We’ve found a handy code to get 10% off the Revo range of digital radios, which include the Uno, Pico and the fully-featured Revo Radiostation Blik, which combines DAB, DAB+ and Internet radio.

To get 10% off Revo Radios, use the code affrevo at the checkout at www.advancedmp3players.co.uk. Available while stocks last, we’re told…

It’s the first of March, and Show 24 of FrequencyCast has just been released. Yes - 24 shows… we’ve reached our second birthday. Thanks for being with us for the ride!

Here’s what we cover in today’s show:

• News Updates: An end to the High Def DVD format wars, BBC on the iPhone, the US strike’s over, we discover more about podcast listening, and we say hello to the 21st Century KITT.
• Focus - Digital Radio: After DAB has had a really rough couple of months, Carl and Pete pick up the pieces, look at some DAB technology, ask whether the future is Net radio, and read through listener’s texts and mails on digital radio.
• Neuros OSD: A new piece of kit - a gadget that converts your video, streams your content and acts as a PVR.
• Your Questions: Listeners questions on wireless V+ box connections, Freeview Series Link, video on a whiteboard, TV in other rooms, HDMI cables and Freeview in hilly areas.

You can download Show 24 direct to your MP3 player, listen online, or view the show notes at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast24.html

Enjoy the show? Add a quick iTunes review: Review us.

 

 FrequencyCast Show 24 [31:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

More bad news for DAB digital radio this month - theJazz and Planet Rock, two of the national DAB stations, are due to fall silent soon. Owners gCap recently switched off digital station Core, and are now axing two more stations. With OneWord going too, this will leave just three national commercial DAB stations, Virgin Radio, Classic fm and TalkSport.

gCap’s reason for getting rid of Planet Rock and theJazz? Cost-saving and the slow takeup of digital radio in the UK making their ongoing funding of DAB “economically unviable”.

We’re planning to run a feature on the future of DAB in the UK on an upcoming podcast. Sign up to our newsletter to be notified.

Update 13 Feb: Audio show discussing developments now online

On the 31st January, the TV-over-DAB service, provided by BT Movio, was finally discontinued.

Users of Virgin Mobile’s Lobster 700TV handset, the only UK handset to offer TV-over-DAB, are now greeted by the message “this channel is not currently broadcasting” when they try to tune to a telly station. The phone still works perfectly well as a phone, and a pretty decent portable DAB radio

Shame to see this piece of history come to an end. Any comments? Was the world not ready for TV on a mobile, or was Movio flawed from the start?

Digital speech-based radio station OneWord is to shut down on 12th January 2008. The station started back in 2000. Owners UBC Media laid off staff back in December, and the station will fall silent in a couple of days.

Another national station is also about to vanish - Music station Core, owned by GCap, is also set to close on Friday the 11th of January. 

National DAB multiplex Digital One now has two gaps to fill, and the recent announcement about the delay of Channel 4 radio is another blow to national digital radio. At the moment, prerecorded birdsong and a trial relay of forces station BFBS can be heard in the national slots previously occupied by Chill and Oneword.

Update 13 Feb: Audio show discussing developments now online

If you’re a fan of the extra radio channels you can get on digital radio, note that there’s now a cheap way to get DAB in your car. Pure has brought out the Pure Highway. Requiring no special installation, it’s powered by the cigar lighter and sticks onto your windscreen like a satnav device and rebroadcasts DAB stations onto a free FM frequency that your existing car sound system can tune into. You can also pause and rewind DAB. Great idea, and available online for under £70. Available from Empire Direct

UK radio firm Revo has launched the world’s first ever combined DAB, FM receiver and Internet radio, that’s also ready for the new DAB+ standard. Called the Blik RadioStation, this can also stream your music from a PC or Mac using Wi-fi. The brick-shaped Blik is available now, offering offers well over 9,000 stations. The Revo Blik RadioStation is available for £150 direct from Revo.

Channel 4 are to launch 10 national radio digital radio stations.

Ofcom today granted the licence, and plans are for this new network to go live by July 2008. It’s expected that Disney, Sky and Chrysalis will be operating stations on this new network.

Virgin’s just halved the price of the Lobster 700TV phone. This means that for under £50, you can get a DAB radio and a phone (plus 5 channels of TV), on Pay-as-you-go (no contract). A bargain well worth nabbing, while stocks last. More on our Lobster 700TV page