You turn on your radio and it presents you with a list of the stations you can hear. Gone are the days of remembering frequencies or fiddling with presets.

DAB can also transmit text or even pictures to your radio so that, while you listen to your favourite station, the broadcaster could be streaming the latest news/sports headlines or information about the song playing to your radio's display.

On the signal side, gone are the days of fuzzy noise or dodgy reception . . . because you either get a station or you don't. In addition, one frequency can cover the whole country so you don't have to re-tune your radio as you drive from Skibereen to Skerries.

From an Irish listener's point of view, the key advantage of DAB is that it allows more stations to broadcast and, ultimately, more listening choice through more efficient use of the airwaves. For a country with fewer radio stations than San Antonio Texas, this can only be a good thing.

DAB is well established elsewhere in the world, particularly in Britain, where there are now over 30 digitalonly radio stations. These include a dedicated Smash Hits pop station, a new Virgin Classic Rock station and the most successful of all, BBC Radio 7, which airs archive material from old Hancock broadcasts to specially edited radio versions of TV comedies such as One Foot in the Grave. This is in addition to simulcasts from existing local and national FM stations.

So why is Ireland so far behind the UK on digital audio broadcasting? Like all evolving technologies, there are several ways of doing things (think Beta versus VHS in the early days of video) and the argument among Irish regulators and broadcasters has been which one to go with.

While they continue to squabble, RTE has at least stepped up to the plate, done tests and wants to be first to go to the market with it.

However, our sturdy public broadcaster will need to come up with some seriously bright new ideas because merely simulcasting several flavours of broadcasters called Ryan will not cut it with the Irish public.

Listeners are increasingly demanding choice, which means more than the standard "best music mix", morning talk programme and news on the hour every hour . . .

which almost every station is currently broadcasting.

Some choice.

At the moment we have the radio equivalent of any shade of red we want, but not blue or green or orange. . .

It's the consumer's desire for choice that has driven the success of Sky, with one in three Irish homes now subscribing to the British satellite broadcaster. Do we want the same thing to happen with our radio services?

DAB offers a bright future with its capacity for more stations, and its success will be in the content. New content. Niche content. A new style of radio.

The first step is to get DAB on air, which will drive sales of digital radio sets and thence create a market.

Since digital radio will initially be broadcasting to nobody (or a small number of early adopters) regulators need to offer broadcasters incentives . . . such as derogations on news, live programming and other current requirements . . . to attract them to make a long- term investment.

These derogations, in themselves, will lead to that new style of radio, with more niche programming and content that will drive the market.

If the regulators don't offer these incentives, listeners will get what they want anyway via satellite or over the internet, or through another of the multitude of new technologies developing abroad.

In that event we'll be left wondering in 10 years' time why we've lost our Irish identity as more of us watch Sky and listen to an American All-80s digital radio station over the internet.

Dusty Rhodes, a former broadcaster with RTE 2FM, is managing director of radio syndicator Digital Audio Productions