On October 14 the Minister for Communications, IT & the Arts, Hon Senator Helen Coonan, announced a framework to guide the introduction of digital radio to Australia.

The framework is the first step towards the formal introduction of digital radio to Australia. It follows 15 years of consideration, trials, planning and analysis.

The CBAA is pleased the principles for digital radio implementation have been announced. At last radio has a path in the digital garden.

The CBAA also welcomes the Government's first step towards meeting its long standing commitments to include community broadcasting in the digital radio environment, and that its inclusion will be on a basis affordable to the community broadcasting sector.

The Minister's announcement provides an initial limited opportunity for community broadcasters, and foreshadowed the Government would consider funding support in the context of its Budget deliberations.

In announcing the framework the Government has acknowledged that without a co-ordinated approach, and the involvement of existing commercial, national and community broadcasters, digital radio is unlikely to be a viable consumer proposition.

Guaranteed inclusion of community broadcasting is an affirmation of its important role as a broadcasting sector, and a satisfying reflection of years of work by the CBAA and its member stations.

Of course it is a limited guarantee and the fine print is always worth reading, but at least community broadcasting has not been sprayed with digital weedicide. Instead there is a chance to see what new flowers might bloom in the digital garden. And new flowers they might be.

The Government is providing staged access to spectrum for existing broadcasters only. Wide coverage services in state capital cities will be planned first. As expected, the plan at this stage is to use the European Eureka147 system - but with an eye to improved audio coding. After a period to further explore Eureka deployment at VHF and L Band, and to explore other technologies such as Digital Radio Mondiale, decisions will be made about implementation of localised services in the capital cities as well as for all of regional and rural Australia.

The Government seems positively keen for existing broadcasters to use the opportunity to develop new services. For example, the allocation of digital capacity does not come with a requirement to simulcast. Rather, the Government is providing valuable RF spectrum to existing broadcasters with the idea that digital radio will supplement existing analog radio, not replace analog radio, at least not in the near future.

So, existing broadcasters get digital capacity and can provide new services. Don’t have to, but can. It could be a chance to provide fresh and innovative services.

The Nationals (ABC and SBS) are to share a single digital radio multiplex with no specific direction beyond that about services or bit rate.

The Commercials each get a minimum of 128kbps in respect of each existing service, with an option to extend up to 256kbps.

The Community sector jointly gets a guaranteed 128kbps in respect of each existing service, up to a maximum of 256kbps in each digital radio multiplex.

Narrowcasters and the various services that currently operate outside of the broadcast services bands have no digital opportunity at this stage, at least in the broadcast bands

The announcement means the move to digital is on for community stations in the capital cities. However, capacity is limited and so not all community broadcasters in some capital cities may be able to take up the digital opportunity in the first instance. Moreover the digital capacity that is to be available on a "joint" basis with no requirement for simulcast.

This could be seen as a problem. It certainly is not a fully fleshed digital opportunity. But careful analysis shows that all sectors have had wins and losses in the framework.

Accordingly there is a chance for the sector to take a lead in developing innovative content for the digital environment. Exactly how to develop a collective response to this opportunity is a challenge to now be worked upon.

Other work in sorting through the costing and technology details is also essential to inform the next immediate set of Government responses.

As was recently noted by Barry Humphries, in its early days analog radio was critically important in bringing a new level of self-awareness to many Australians. They found out two things of themselves they never knew before; they smelt, and they suffered from constipated blockage. Accordingly, in the main programs were 'brought to you by' vendors of products designed to enhance personal freshness and to assist regularity.

It would be nice to think that digital radio might provide a similar opportunity to innovate. Community broadcasters now have that opportunity.