The Pure Evoke-1XT Prestige Edition

Pure Digital is launching an exclusive luxury edition of it's DAB radio.

The new range is different form the rest of the range because if it's new hand crafted wood finish and the unit now sports an FM tuner with RDS. The mains powered unit features six station presets, a headphone socket and a stereo line-out.

The Evoke-1XT Prestige is available in Bird's Eye Maple, Burnt Redwood and Piano Black finishes and are exclusively available from independent dealers and selected department stores.

PrimeTime Radio Leaves Digital One

PrimeTime Radio will no longer be available nationally on DAB digital radio after the station's owner, Roger de Haan, chose not to renew the contract with Digital One.

The station will continue to broadcast on satellite (Sky channel 0132), NTL cable (channel 872), and on the Internet at www.primetimeradio.org. The station will still be available on DAB digital radio in London.

No service is currently lined up to replace PrimeTime's slot on the national network.

Digital listening on the up

Although sales of digital radio sets have now passed 3 million (blog entry) in the UK it was no guarantee that more people were using them, until now. According to the latest Rajar listening figures for the first quarter of 2006 Planet Rock and The Hits have reached record audiences and most the BBC digital stations have also recorded an increase in listeners.

Planet Rock recorded 461,000 listeners (up 61.2%) and The Hits reached 970,000.

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra peaked at 613,000 listeners (up 48%) benefiting from several international sporting events. BBC 6 Music and BBC7 recorded audiences of 359,000 (up 15.4%) and 621,000 (up 11.7%) respectively.

Planet Rock - Digital Terrestrial Station of the Year

National digital radio starting Planet Rock has taken the award for Digital Terrestrial Station of the Year at the 1006 Sony awards. The GCap station, launched in November 1999 triumphed over other nominees BBC 1Xtra and Capital Disney.

The award was accepted by Executive Producer, Trevor White who expressed his thanks to the whole team.

Planet Rock is available on the Digital One UK national multiplex.

Three million DAB digital radios sold in UK

According to the The Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB) more than three million DAB digital radio sets have been sold in the UK. The figures have been supplied by the industry tracking body GfK ans show 3.053 million cumulative sales reported at the end of March 2006 and the 14% of all radios sold are DAB receivers.

The DRDB have also highlighted that the Rajar listening survey (Q4/05) shows more than 11% of the population now lives in a DAB household and DAB listeners consume 16% more radio than the average radio listener.

China plans DAB, DMB and DAB-IP services

Commercial mobile television and radio services using DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) and DAB-IP technology are being planned in China. Both systems are based on DAB.

China is a key market for the DAB, DMB and DAB-IP family of standards. With the largest population in the world and a growing economy the adoption of DAB in China will have a significant effect on the worldwide development of DAB.

Trials are currently underway in several parts of the country, and three licences have been issued covering Guangdong Province, Beijing and Shanghai. Commercial DMB services from several companies will launch during the first half of 2006 in Guangdong and Beijing.

Jamie Theakston now on the Heart digital network

The one year old Jamie Theakston breakfast show will be broadcast nationally on DAB from 18th April 2006. The “re-packaged” show containing local news and travel bulletins will be broadcast to Central Scotland, North East, North West & Yorkshire, and South Wales & the West.

The national version of the show will be broadcast from 7am and 10am while the London 106.2 FM Jamie Theakston Breakfast Show will continue to be broadcast in London between 6am and 9am.