There Will Always Be FM

Michael Hedges July 22, 2009 Follow on Twitter

Migration from analogue to digital television is well underway, complete in many Western countries. Public policy reasoning for moving free-to-air television channels into the spectrum stratosphere had everything to do with efficiency. Those clunky analogue VHF channels ate far more spectrum than necessary and the number of digital channels – in a different chunk of spectrum – could, then, expand. More TV choice would, said the policy makers, make more people (viewers, at least) happier.

And, too, there is the quality issue.  Digital TV is prettier. FM is still quite pretty.

One of piece of spectrum, in the midst of the VHF band, has been used almost universally for analogue FM radio broadcasting. A gazillion receivers have been manufactured, sold and used.  In the heady days when digital broadcasting – TV and radio - became the promised land for innovation, migrating all broadcasting from analogue to digital transmission was taken as a statement of faith. It will be good, said everyone. Cheering on this digital broadcasting migration were, on one side, chip makers and their investment bankers. Buckets of money would be at the end of the rainbow. Governments, who loosely control radio frequency spectrum, also saw buckets of money. More efficient spectrum usage meant more spectrum for sale.

But digital TV isn’t digital radio. The public has been – more or less – happy to stump up for new devices on which to get their daily dose of reality TV, usually with a contribution from governments. More channels means more reality. That it also meant the same – or less – advertising or license fee money to pay for it all is a separate story.

The trip to digital nirvana for radio broadcasting took a different course. Actually, there was little direction to it. All that was heard was “dig-i-tal, dig-i-tal, dig-i-tal.” Repeating it often and loudly made it good and surely the public would agree. Campfires were lit. The dancing – among chip makers, et.al. - began.

And the public did agree. They all ran out and bought iPods (and other music players) and iPhones (and other cool mobile devices). Digital radio receivers collected dust on retailers shelves. WAIT! They never got to retailers shelves in many places. 

Some digital radio channels hit the airwaves and a few were digital-exclusive. Part of the digital promise was a new breed of radio broadcasting and some broadcasters rose to that occasion. Interactivity was another part of the digital promise, but that’s also a different story. Most broadcasters did not, preferring – as ad revenues began to slide – cost containment. Some bought digital receivers to hear their new favorite channels, not knowing whether or not they’d last. This is called faith.

All stakeholders in the digital pep-talk saw the path. The public would need a bit of a shove. “We’ll move all the big stations to the digital space and clear out the FM band,” said the policy makers, who wouldn’t know a listener if they were one.

One by one, the digital radio stakeholders began jumping off the path rather than spend themselves into a hole. Private sector broadcasters in Germany – Europe’s richest ad market for radio – bailed out last month. “A black day” said one digital radio supporter.

Policy makers – those congenitally tied to election outcomes – began to reverse path, climbing over trees and boulders.

The UK government recently issued its Digital Britain roadmap blessing everything digital, including radio broadcasting. After glowing tables and charts highlighting the latest projections of impending rapture, the vague language called for national stations to leave FM for the digital path – the DAB platform – and FM shutdown to begin sometime around 2015. All of this was divined as broadcasters averted their gaze lest they and their business plans turn to stone.

The warmth created was felt at the UK House of Commons this week (July 20) as MPs questioned Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Mr. Sion Simon. (Transcript provided by UK media analyst Grant Goddard and available here)

“Representations made to me so far suggest that the idea of a switchover is currently very unpopular,” said one MP, setting up the question. “Instead of rushing ahead with the switchover, will he take positive action to allow people to see some tangible benefits?”

“We love radio,” said Mr. Simon. “We are not switching off FM, and we are putting new services on the FM spectrum that is vacated by the services which move to digital audio broadcasting, because we want to see radio prosper and grow in the digital age. “

“The Government’s own figures state that there are 65 million analogue radios in circulation, and they hope that the cost of digital radios will fall to £20 a set,” said another MP, setting up his question. “That means that the cost of upgrading the nation’s analogue radio stock will surpass £1 billion. Who will pay that £1 billion? Will it be the Government, or will it be consumers?”

“Those sets will not become redundant,” replied Mr. Simon, careful to stay a country mile from the money question. “The FM spectrum will be well used for new services that are currently squeezed out.”

“The point is,” enjoined MP Jeremy Hunt, “that if people use their analogue sets, they will be able to listen to new radio stations, but not the radio stations that they have been listening to for a very long time. Was it not the height of irresponsibility to announce the phasing out of analogue spectrum without announcing any details or any funding for a help scheme, similar to the one that was in place for TV switchover? Will that not cause widespread concern among millions of radio listeners, who will feel that they are faced with the unenviable choice of either paying up or switching off?”

“We will do exactly the same with radio as we did with television,” said Mr. Simon. “We will carry out a full cost-benefit analysis of exactly what kind of help scheme might or might not be required, and we will proceed accordingly. There are 9 million digital sets in use already. Consumers have six years to decide.”

It was the Ah-Ha moment.