Simples

Heartening news for fans of hyper-local radio - the much-maligned DAB transmission system may work out cheaper to operate than FM.

According to Radio Today and The Times, Ofcom's Rashid Mustapha has run an experiment in Brighton with off-the-shelf kit and software, broadcasting a loop of seagull noises - heard clearly across the town and in tunnels. His report suggests that while the transmission costs of a small scale FM station run at around  £10,000 per annum, this sort of operation would come in at £1,400 per annum - that's for a near-FM quality service at 160 kbps. Thus the operating cost of an entire local multiplex would be about the same as operating a single local FM transmitter.

Rashid's report says his tests were "privately-funded" - well done to whoever coughed up; I suspect, reading his report, some of it might have come from Rashid himself.