News

Great British Radio is extending its coverage to Wales and Scotland via DAB+. The station, which is already on DAB in Herts, Beds, Bucks, North London, South London, Surrey, Newcastle and Winchester, is joining Edinburgh and Cardiff. Managing Director, Mike Huston told Radio Today: “I am thrilled that Edinburgh and Cardiff can now enjoy Great Laughs Great Guests and Great Music on DAB. “We have ambitious plans for the brand, and we are proud that our popular unique format with no news, continues to increase in popularity and we are now on DAB across the three capitals, London Edinburgh and Cardiff.”

Capital, from Global, has announced a brand new radio station, Capital Chill, dedicated to chilled beats. Capital Chill launched across the UK on Monday, 13 February, playing a mix of chilled house, deep house and ambient dance music as well as classics from the likes of Groove Armada, Chicane, Röyksopp, Massive Attack, Moby, Bonobo and more. Capital Chill joins sister stations Capital, Capital Dance, Capital XTRA, Capital XTRA Reloaded on DAB Digital Radio across the UK, on Global Player on both your app and at globalplayer.com and on your smart speaker. The launch of Capital Chill follows the massive success of Capital Dance, which launched in October 2020, and has grown 54.1% year-on-year and now has nearly a million weekly listeners.

Radio broadcasters and sound and audio executives from Africa and beyond will converge in Maputo, Mozambique, for the Radio And Digital Audio Broadcasting Convention – Africa, on Tuesday, 18th – Thursday, 20th April 2023. With the theme “Radio Broadcasting in a Digital World – Reaching the Next Level”, the Convention convened by the Southern Africa Broadcasting Association (SABA) and Broadcast Media Africa (BMA) will be hosted by Radio Mozambique. Commenting on the hosting of the Summit, the Director-General for Radio Mozambique (RM), Mr Abdul Naguibo Addula, said: “We believe the Summit will provide us with tools to help accelerate the development of digital radio in Mozambique and indeed across Africa."

On the occasion of World Radio Day, Top Music interviewed Christophe Schalk, director of Top Music and president of SIRTI (Syndicat des radios indépendantes). "DAB+ was launched nine years ago in France, and in Alsace we have been broadcasting our stations in DAB+ for four years now throughout the area. At present, all the radio players in France, the national players, public radio and us, the independent private operators, have joined together in an association called "Ensemble pour le DAB+" (Together for DAB+) and we are now going to start a communication campaign on this broadcasting method and therefore on reception for the general public."

AM/FM is increasingly becoming a thing of the past. Digital radio has seen a huge increase in listenership over the last five years. In 2022, it represented 42% of listenership in French-speaking regions of Belgium – a massive jump from just 17% in 2018. The findings were published by Maradio.be and Ipsos on Friday. The study was conducted on a sample of 1,501 French-speakers aged 12 and over between November and December 2022.

Radio Essentials has started broadcasting in Sheffield offering local residents another choice of music radio stations. Essentials has been streaming online since October 2022 but has now made the move to DAB. The station’s programme director Lee Glasby commented: “We’re so excited to be bringing the station to the people of Rotherham and Sheffield. “Our journey up to now has been amazing from setting up the station a year ago with business partner Stephen to now, broadcasting on DAB. “The station plays a mix of the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and selected hits from today along with specialist music shows at the weekend including Essential, Rock, Cheese, Synthwave, Dreamscapes, Soul and dance classics.”

Video Killed the Radio Star, sang The Buggles, but more than 40 years later we know that radio, thanks to digital, survived the bombing and is in excellent health. 13 February is World Radio Day and thus the anniversary of the first UN radio broadcast in 1946. It is therefore an ideal time to take stock of the spread of the most cutting-edge technology: DAB (digital audio broadcasting). It is little known to the general public, although it is used daily by millions of Italians. Unbeknownst to them during so-called drive time, its frequencies are being played on their car radios. As of 2020, in fact, all cars purchased in Europe will be compulsorily fitted with DAB (actually DAB+) and also FM systems.

On World Radio Day, this year under the slogan 'Radio and Peace', RTVE has launched an initiative to support the Ukrainian people and its public radio, within the framework of the public service function of the Corporation: the temporary broadcasting of the generalist channel of the Ukrainian public radio, Suspilne Ukraine, which can be heard through Radio Nacional de España in its DAB broadcasting in Madrid and Barcelona.

Digital radio use is increasing across all regions, age groups and places of use, while FM continues to decline. Radio listening via the internet is becoming increasingly popular, although DAB+ remains the most widely used platform for radio listening. Last year, almost half a million new DAB+ radios came into use. In autumn 2022, radio listeners used digital platforms for an average of 77 out of 100 minutes of radio every day. Home is by far the most popular place to listen to the radio (63% of all radio use), followed by the workplace (18%) and the car (13%). The highest proportion of radio use in cars is now via DAB+ (51%). What's more, for several years now 99.9% of all new passenger cars have come with a DAB+ radio fitted as standard.

On 13 February, UNESCO celebrates World Radio Day. The date reflects the founding of United Nations Radio on 13 February 1946. Radio is the information medium that reaches the most people worldwide. They value it as a reliable source of relevant, authoritative news, even in times of crisis. The ARD information stations broadcast regionally and nationally, as well as the national station Deutschlandfunk, play a part in this. Radio is listened to around four hours a day in Germany - digitisation is driving progress: the use of DAB+ stations in particular is growing, reported the market research institute agma. In the widest listener group, DAB+ has a share of 27.0% (listeners aged 14 and over, ma 2022 Audio I: 24.5%).