As sales of digital radios accelerate, some unintended differences between the two platforms are coming to light. While Digital is superior to both AM and FM in most respects, it lags behind, literally, in one. And that’s time. Fact is: what you hear on a DAB+ device is delayed by several seconds compared to the broadcast you hear on analogue. radioinfo covered the technical details of this phenomenon back in Feb 2010, and discussed how it affects live sports such as cricket where one could be sitting in the stands, watching the action and hearing the commentary on digital radio well after the play. Now radioinfo reader Mark Flanagan suggests that the days of live phone contests on radio are numbered for the same reason. 

Mark asks: Is the time for the old “First caller through” way of winning over due to this? How unfair, from a personal perspective, is it against me giving the rest of the radio listening audience a 10 second head start in the chance to win the day’s prize? I know there is never a guarantee that I would be the first caller through but that is when we are all on a level playing field. How about when I start 10 seconds after everyone else? And I wonder how many listeners using digital radio’s actually know about this anomaly? Comments anyone?