Leading question

Good luck to LBC, going nationwide on DAB from next month. They've apparently secured an appropriate licence from Ofcom (which I can't find at the moment), and a nod to replace Jazz FM (dead flexible, these Ofcom guys).

It's not the first time they've flirted with DAB - from 2006, LBC was available on regional DAB multiplexes in the North West, North East, West Midlands, West of England and South Wales - but most of those closed down in July last year, with the arrival of more local multiplexes - and LBC was not moved across. From 2009, LBC replaced Chill on DAB transmissions in Edinburgh and Glasgow - but pulled out last summer. These various transmissions outside the capital didn't seem to boost audience figures much - best estimates are that they added around 160,000 in weekly reach - but then, there was not much publicity, and the service was still billed as London's Biggest Conversation.

Now the new catchphrase is Leading Britain's Conversation. In terms of news style, there's no word of a change. I'm told all bulletins are written at Leicester Square, with material from PA and Sky News' radio service. There's perhaps an opportunity of a wider network of reporters from other Global stations.

Will a national LBC grow a new audience, or chisel listeners away from 5Live, TalkSport, Radio 4 or Radio 2, with it's 50/50 speech/music daytime commitment ?  Listening figures are published quarterly, so we'll get half the story when Quarter 1 is published in May, and a full set with Quarter 2 in August. With the right publicity, they could easily add 500k to their existing 1m by then, with a target of at least 3m for the following year.