Jenny Abramsky, the BBC director of audio and music and one of the most powerful figures in British radio, has called for steps to be taken “immediately” to ensure the future of digital radio.

Ms Abramsky, , who is stepping down this summer, said that the biggest danger faced by the industry at the moment is "technological uncertainty", with the biggest concerns focussing on the future of DAB digital radio.

Her words come just months after GCap Media chief executive Fru Hazlitt said DAB was not economically viable and the company had agreed to close down national digital stations TheJazz and Planet Rock.

"There is no doubt that recent press coverage, fuelled by Fru’s strategy for GCap, put a question mark over the future of DAB that should concern the whole industry," Ms Abramsky said, speaking at the Radio Reborn conference today.

She said that broadcasters must work with multiplex operators and Ofcom to deliver higher signal strength which will improve the quality of reception across Britain. The Digital Radio Working Group, a body whose members include representatives from the BBC, commercial radio, Ofcom and the government, should consider ways to help dramatically speed up growth of geographical coverage.

She added that the BBC and the commercial sector should coordinate their promotion of digital radio. "If we are serious as an industry in making radio work in the digital world then we have to collaborate," she said. "The BBC and commercial radio should collaborate to deliver a universal standard electronic programme guide."

Ms Abramsky also defended the BBC's decision to invest heavily in programming, despite some criticism in recent years from commercial radio saying the public service broadcaster should scale back.

"Without content there will be no future. Content is everything. Content is what matters to audiences. Everything else, all the digital technology in the world, comes down to convenience,” she said adding that “public service broadcasting must have the financial ability to sustain content of such ambition."

The privatisation of Radio 1 and Radio2 - a move recently suggested by former Endemol executive Peter Bazalgette to address concerns over the BBC's dominant position – was also discarded by Ms Abramsky.

She said: "However alive and kicking radio is, it does face increasing threats today... And, if we are complacent, radio will increasingly struggle to compete effectively with other media and, for the BBC, its long-term role in delivering public purposes will diminish."

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