Digital Britain - don't put the horse before closing the barn doors...

So the government's report on Digital Britain is now out. I've not read it yet... instead I've listened, again, to the Guardian Media Talk podcast where they discussed it. Well... it's easier to listen to the podcast in the car. Sometimes John Humphries can be an annoying belligerant git first thing....lovely and cuddly though I'm sure he is.

Anyway, one of the items in the Digital Britain report, apparently, is that in the same way the analogue TV signals will be switched off by 2012, the radio analogue signals will be switched off (in favour of DAB) by 2015.

How can I put this simply?

DON'T DO IT!!!!

So, why do I dislike DAB - the digital radio system used in the UK? Let me count the ways:

1. I bought a DAB radio around 4 years ago which would not work in the house unless next to a window! This was a good quality one too... not cheap and cheerful. I could only get guaranteed reception in the middle of the garden... and this in an area listed by the DAB authority (whoever they are...I can't remember now) as having EXCELLENT DAB reception.
2. Most (many?) houses have only 1 TV. 2 at most. How many radios do everyone have? One in each room, plus one in each car, plus a couple of portable ones? My mp3 player and my mobile phone can receive FM radio. Radio-Alarm clocks? Stereos... the list is endless. So we'll have to upgrade EVERY SINGLE ONE of those items? You can't even get many DAB radios for cars ... yes they'll be more available by 2015, but what about thems that have old cars? There are currently over 32 million cars in the UK... so will each suddenly become silent? When I had a 1973 VW Beetle, in the 1990s, it had the original Blaupunkt radio. Which worked perfectly in FM and AM. And one will still need analogue radios for when you go abroad and want to listen to local stations...
3. Power... there are now solar DAB radios... there are now battery-operated DAB radios, but they're still not common. And DAB is notorious for using energy at a far higher level than normal analogue radios. So if you want a cheap DAB battery operated radio for the bathroom (i.e. no cables) there are VERY few options available... and why are we being forced to move to a technology that uses more energy, when we precisely need to use less energy and save the planet?
4. There are other systems available... i.e INTERNET radio. Why not wait a few more years and move to that...rather than this half-way house that will do nothing but create a boom business for DAB radio manufacturers... hardly the most pressing of social needs at present.

My solution? Keep radio as it is for now... for a long time. Another 20 or 30 years?

I know the emergency services want more frequencies to say 'Roger that 10-4' in, but I'm sure there are other ways than just kicking all radio stations off the airwaves. Encourage manufacturers to develop more portable/domestic radios that can receive Internet radio (and are easy to tune) - including podcasts... i.e. with one easy-to-use system you could listen to live local radio, listen to (no need to download, just stream) mp3 podcasts (etc. - whatever iTunes formats are too) and then listen to a radio station on the other side of the world that plays permanent loop of your favourite Caravan album.

It shouldn't be difficult. It would better meet the future needs of audio listening. And means I don't have to ditch the valve-operated old radiogram which still works 50+ years after it was built.