Dab, RIP? Channel 4’s decision to get out of digital radio comes only months after our biggest commercial radio group also abandoned it. In addition, four national digital-only stations — Oneword, Core, Life and theJazz — were killed off earlier this year. There is now just one national commercial station, Planet Rock, available only on digital. So, on the face of it, the harbingers of DAB doom are right to give it the black spot.

Many different factors have contributed: the economic downturn; muddled investment plans; the migration of advertising to the internet; strong competition from BBC services that are, by comparison, awash with money; and the need to cut costs in these extraordinary times. Channel 4 aims to save £100m over two years. Pulling out of digital radio is just one part of that.

So, out go its glitzy plans for 4 Radio, intended to be a “less stuffy” rival to Radio 4, and E4 Radio, a music, comedy and entertainment channel for 16- to 24-year-olds. Those who viewed the latter with some alarm, envisaging a cynical cross-promotion for Big Brother, and the same lewd degeneracy, may well breathe a sigh of relief.

Yet the bigger point remains that additional national stations have been aborted ; listener choice does not widen ; and Digital Audio Broadcasting loiters palely as a result.

Yet I remain hopeful. Planet Rock may be the only national commercial station available on digital only alone, but there are also five national BBC stations in this position. These are : 1Xtra, 6 Music, Asian Network, Sports Extra , and the splendid BBC7 (which has just changed its name to Radio 7 , allegedly because too many people thought it was a television service). The total audience for these six stations is almost 4m PN says okay , about the size of the readership of The Sunday Times: not to be sneezed at, in other words. There are also many other digital-only stations not technically national, but widespread and popular. Hundreds of thousands enjoy Gaydar, The Arrow, Chill, Kerrang!, The Hits, Q, Kerrang! and more.

Just over 25% of all British households now have a DAB radio: the figure might be different in the latest official ratings, due to have been released late last week. There are now nearly 8m of them, and it is difficult to see them just going away. (Incidentally, I wrote in March that “more DAB sets are sold each year than iPods” : I cannot prove that , because Apple refuses to disclose UK sales figures, and I think now it may be wrong ; but John Lewis did announce at the end of last year that DAB sets had outsold iPods in their shops in the vital week for retailers before Christmas. Irrespective of whether people listen to commercial output or not, there are millions now who love their DAB radios sets just as high-quality radios and a joy to use.

People increasingly listen to radio on digital devices, including computers, mobile phones, Wi-Fi internet radios, DAB sets , and cable, Sky and Freeview television. There is spare capacity on the digital spectrum (still filled by that ancient loop of Wiltshire birdsong), and , if the government really wants to improve the care and education of under-fives, it will give serious consideration to the indomitable children’s -radio campaigner Susan Stranks’s excellent proposal for Sound Start radio, which is supported by many of the country’s top educationalists. One way and or another, I think digital is here to stay.

paul.donovan@sunday-times.co.uk

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