THAT’S IT! I’M BINNING MY DIGITAL RADIO

LIKe many men, I am a sucker for a new bit of technology. Much to my wife’s chagrin, whenever a smartphone or a new kind of TV comes to the market, I am always tempted to open my wallet.

So it came as no surprise to Mrs Walters when, about eight years ago, I bought myself a Digital Audio Broadcasting radio for Christmas.

‘It’s the future,’ I explained to her raised eyebrow. ‘everything is going digital! What’s the point of analogue FM when you can have DAB?’ She looked unconvinced, partly because she didn’t understand my admittedly deliberate use of gobbledegook.

After excitedly unwrapping my handsome Pure evoke-2 radio (cost from memory: about £150), I proceeded to set it up on Christmas afternoon.

Fortified by yuletide cheer and wine, we all gathered around this exciting chunk of the future. I turned it on, pressed the buttons marked ‘DAB’ and ‘Autotune’, and we waited. And waited.

Nothing happened. even though she was sitting behind me, I could detect wifely triumphalism.

‘I’ve probably just done something wrong,’ I said feebly. But I hadn’t, apart f rom buy the wretched thing.

In fact, we’ve been waiting for the radio to work for at least eight more Christmases. For all that time, it has sat in the spare room, where it looks good, but does nothing. So much for the future.

So why does my DAB radio do nothing? Will it ever be able to receive digital broadcasting, and even if it does, will it be worth it? Besides, what exactly is DAB, and is it really any better than FM, which it is designed to replace?

This week, just such questions have been reignited as the future of the BBC is being debated.

On the Today programme on Monday morning, a discussion was held as to whether DAB should replace FM broadcasting, as the DAB transmitters use far less power than FM transmitters — which could potentially save the BBC millions of pounds.

In addition, the Culture Minister ed Vaizey declared that around 70 per cent of new cars now come with DAB radios as standard, which he plainly regards as a step in the right direction.

‘That’s excellent progress,’ Mr Vaizey beamed, ‘and demonstrates the support of vehicle manufacturers for digital radio.’

The idea that DAB may actually replace FM has shocked radio listeners all over the country. Yesterday, the Today programme reported it was inundated by those, like me, who fear the abolition of FM. And on social media sites, listeners have also been most voluble about DAB.

‘Why is it we can send a man to the Moon but my Mercedes Benz DAB radio can’t hold a signal for more than five minutes at a time?’ thundered one.

‘Popcorn... That’s what my radio sounds like if I switch it to DAB,’ moaned another.

‘When I switch my laptop on, my DAB radio cuts out,’ tweeted one frustrated listener, while another simply stated: ‘DAB is a big flop.’

At least these people actually manage to receive some DAB.

In theory, however, DAB does make a lot of sense. FM, which stands for Frequency Modulation, does deliver good-sounding radio, but a limited number of FM frequencies means a limited number of radio stations.

The massive advantage of DAB is that a digital transmission uses up much less frequency space than an FM transmission, and this therefore allows for a far greater range of radio stations.

That may all sound well and good, and it is easy to see the logic of phasing out FM and replacing it with DAB, just as terrestrial TV has been replaced by digital broadcasts.

And for a while, that was exactly what was planned.

In 2008, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Digital Radio Working Group published an ‘Aspirational Timetable’, in which it predicted digital radios would outsell their analogue counterparts by 2010, and all cars would have DAB by 2014.

This year, it was intended for the Government to announce a date for a whosesale switch from FM to DAB, which was anticipated to be as soon as 2017. Unfortunately for those who champion DAB, this timetable has proved to be woefully optimistic, for the simple reason that we consumers don’t particularly care for it.

Of the 47.9 million UK residents who tune in to the radio, only a quarter, some 12 million, listen to their favourite stations by DAB.

So why are we shunning DAB in our millions? The answer is simple — it’s rubbish.

Despite the BBC claiming in April that its 307 DAB transmitters covered more than 95 per cent of the population — a figure that seems massively overblown — those who do receive it find DAB unreliable.

The signal cuts out if you move rooms, or move your car. Other devices, such as laptops, microwaves and TVs often interfere with the signal.

Meanwhile, good old FM radio is a lot more reliable for millions of us, and it’s not surprising that so many are sticking to it. Besides, with oldfashioned radios, we’re happy to cope with a bit of interference, as we can still often hear what’s being said.

‘A poor FM signal gives a gradual loss in quality — first the stereo stops, then there is a bit more noise behind the programme, and only then does it give up,’ consultant Paul Beastall told engineering & Technology Magazine.

‘DAB, by contrast, starts to make whooshing and whirring noises very quickly, and these are far more noticeable.’

And there’s another reason why DAB is rubbish: the sound quality is poorer because the digitisation process compresses and deteriorates the audio waves.

That may not matter if you just listen to the news or sport, but it really does if you’re a music buff. What’s the point of forking out for a DAB radio to listen to Radio 3 when your FM radio does a better job? Clearly, there is none.

This lack of consumer demand has thrown a spanner in the Government’s and the BBC’s collective works, which will have cost the BBC hundreds of millions of pounds, although the Corporation refuses to release the exact figures.

even Mr Vaizey appears to have accepted this.

‘ In terms of timetable and dates,’ he said in 2013, ‘I have always been clear this will be led by radio listening. There will be no switchover until the majority of listening is digital. It is clear we are not there yet.’

If a date is bandied around for a switchover, it is usually 2020, but it is unlikely ever to happen. It is far more likely that DAB will simply end up being just one of many platforms we use to listen to the radio.

Since 1995, when DAB was first broadcast, the technological world has changed and the internet is becoming a far more stable contender to listen to the radio.

Meanwhile, my old digital radio is now on its way to the dump, or a museum. For once, Mrs Walters was right about new technology.

It looks good, but sits there doing nothing What’s the point when FM is better?