A bearded, medallion-wielding, miniature puppet won’t persuade us to go digital

Will digital radio ever really take off? We were supposed to be switching over to digital-only reception in 2015 (three years after the TV switchover) but with only 36.8 per cent of listeners as yet tuning in to a digital station the future of DAB is beginning to look very uncertain (and most of those 36.8 per cent will also be listening to an old and much-loved analogue wireless set or transistor). Ed Vaizey, the government’s minister for culture, communications and the creative industries, has said he will announce a new date for the switchover ‘by the end of the year’, but this seems an unlikely target given that more than 60 per cent of the population don’t have access to digital and that take-up is only increasing by 4 per cent per year.

In her response to the latest audience figures from Rajar (Radio Joint Audience Research) the BBC’s director of radio, Helen Boaden, was typically upbeat and vague: ‘The continued growth in listening on digital platforms shows that radio is successfully adapting to rapidly evolving technological advances.’