Commercial Radio Australia are to trial sending Podcasts over-the-air via DAB+ to a listeners radio eliminating any need to connect to the internet.

Podcasts are great. You pick what programme you want and listen to it when it suits you best. The downside is you need to find them, download them, and transfer them to an mp3 player and so on. Broadcasting Podcasts direct to a radio receiver eliminates all that downside leaving listeners with just the benefits.

This is what we love about DAB radio. Lots more stations, Slideshow displaying graphical content relevant to the audio and, with this trial, we can add the benefit of on-demand programming.

Similar trials have been carried out in the UK by All-In-Media with great success. We expect the same from Australia who are rapidly becoming the most innovative country for digital broadcasting.

The press release from Commercial Radio Australia reads as follows;

Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), Ms Joan Warner, and Mr Xuegang Qin, managing director of Beijing Jolon Digital Media Broadcasting Co.,Ltd (affiliated to Radio Beijing Corporation), today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between CRA and Jolon to develop a groundbreaking DAB+ digital radio application that will allow podcasts to be sent via the broadcast band directly to a listener’s radio without the need to connect to the internet.

Named “Push Radio”, the technology, developed by Jolon, will send an audio file directly to a DAB+ digital radio receiver instead of requiring the listener to connect their iPod or mp3 player to the internet to receive programming.

“Commercial Radio Australia is very pleased to announce we will be working collaboratively over the next 12 months with one of the most influential Chinese public broadcasters, Jolon, the market leader in digital broadcasting in China, to further develop and test Push Radio,” said Ms Warner.

Mr Xuegang Qin, managing director of Beijing said Jolon is delighted to be working with Commercial Radio Australia. “Jolon and CRA will harmoniously work together to promote the application of DAB+ Push Radio and explore its many practical applications,” said Mr Qin.

The MoU outlines a framework for a strategic partnership to identify, define and manage all stages of technical co-operation to develop and jointly promote technical specifications of DAB+ Push Radio.

The two organisations will set up a task force to operationally test the current technical standards for DAB+ and DAB+ Push Radio and hope to have a trial of the system in Australia late in 2010.

Podcasts are another example of how the radio industry has adapted new technology to extend its audience. There are more than 4,661,046 podcasts downloaded each month in Australia. (Source = CastMetrix, February 2010)

“To free listeners from the necessity to connect to the internet to receive podcasts and other specific information and targeted programming is a major step forward for DAB+ digital radio,” Ms Warner said. “Push Radio will make a podcast even more accessible for all digital radio listeners.”

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1. New DAB Trial