When you are looking for an exit route from a product you have been developing for nearly two decades, and which has consumed hundreds of millions of pounds, you need to find a damn good reason that will deflect the blame elsewhere. You need a report, an organisation or some bona fide research that screams out ‘no’ at the highest volume. Then your response can be: “I would be a fool to ignore the warning signs voiced by X” when what you are really saying is: “Blame them, not me! It’s them that made me do it.”

DAB radio and digital radio switchover presently seem to be at this point. But there is a big problem for a radio industry that is belatedly trying to find a way ‘out’. Almost all previous reports produced by the government, the regulator, the radio industry, the electronics industry, the working groups, Digital Britain and the car manufacturers have been overwhelmingly positive about DAB and have painted an amazingly rosy future. There has been almost nothing published about DAB by agencies of the state that has said plainly: “Stop this crazy plan.”

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://grantgoddard.co.uk/the-exit-strategy-for-dab-radio-switchover-the-consumer-expert-group-addresses-vaizeys-big-if/

Grant Goddard is a radio broadcasting expert with a lengthy track record of creating successful, innovative radio stations and programmes. His extensive writings about the radio industry are detailed on his website and can be downloaded from Amazon.

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