MILLIONS OF MOTORISTS FACE £300 BILL TO INSTALL DIGITAL RADIOS AS MINISTERS PRESS AHEAD WITH FM SWITCH-OFF

Millions of motorists will be forced to spend hundreds of pounds replacing or converting their car radios with new digital sets.
The coalition Government is to press on with controversial plans to switch off FM and medium wave radio in favour of digital – leaving much of the nation with no option but to pay out for new equipment both at home and in the car.
Despite serious concerns that the public neither wants nor is ready for the change, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt is expected to announce he will stick with Labour’s plans for a mass switchover in the next five years.
The move will cost consumers hundreds of pounds as they are forced to update and change their analogue radios at home and in their cars, before they become obsolete.
As many as 100 million analogue radios will become largely redundant after 2015 and around 20 million car radios will be useless - leaving many without their favourite stations.
Around 20 per cent of all radio listening happens in cars but only 1 per cent of all cars currently have the capability to receive digital stations.
Motorists will either have to replace their car radios at a cost of some £300 or buy special ‘conversion’ kits that must be attached to the windscreen, often alongside Satnavs, which could also cost more than £100.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has said incorporating digital radios into new models by 2015 would ‘be a challenge, but achievable’ but that still leaves tens of millions of older cars requiring conversion.
Earlier this year the communications committee published a report urging caution on radio switchover.
It said: ‘We recommend that the Government, in collaboration with the manufacturers, should provide guidance to the public on in-car digital listening, including advice on conversion kits available and likely to be available within the timeframe of digital switchover.’
Mr Hunt is expected to reveal his definitive time line and plans for digital radio tomorrow.