The death of digital

Until today, if you'd have visited LBC 97.3's listings, you'd have seen that it covers a place called "Greater London, Digital - Various". Visit Wave 105, and you'd have seen it covers a place called "Solent, Digital - Bournemouth and South Hampshire".

LBC 97.3 is available in many places across the UK, notably in central Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire, if you have a DAB Digital Radio. Alternatively, it's available everywhere if you have a Sky Digital system, or you're connected to the internet. And it's available in Greater London on FM.

Radio is multi-platform - and, in many cases, it's reaching far further than it used to. But listen to LBC, and you'll hear discussions about Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, or - today especially - discussions about yet another tube strike.

So, 'coverage' is one thing. It's nice to know where a signal reaches: which is why Media UK lists all the local DAB multiplexes and TV listings for any radio station. But it's also more important to be editorially relevant. LBC is a great listen; but it editorially focuses on Greater London, where it's listened-to by 928,000 people. The 'L' stands for 'London', after all.

That's why, today, we've removed these "Digital" additions to our listing coverage areas: and changed the label from "Coverage area" to the simpler "Editorial area". We'll not stop listing where stations are available, however you listen.

This has moved some stations from being local to national: FUN Kids, the children's radio station, is nationally-focused despite a DAB broadcast that only covers London. The same goes for services like Panjab Radio.

We hope that this makes for a simpler, easier directory.

PS: This is the first post on a new blog here on Media UK: which we'll use for media comment as well as updates on Media UK's website. Your feedback is, as ever, welcome.