News

Pure West Radio has launched on both the North Pembrokeshire and South Pembrokeshire DAB digital radio multiplexes. This milestone for the station takes it from an online service to one that can be heard across its coverage area on terrestrial radio. “Launching on DAB marks an important chapter in Pure West Radio’s journey,” says Toby Ellis, Station Manager. “Our goal has always been to keep Pembrokeshire connected and bring our communities closer together. Expanding to DAB allows us to reach new listeners across the county and provide them with the local stories, news, and music they love.”

Celtic Music Radio is pleased to announce that the station is now available on DAB digital radio in the Inverclyde area, the third Scottish area to enjoy such a service. “Celtic Music Radio has been providing a service via DAB in the Greater Glasgow and Edinburgh areas for some time,” said Alex Jenkins, chair of the station’s board of directors. “Inverclyde has been in the pipeline for a while so we are delighted to finally provide DAB there as it demonstrates our ongoing commitment to delivering quality programming to more and more listeners.”

Spark Radio will be broadcast around Southport and the surrounding area on DAB+, reaching an audience of up to 330,000 listeners. This is a fantastic milestone as our learner-run station brings its shows, podcasts and music to a wider community. This will not only provide a valuable platform for our talented students to showcase their skills but also enriches the local radio landscape with fresh, creative content from the next generation of broadcasters.

Ofcom has published an outline of frequency block usage for small-scale DAB across the United Kingdom. The UK media regulator says: "The maps show which frequency blocks have been allocated to each small-scale DAB area that Ofcom anticipated advertising when considering the licensing of small-scale DAB. The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the frequencies used, or planned for future use, by small-scale DAB across the UK. With over 60 multiplexes on-air, about 40 more licensed and yet to come on-air, and 25 areas being assessed, the overall frequency plan is not expected to change significantly. However, all frequency plans evolve over time and the allocations depicted on the maps may change to some extent."

Three years after In Demand Radio launched on DAB across Liverpool and the Northwest, it’s time to launch a second station for the area. In Demand Decades will play songs from across the decades. Steve Laycock, In Demand Radio Managing Director said: “In Demand Radio has proved that local and live radio works, the audience wants radio to serve them in their area. Our stations will always be local, our studios will always be here.” The station will launch on DAB on 4th November.

The small-scale DAB multiplex for South Gloucestershire has launched allowing local radio stations to ‘go digital’. Local not for profit company, South Glos Digital Community Interest Company (SGDCIC), has successfully launched the operation covering a large part of South Gloucestershire along with the crossroads. The company is supported by Thornbury Radio, community donations and grants from Thornbury Town Council and Thornbury Rotary, and has Nick Piggott from Muxnet as technical consultant and technical provider. David Wrench, Director of SGDCIC said, “Our DAB transmissions will benefit listeners across South Gloucestershire by bringing them a wider choice of radio stations including a new way to listen to Thornbury Radio.”

Listeners in the south of Gloucestershire, a county in southwestern England, can now tune in to community station Thornbury Radio on DAB following the launch of a new DAB multiplex. The local not-for-profit organization South Glos Digital Community Interest Company (SGDCIC), backed by Thornbury Radio, community donations and support from Thornbury Town Council and Thornbury Rotary, successfully launched its SSDAB service, covering much of South Gloucestershire. “Our DAB transmissions will provide listeners across South Gloucestershire with more radio choices, including a new way to listen to Thornbury Radio,” said David Wrench, director of SGDCIC. “With our network’s capacity, we’re offering smaller commercial stations, charities and community groups the opportunity to establish their own radio services in the area.”

Ofcom has today published a progress update on its small-scale DAB roll-out across the UK with 115 licences awarded and 64 new multiplexes so far launched. Small-scale DAB is an innovative technology which provides a low-cost way for local commercial, community and specialist radio stations to broadcast on digital radio. Each Ofcom-licensed small-scale multiplex allows grass-roots community services, specialist music stations, and services aimed at minority groups and other under-served audiences to take to the digital airwaves. Importantly, it provides a pathway to DAB for existing analogue (FM or AM) community radio stations, as well as smaller or more specialist commercial radio services who have found it difficult to obtain and afford slots on the existing local radio multiplexes, which serve much larger areas.

Christmas Radio has launched once again this year on DAB in Portsmouth. The station, which is also online, is playing “all your festive hits, all day” on the local small-scale multiplex till December 31st. The presenter line-up includes Santa, who will be playing festive songs and talking in between them. Station Owner, Gary Milchard said: “We at Christmas Radio are delighted to return to Portsmouth again. Christmas is such an exciting time for many of us and we can’t wait to share the festive period with everyone in the city.”

Pure West Radio is getting ready to launch on DAB digital radio in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. The station is waiting for the new small-scale DAB multiplex to be launched in the area, using five transmitters, which will see the station extend to DAB after six years of online streaming. “This is a very exciting time for Pure West Radio as it means we’re now going to be able to continue to expand in so many different directions,” said Pure West’s director, Toby Ellis. “Our move to DAB will enable more people to remain connected to our platform as we continue delivering interviews, local news, information and of course a whole load of quality music.”