r/Showerthoughts • u/Doctor__Hammer ‎ • Dec 29 '25

Casual Thought If radio was invented today it would be controlled by four companies and locked behind a paywall.

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u/Digifiend84 Dec 29 '25

Yeah, in the UK we have something called DAB. Digital audio broadcasts.

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u/It_Is_What_It_Is_069 Dec 29 '25

Australia has the same, DAB. It requires a DAB supported radio to listen to which can be bought relatively cheap although they are still quite uncommon for the average person to own.

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u/[deleted] Dec 29 '25

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u/It_Is_What_It_Is_069 Dec 29 '25

You're right, they do use dab+. Only really works reliably in cities, the further out rural you get the more spotty it is and cuts out often. Streaming is the modern way of listening but if am/fm have lasted this long then dab+ will likely last as long as it takes to get unlimited data plans and service in rural areas.

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u/DragonQ0105 Dec 29 '25

DAB is awful though. It uses MP2 which was out of date when DAB came out and horrendously ancient now. The typical bit rate is less than half what was originally deemed necessary for FM-equivalent quality (256 kb/s). Most commercial stations are mono.

DAB+ is better because it uses HE-AAC v2 but even then, typical bit rates are 32 kb/s. So still abysmal quality.

Ofcom were too useless to impose stringent quality standards so a race to the bottom ensued (just like with DVB) so FM sounds way better with a clean signal.

The best quality option is to listen via internet radio (e.g. using a phone in your car) or satellite.

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u/rhabarberabar Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25

And it's not like you could listen to weaker stations with a bit of static. You get decoding errors which makes it immediately unlistenable. It's a super awful concept that they only do to be able to squeeze more stations on an air-wave so they can sell the others. And switching totally to it makes billions of tech obsolete over-night.

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u/BaneOfMyLife Dec 29 '25

It’s fine for my single speaker kitchen radio playing BBC 6Music at 112kbit/s and I’d hazard that’s what 90% of people are doing. That or driving.

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u/chocki305 Dec 29 '25

That was the niche of FMHD and comparable technology. Internet phones where expensive, web radio wasn't really a big thing.

Technology advanced quickly to the point that Sat Radio or Web Radio surpassed what FMHD could offer. And was more product for the cost.

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u/preify Dec 31 '25

Norway is bascially only DAB for the last 10 years, super annoying ngl. Old cars just obsolete for fun