This morning, the CRTC renewed the digital radio licences of the CBC and other broadcasters.
Whew! That’s a relief. I was losing sleep over those eight listeners who actually own digital radio receivers.
Digital radio, technically speaking, is considered superior in quality and reception. It exists on a separate frequency band (unlike the amusing but doomed “AM stereo” experiments from years back) and so you need special DAB (digital audio broadcasting) receivers to pick it up.
But good luck finding a receiver. Radio Sha…er, The Source… stopped selling them a couple of years ago. No buyers.
The Benefits Aren’t Compelling
Really, who could blame us consumers. There’s very little compelling reason to switch over to digital radio. The two reasons most industry enthusiasts point to for the DAB side:
- You can stream data along with the audio. This lets you show the song name, etc.
- The audio quality is better.
But nothing is ever as simple as that. In reality:
- Data: There’s very little value-add for the listener. Sure, I can see the name of the song playing on the DAB receiver’s screen. Or I can wait until the DJ tells me the song name. Private radio got excited because they could, in theory, send driving directions to advertisers’ stores, or display an advertiser’s phone number during their ad. Big deal.
- Quality: It’s not as good as they say. Yes, provided you’re in clear reception, it sounds amazing. But step behind a tall building or drive into a valley and you get the usual digital muddiness as the receiver struggles to figure out how to play decent quality with fewer compressed packets.
So really, why would I shell out for a digital radio receiver to listen to CBC Radio One, when I can pick it up just fine on my existing radios.
What We Should Do
Giving airtime to upcoming Canadian musicians is partly our mandate. While we do that through CBC Radio 3’s Sirius channel, satellite radio requires a monthly subscription, whereas DAB does not.
We should use our digital radio transmitters to broadcast CBC Radio 3. The R3 folks have proven themselves to be highly adaptive (dare I say — “flexible”?) and have an excellent track record at using early-stage technologies.
What do you think?
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I was told by a friend that digital radio didn’t work well in cities. Well, specifically he meant Seattle, so maybe that doesn’t count. But he had to return it because the reception was awful.
Personally, I wouldn’t get one myself. Online radio, podcasts, etc. make digital radio kind of redundant.
Why not swap the Radio2 signal with Radio3? I’m in my 40’s and have no use for the classical music jukebox. In fact; I only know ONE person who listens to Radio2, and he’s 70 years old!!!
Radio3; broadcast to actual radios; might actually attract a younger audience especially in smaller markets where quality modern music is nowhere to be found.
If CBC can set it up so that we can get Radio 3 “in the clear” with little or no tech troubles for the listening public at large over our regular radios, then I’m all for it.
And I don’t see a pressing need to do away with Radio 2 or move it onto the Web, for that matter.
Why do we need new technology to hear the best part of CBC? I agree with Mike, putting R3 on a platform where the next generation can actually access it is forward thinking. I won a satellite radio, and can afford the $15 a month, my young adult kids can and will not. My understanding of Radio 2 is that is has little audience. Put it on Sirius, let the older people who can afford it buy it.
Put R3 on terrestrial radio.
Agreed. R3 deserves to be on the airwaves for the rest of us. Buy new hardware? No thanks. I’ll just stick to listening to podcasts and streaming online audio… but then, there’s an argument for just keeping Radio 3 where it is… sigh.
Radio 3 should get their own FM frequency. I want to listen but I can’t afford Sirius radio and it’s subscription service.
Move R3 to a real radio channel, They’ve proven that they can get an audience even with the most adverse conditions placed in their way.
And while they’re at it, could someone please donate an FM transmitter to CBC Vancouver, after being on the island and being able to compare the AM (vancouver) vs FM (victoria) quality at the same time, FM is so much nicer to listen to, and you can tell what people are actually saying.
I’ve been a Sirius subscriber for about 18 months. I listen to the odd CBC program and CBC news regularly. If you really want diverse programming (different ‘voices’), go with Sirius. The CBC is totally absent of a diversity of ideas - unless you consider differing left wing ideas diversity.
Moving R3 to digital radio is a sterile debate. Despite it’s technical superiority, DAB is one dead parrot of a radio format in North America (Europe and Japan are a different matter, entirely). The sleeping giant we’re not really addressing north of the 49th, though, is the potential explosive rise of the digital HD Radio format in the USA. Yes, it’s technically inferior to DAB, but the American radio industry is pouring megabucks into it. NPR stations in major centres like LA, New York and Chicago, for example, are already broadcasting in it 24 hours a day. The great limiting factor right now is the lack of afforable, PORTABLE digital HD radios. The power hungry nature of the HD Radio processor chip means the on-board power supplies are of brick-like size and weight. This is a technical problem that will be solved, however, and cheap, portable receivers will start flooding North America in the forseeable future. Will Canadian radio broadcasters try and ignore the HD challenge? Will they pressure Ottawa to allow them to join the HD club? Or will they try and outflank the threat by offering a technically superior product over WiFi? In this case, the cliché is true: time will tell.
I have to admit, I am a US resident, and I listen to CBC R3 more than any other music station on Sirius. I started with the podcast, but when I heard they would be on Sirius, it was definitely a major factor. Plus, I enjoy receiving CBC R1 as well. I also like Bandeapart, but primarily late at night when they play “chill out” music.
I just wish XM could get some decent Canadian content besides their hockey contract.
Its too bad that few people realize the inferior quality of compressed digital signals compared to analog radio. I may be in the minority but still prefer quality over convenience, listening to CBC 1 and 2 through a Sansui Tuner and good audio gear is something Sirius will never compete with in terms of quality, but just like MP3’s…most don’t hear the difference. Sad.
No, Radiohead and Mike, CBC2 has a huge audience. (Or at least it did, before McGuire and Co. started tinkering it to death.) And "old" people are the only ones these days who will sit next to a radio and patiently wait to hear what is being played next. Radio3 got yanked off Saturday nights because it’s "younger" audience prefers podcasts and instant access. As a listener who refuses to be typecast into any demographic, I’m not too thrilled with 1, 2, or 3 these days. I think CBC programming hasn’t really got a clue about about what they are doing.