Digital radio is coming to Ireland, with a new working group consisting of RTÉ, Today FM and Newstalk and others helping to make it a reality.

Digital radio services, which need a Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) radio to enable reception, are already taking off in the UK, where 7.45million sets have been sold.

With its popularity increasing because of its benefits over analogue radio - such as no fuzziness, and a screen which tells you what station, show and song you’re listening to - Ireland is making plans to follow suit.

Trials are already underway with 11 current stations: 98FM, FM104, Newstalk, Phantom, Q102, RTÉ 2fm, RTÉ Lyric FM, RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ Radio na Gaeltachta, Spin and Today FM. They’ve also formed a working group to raise common issues.

In addition, RTE has begun trialling four new digital radio-only stations yesterday with another two planned in the next two montha, all operating within the €250,000 budget it’s set aside this year for new technology such as podcasts and DAB radio. As such, the stations are currently operated on a low-cost, no-advertising model which has no presenters or DJs.

Of most interest to Hot Press readers is a “cutting edge music service” that is being tested as 2XM. While RTÉ is not officially commenting on the service, it is believed to play modern alternative music, with mogul Mark McCabe at the helm.

“RTÉ has no projections regarding listenership,” explains a spokesperson about their new services. “The key measurement of listenership will be number of DAB Radio sets sold and we would like to see 50,000 sold by the end of 2009.”

The trial is set to run until November, by which time RTÉ are expected to have been awarded a full licence by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI).

However as the BCI are yet to decide how commercial broadcasters are to be awarded their licenses, sthe other stations are expected to operate under temporary licences after the November deadline.