Culture minister Ed Vaizey will today formally declare his government's support for digital radio, but there will still be no date set for the FM switchoff

The uptake of digital radio - ie digital audio broadcasting - has been rather slow, with the traditional FM and AM networks still the most popular way for enjoying radio services. The commercial radio industry is split on what to do about DAB moving forward.

Some, including the big companies, want a rapid transition to digital (if only to remove the expense of having to operate concurrent FM and DAB services) and want the government to set a date for the removal of most radio stations off FM, forcing radio listeners to buy a DAB set.

Others say the current target switchover date, 2015, is completely unrealistic, and the radio industry needs a much slower period of transition. Some reckon DAB is already dead in the water, and will be superseded by internet radio before it ever has a chance to really get off the ground. The differences of opinions on this issue have led to some smaller radio firms quitting their industry's trade body RadioCentre.

'Transition plan'

While Vaizey will not go so far as to set a switch off date for FM when he speaks on the issue today, he will set out a plan for ensuring a speedy transition to DAB, with educational and financial measures to help consumers make the switch in the next five years.

But he will also call on those in the radio sector who want a quick switch over to put more effort into making the content offering of digital so much better than FM that consumers naturally want to make move to DAB. That has always been part of the strategy, though many of the digital-only services most radio groups launched in the last decade, to make DAB more attractive, have been shut down when slow consumer uptake made running said services unviable.

Of course, the BBC has some digital-only services to make DAB seem more attractive, though they are about to shut the Asian Network and were slapped down by the Beeb's Trust when is tried to close digital only 6Music.

Additional reporting by CMU Network