It is my understanding that the national stations (i.e. BBC Radio) are moving from FM to Digital; is this not the case... They're not 'killing' FM. ...
As a (genuine) matter of interest, from where have you got this information?... There are also conditions on it happening, if the issues with DAB in cars is not resolved - then they won't switch over.
Whilst it may "allow" superior quality (if that is what you mean by "silly"?); in practice it seems that that is not what is actually being provided:you do all realise that when switched over it will allow for silly coverage and quality ...
Even the BBC considers 192 kbps to be unacceptable for quality (e.g. Classical) Music:Seemingly not content to provide all of its other music radio stations at low audio quality on DAB, the BBC has just reduced the bit rate of Radio 3 from 192 kbps to 160 kbps. (DigitalRadioTech)
Admittedly, nobody will notice this poor quality in a car but the same low quality will apply in your house.A value of 256 kbit/s has been judged to provide a high quality stereo broadcast signal. However, a small reduction, to 224 kbit/s is often adequate, and in some cases it may be possible to accept a further reduction to 192 kbit/s, especially if redundancy in the stereo signal is exploited by a process of 'joint stereo' encoding (i.e. some sounds appearing at the centre of the stereo image need not be sent twice). At 192 kbit/s, it is relatively easy to hear imperfections in critical audio material. (BBC R&D White Paper 061)
I find that quite incredible... its has nothing to do with money either ...
As a (genuine) matter of interest, from where have you got this information?
Has the Government ever actually said that the switch-over to DAB is dependent on reliable in-car reception?
We need satellite radio like they have in the states, DAB is woeful in a car.
It seems that you are substantially correct, certainly in that no actual "switch-over" date has been specified and there will not be any "FM switch-off". There is a good blog on the entire debate HERE.I was listening to Jermery Vine, Radio 2 on erm.. 22nd March, and they had a blokey from the government who is a lot to do with the BBC. I can't remember his name/title, as i missed part of the interview.
But it was from that show, he stated that there were conditions on the change over. One being the in-car issue, and another being % of people using DAB over FM.
Not getting radio1/2/3/4/5 etc on FM does not mean FM is being 'killed off', and as for coverage - don't forget you cannot receive every FM transmission on every square foot of the country anyway.
It seems that you are substantially correct, certainly in that no actual "switch-over" date has been specified and there will not be any "FM switch-off". There is a good blog on the entire debate HERE.
there's also that massive stretch of the M6 through Cumbria where there is no FM signal for a good 5 minutes.
(Tested in a large number of cars over the years, so it's not just my radio at fault)