I sometimes end up wondering if the only people that really switch between radio stations are those working in the industry themselves! :|

I usually do switch stations on the iPlayer, sometimes I might listen to 6 Music, the World Service or Radio Gloucestershire, but mostly I’m loyal to Radio 2 so even for those who do switch stations I’d say there’s a loyalty to the “main” brands.

I’m in my friends house in Mold (one of the largest towns in North Wales) and I cant get Radio Cymru on DAB. When I visit my parents in Newport (3rd largest City in Wales) I cant get anything on the Local Multiplex, and when I say ‘most of Wales’ I am not talking about population. I spend a lot of time in areas where FM is available and DAB isn’t. I have DAB in my car too.

I’ll only use the humble 3G or wifi when i know I can get it.

Anyway the question was on choice and I like choice… currently listening to my favorite Polish Grunge station on my Flow :) happy days!

One of the applications of this research was in the design of the Evoke 1. We spent a good deal of time working out (often for the first time) what a consumer “out of the box” experience for a new DAB radio ought to be. The premise remains that the first 15-30 minutes using the device is crucial and determines whether the listener would embark on a voyage of station discovery, how easily he could and would return to them, and how to sort (and add to) his favourites from the rest of the offering. Seems obvious now, but a mere 8 years ago almost all DAB radios were ‘user-alien’ (it had to be tuned first by multiplex, meaning you had to remember which mux contained what stations, and secondly select from the 8 to 10 stations on that mux. Crazy.
The Evoke isn’t the perfect embodiment of everything we wanted to do due to processor and cost constraints, but it was a major leap forwards (copied by almost every device since). Yes, I wish manufacturers more readily embraced colour screens and EPGs (notwithstanding the DAB EPG is not what I hoped it would be). Nevertheless, it is important to understand the manufacturers dilemma:- a 2×16 alphanumeric screen contributes (adds), say, $4 to the end-user price, a greyscale QCIF dot matrix probably adds $20 and a colour QVGA nearer $70. Not to mention the dev. cost, and price of more complex software and requisite driver/processor chips. And that assumes the broadcasters will all generate enough good screen content necessary to justify/sell much more expensive radios.

New brands like Core, The Arrow, The Lounge et.al. rarely, if ever, put enough into building and promoting the brand. There’s a Field of Dreams mentality driven by naiveté, or more likely a lack of budget. Planet Rock is a partial exception – it’s a naturally good brand but probably doesn’t have the money to become a great brand. Compare and contrast how much Absolute has invested so far in building their brand (not just in promotion, but in developing their apps, virals, hiring personality presenters, awards, PR etc. etc.). The BBC’s advantage, even with 1Xtra and 6Music, was always the overarching BBC brand (which suggests they should still have done better in past RAJARs compared to, say, Planet Rock). Changes to these and BBC7 is a brand resposition to fully exploit inherent trust in the main 5 channel’s existing audiences. Look who runs BBC Radio now. He used to market fizzy drinks.

And on that hoary old chestnut of DAB quality (yawn): Pre-purchase research consistently showed audio quality was not a determining factor in the decision to buy (it’s more choice). But post-purchase research shows that quality of reception and audio delivered by DAB jumps to #2 in the satisfaction league table, a mere tad behind more stations at #1, and both score around 90% satisfaction. Be under no illusion, retailers like Argos, Currys and John Lewis simply won’t sell any consumer electronic product that risks dissatisfied customers returning items. The evidence is there in the high street, not in blog rants. (I suppose DAB audio quality is not unlike the Grauniad – famous for its litany of supposed spelling mistakes. Of course it isn’t true, and the myth doesn’t damage circulation. But we all get a cheap dig and a laugh out of it).

Research showed that a large slice of listeners don’t browse cos they don’t like the struggle of finding their way back to their fave. I’ve seen that with many people – not all oldies. When they do stray, they get little idea of the new channel’s identity, big idea or USP in the random few minutes they sample.

Digital Radio will dominate when it gets a big colourful screen to show you who and what you’ve just stumbled upon, and what the program and station have to offer. Then people won’t be so afraid of the unfamiliar.

Twenty years into the era of easily absorbable computer GUIs, radio is in the stone age. Even cheap TVs and PVRs are light years ahead of radio. Pure’s Sensia is a big advance, but at a TSP of £250, it needs a lot of cheap imitators to create the market.

If only Jonathan Ive were a radio fan…

Owain: For what it’s worth, I have had DAB in my car for the last five years: it works perfectly (yes, in much of Wales and Scotland), and is a marked improvement from FM in terms of quality, interestingly, in a car – since you don’t have the multipath interference or the stereo image inconsistencies inherent with a mobile FM signal. Mind, I’d hate to see the truth get in the way of a nice rant. Looking forward to hearing about your experiences of listening to live radio over 3G in a car, too… (grin)

Mark: I always agree with you. When you’re right. (grin)

I like the fact that broadcast technology can’t cope with the amount of stations that are out there. As long as it can carry enough choice for the mainstream builder and housewife then its doing its job I think.

The people who want big choice will always follow internet connectivity advances to find that choice and if the radio manufacturers want to follow us, then they are very welcome.

Perhaps a more appropriate tagline would be…

‘DAB – A few more really good stations but not as good quality as before and you can’t get it in most of Wales or Scotland or on any road (apart from some motorways if you can find a car with one in) and you’ll probably have to buy a new radio in a few years anyway’

Maybe the word “choice” doesn’t apply to your favorite station. Maybe the phrase is “deeper experience.”

I can’t agree with Absolute being a good example of keeping it simple. I’m sure there were reasons why the Virgin brand was ditched, but in terms of giving an audience something familiar to latch onto, Virgin has to be one of the strongest brands in the world – Absolute is nothing more than a word, whose only value is that it’s nearer the start of the alphabet.