The new radio listening figures show healthy numbers for digital radio stations - what does this mean for listeners?

"This is a historic press conference" announced the head of Rajar, radio's official audience research body. "For the first time, we have listening figures for digital radio."

And very good they are too - as far as they go. Just a handful of digital radio stations have submitted themselves for measurement so far, but the figures they announced took many people by surprise.

The dance station Kiss 100 attracted 961,000 digital listeners, while two of its sister stations - Smash Hits Radio and Kerrang! Radio - each won more than 750,000.

Why is that surprising? Because there aren't that many of the new digital radio sets, sometimes called DAB sets, in British homes.

The Digital Radio Development Bureau - which said it was encouraged by the Rajar figures - estimates that by the end of this year 500,000 stand-alone digital radios will have been sold, rising to a million by the end of 2004.

So how can so many more people be listening to the digital stations?

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