[jimnotgym]

I'm very sad to see this go.

I was listening to DAB in the car, not so far from here last weekend, and it kept cutting out. Whereas you could get LW everywhere!

I developed a love of cricket on Test Match Special from a very young age. A tiny inexpensive radio could get it anywhere. I actually never minded the interruptions from the Shipping Forecast, the real reason they kept this service up for so long. I know there are many ways to get a forecast now, none of which is as reliable as radio 4.

[gorgoiler]

Some things in life happen for the very last time and we never realize it. Where were you when Jim Maxwell interrupted the test match coverage, for the final time, to declare that “listeners on long wave will now hear the shipp-ing four-cairst”? :)

With apologies to Affabeck Lauder

[Peanuts99]

Digital radio was always going to be crap, it doesn't degrade gradually as signal gets worse They should have just put all the money into a better 4G network and ran radio through that.

[fredoralive]

Bit of hindsight bias there, DAB was first developed in the mid 1990s, ubiquitous fast wireless IP in everyone’s pockets is at least a decade, perhaps nearer to 20 years in the future. There are quite a few transitionary technologies that we needn’t have developed had we just waited for something better to come along (but without the R&D into some of them…).

(Also doesn’t analogue FM also kinda cut off fairly abruptly?)

[mybrowsercache]

FM stays listenable even with heavy distortions when you drive out of range and you can decide for yourself when you no longer tolerate the signal. Digital doesn’t give you warnings and just goes silent

[guenthert]

Your receiver can (and many do) display signal quality. Not playing distorted, noisy signals is a feature I greatly appreciate.

[expedition32]

I have a DAB radio and it gets constant interference. Meanwhile FM is stable. In the same set up.

Really soured me on this digital radio technology.

[microgpt]

One-to-one communications and broadcast communications are different. Perhaps every 4G tower could broadcast the news on a special data channel, but you don't get it for free.

[Scoundreller]

A/The real reason was that electricity meters were built around a part of the signal being used to switch between price tiers but recently phased out.