a million sets are expected to be in use by the end of the year. The radios can receive stations covering every musical style, from the heavy-metal diet of Kerrang! to PrimeTime Radio's promise of non-stop melodic tunes "from Frank to Hank and Bing to Sting", not to mention the über-street mix of drum and bass, hip hop and underground garage from the BBC's 1Xtra.

According to the most recent listenership figures, 864,000 people are already tuning in to Kerrang! every week, PrimeTime can claim 120,000 after a few months in business and 248,000 are getting down with 1Xtra.

Across the Atlantic, the American for digital radio is satellite radio. Between them the two main operators, XM and Sirius, already have 1.3 million subscribers tuning in to 200 channels to hear everything from Latin, Christian country and Broadway musicals to hip hop, jazz, singer-songwriters and talk.

Here in Ireland, however, we are still waiting for the revolution to start. Snazzy digital radios are on sale in some high-street stores, but they will be of little use until there are Irish stations to tune in to.

In March RTÉ said: "It is now timely to begin planning for digital radio." It did not mention a time frame but said it is researching content and working out how much a test service would cost.

With luck this will not turn out to be yet another false dawn for Irish digital radio. A digital-radio forum was mooted back in 1999, to develop the format's implementation, but little more has been heard of the body. When RTÉ earned €165 million by selling Cablelink, in 2001, its then director-general, Bob Collins, said some of the money would be invested in digital radio and television.

The 2001 Broadcasting Act provided for licensing digital multiplexes, but, as with most of the debate around that piece of legislation, it seemed skewed towards television rather than radio.

In October 2001 the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland called for submissions to help it assess demand for digital radio licences. Awarding them was a long-term issue, it said, adding that it had asked for submissions largely to help the Commission for Communications Regulation to plan frequencies.

Given the huge public interest in radio - you have only to look at the number of expressions of interest the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland receives any time it announces its intention to license new services - digital broadcasting appears to be the perfect solution to the shortage of slots on the FM band. It would also seem an ideal opportunity to ensure choice for listeners.

Yet, as with analogue radio, there has already been something of a land grab by radio conglomerates. In Britain the media giant Emap has extended its reach by launching magazine-based digital stations. The thinking is that if you buy or read Q, Mojo, Kerrang!, Smash Hits or Heat you'll also tune in to a digital station with the same name. Audience figures indicate that such thinking is on the money.

But the extension of the brand hasn't gone far beyond borrowing the magazine title and some of the CDs lying around the office. The stations are, by and large, jukeboxes with jingles. There's no interaction with the audience and nothing beyond the track listing to suggest that the station is any different to the next one down.

It's cheap, cheerless, monotonous programming - not a hell of a lot different from a lot of FM stations. You might buy Mojo magazine for its knowledge or Heat for its attitude, but from their digital- radio incarnations you wouldn't guess those were the brands' selling points.

Thankfully, the same cannot be said of the BBC's approach to digital radio, with both 1Xtra and 6 Music delivering enthusiastic, passionate programming in spades. BBC 6 Music, in particular, is a model example of what a digital station should be, and not just because it embellishes and extends the programming on Radio 1 and Radio 2, its rock and pop stations.

Besides digging up occasional gems from the BBC archives - such as David Bowie's first radio session and John Lennon's last radio interview - and allowing Radiohead to programme the station's music for a week, 6 Music's main selling points are its passionate broadcasters and the music they serve up.

Bob Harris, who long ago presented The Old Grey Whistle Test, may be a very experienced radio and television voice, but he is still coming up with the goods. One of his recent Sunday shows featured a gorgeous version of Wild Horses by Faultline - and had this writer curious to find out who the act was and how to get hold of the track.

Had I been listening to a digital radio set rather than via Freeview the information would have been available right away. DAB sets have small screens that carry information ranging from the name of the track being played to news headlines or sports results. Indeed, the sheer variety of sets on sale in Britain is seen by many as contributing to the medium's success. Technophobia disappears when potential customers see and handle the radios on offer. From smart retro-style sets and digital car radios to portable, slick, sleek tuners, all budgets and tastes are catered for. Little surprise, then, that their manufacturers have been among digital radio's most vocal supporters.

But its real champions won't be vested interests with shareholders to satisfy or media conglomerates hustling for audience share. The success of digital radio will come down to the audience and its reaction to what's available. Having turned away from conventional FM radio because there's nothing new, interesting or stimulating available, digital's promised land of diverse content and massive choice will have huge appeal. It's up to digital radio operators and programmers to deliver.