Going Digital: New Technology, New Relationship

Devlin gives an account of the arrival of digital radio, and particularly DAB digital radio, in the UK. As a history of DAB digital radio, he demonstrates the distinctive roles played by BBC Radio and commercial radio in helping to launch the new radio technology and questions why each party felt the need to do so. He also shows how both parties entered into a period of mutual cooperation in order to promote DAB among radio listeners. As such, this was a unique period in the history of radio in the UK when the BBC and commercial radio came together to promote a new radio technology with the end goal of ensuring the survival of the UK radio industry as a whole.