Digital Radio Bureau unveils ‘first portable set’ for £99

The first portable digital radio, costing &£99, will hit the shops next week – months ahead of schedule – to kick-start a marketing campaign.

The Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB), funded jointly by the commercial industry radio and the BBC, is offering the limited edition radio in association with manufacturer VideoLogic. It will go on sale in selected shops around the UK from December 12.

The product will be backed by a two-week promotion across 25 radio stations, and ads in national newspapers.

The move is the first phase of a DRDB campaign to promote the medium. A new digital radio “kitemark”, to be unveiled by the DRDB on December 19, will appear in stores and on manufacturers’ ads, emulating the Intel Inside branding used on PCs.

In addition, local and national radio ads, created by Radioville, will be launched in January. These will feature a sonic identity to complement the kitemark.

Digital radio consortium MXR is launching an advertising campaign for digital radio LCD screens to encourage digital radio owners to buy a Psion Wavefinder digital radio tuner for their PCs.

Last week Goodmans announced that it is to launch a range of digital radios – costing between &£100 and &£200 – in the second half of next year.