Now digital radio in Canberra is usable since, from 5 October, we have finally had a number of ABC stations joining the commercial stations.
Not all the ABC stations, but the ones that are on AM, plus three digital-only stations: ABC Jazz, ABC Grandstand and Triple J Unearthed. Presumably we will also get ABC News Radio, ABC Classic FM and Triple J when we finally move (probably in 2013) beyond the trial phase to a formal implementation of digital radio. The ABC had to choose which to put up in a constrained trial environment (we only have one subchannel — 10B — at the moment, while Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have three — 9A, 9B and 9C).
So here are all the channels presently available on digital radio in Canberra, along with the bitrates with which their contents are compressed in AAC+ format:
| Station | Bitrate |
|---|---|
| 104.7-HIT MUSIC | 64kbps |
| 2CA Digital | 64kbps |
| 2CC Digital | 64kbps |
| 666 ABC Canberra | 48kbps |
| ABC Jazz | 56kbps |
| ABC Grandstand | 48kbps |
| ABC Radio National | 48kbps |
| Classic Hits Plus | 64kbps |
| Hot Country | 64kbps |
| MIX 106.3 FM | 64kbps |
| My Canberra | 64kbps |
| RADAR RADIO | 64kbps |
| SBS Radio 1 | 48kbps |
| SBS Radio 2 | 48kbps |
| SBS Chill | 80kbps |
| SBS Pop Asia | 80kbps |
| Triple J Unearthed | 56kbps |
ABC Jazz, incidentally, is identical to that available on digital TV on Channel 201, except that it runs one second behind on digital radio. Likewise SBS Radio 1 and SBS Radio 2 are on Channels 38 and 39 respectively of digital TV. They both run about 2.3 seconds behind on digital radio.
Comparable? Well SBS on digital TV uses two channel MPEG2 audio at 160kbps, and it’s all talk so to speak. Both the ABC ‘radio’ channels on digital TV — ABC Jazz and ABC Dig — are also delivered with MPEG2 audio, but at 128kbps and, surprisingly, in 1.0 channel format! Yes, I’ve just been switching between ABC Jazz on digital radio and on digital TV, and the former is stereo and the latter mono.