The executive in charge of Channel 4's digital radio operations today insisted they would launch - but refused to confirm when or where.

"The second national digital [radio] multiplex will launch," said the Channel 4 director of new business and corporate development, Nathalie Schwarz, who is also chair of the 4 Digital radio group.

But asked if the Channel 4-branded stations, which will include a spin-off of digital TV channel E4 and speech station Channel 4 Radio, would launch initially on rival digital radio operator, Digital One, Schwarz said: "We are not ruling anything out at this stage."

Pure Digital, a leading manufacturer of DAB digital radios, has signed a three year contract with NYK Logistics for the distribution of its products in the UK.

With more than six million people in the UK now listening to radio stations available exclusively on DAB, NYK’s ability to provide a solution which could be scaled up to support Pure’s continued growth was a key factor in NYK’s appointment.

The ongoing success of DAB has continued to drive a resurgence in the UK Portable Radio market. Since the launch of DAB, approximately 9.4 million Portable Radios, of all types, have been sold. This has resulted in the yearly market value growing from a consistent annual turnover of around £30m (2000-2002) to just under £78m in 2007. 

Audiences for BBC breakfast DJs Chris Moyles and Terry Wogan are continuing to rise, according to the latest figures from radio industry body Rajar.

Wogan, known to his Radio 2 fans as the Togmeister, now has 8.1m listeners, while Radio 1's Moyles has 7.72m.

Radio 2 is still the UK's most popular station, with 13.63m listeners.

Rajar revealed that nearly one third of radio audiences use digital radio once a week, and that sales of DAB receivers rose by 40% over the last year.

Partly because of digital listening, BBC radio notched up a new listening record.

It's time to fondly remember our friend radio, who kept millions entertained for much of the 20th century. But its time has passed, and it's now replaced by something else, something more digital.

It's still called radio, but it's not the same beast at all.

The old AM and FM sets we listened to when we were kids still work, but they are fast being phased out and replaced by DAB sets.

But even DAB is under threat.

The number of people listening to digital radio continues to grow, but almost 80% of digital listening is to stations already available on analogue, according to research published today by audience measurement body Rajar.

Nearly a third of the population - 31.4% - now listens to digital radio at least once a week, with digital audio broadcasting (DAB) radio accounting for the lion's share of listening.

But only 21.4% of digital listening is to digital-only stations such as BBC7 and BBC 6Music. The rest is to stations also available on analogue, which goes some way to explain why commercial operators have struggled to make their investment in digital pay.

 
According to recent sales figures, almost half a million DAB digital radios were sold in the first quarter of 2008. This means that DAB radio now accounts for half of all clock-radio sales by value.

At the recent MediaGuardian.co.uk Radio Reborn conference DRDB acting chief executive Paul Brown said: “DAB digital radio came under fire earlier this year following announcements of withdrawal from the medium by GCap Media and the loss of several national DAB services. However, consumer, retailer and manufacturer confidence in DAB remains high as these figures demonstrate. That confidence is supported by the radio industry which is working together to ensure the future DAB landscape remains an attractive proposition for listeners.”

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Ofcom yesterday announced the award of the new local Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) radio multiplex licence for Surrey and northern Sussex.

This is one of a number of new local radio multiplex licences planned to develop DAB coverage for services in those parts of the country not already served. This licensing process will lead to a significant expansion in digital radio services throughout the UK. This will provide "a wide selection of speech and music podcasts provided by a range of companies".

The licence will be issued for a twelve year period. MuxCo Surrey and North Sussex Limited is committed to launching four transmitters and all of its programme services by July 2009.

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Welcome to our new look website. We’ve been working on this for the past few months and in fact it is still work in progress because the changes will continue to roll out across the site in the coming weeks and beyond.
We have further improvements planned for later in the year such as a forum and a special area for registered users offering discounts on DAB products.

An email was sent to BBC staff today from Mark Thompson, BBC Director-General, to inform them that Jenny Abramsky has decided to step down as Director of Audio & Music.

PURE Move becomes the first DAB radio to be endorsed by The Energy Saving Trust.

The PURE Move has been recognised by the EST’s Energy Saving Endorsement Scheme and will feature a special Energy Saving ‘Recommended’ logo on its packaging and promotional material.

From the BBC website, the latest RAJAR figures show that the BBC's digital radio stations have continue to expandtheir audience base on DAB Radio. Below are some of the fiqures from RAJAR: