News

Bedford Radio has published a manifesto setting out its vision of local radio for Bedford, to mark their official launch on DAB digital radio. The manifesto sets out what makes Bedford Radio the distinctive local radio station for Bedford. Founder & Station Manager Martin Steers said: “As a team all our volunteers are passionate about Bedford, providing great entertainment to the town, informing people about what’s going on with community groups, events, & local businesses, and engaging our listeners into getting involved.” The station launched online in 2020 and joined DAB last week.

Muxnet UK is celebrating helping to launch the UK’s 50th Small Scale DAB multiplex in Shropshire on 11 March. The first Small Scale DAB multiplex went on air in December 2021, and there has been a steady pace of launches, reaching the 50th landmark in just over two years. The new DAB multiplexes have been licensed across the country, ranging from large city-based multiplexes bringing tens of new radio stations to listeners, to more rural multiplexes. The rate of licensing and build has exceeded the speed of previous licensing initiatives, meaning community and small stations can start their migration from analogue to digital at a time where RAJAR shows analogue listening decline is accelerating.

Tone Community Media Group, operator of ToneFM, is getting ready to launch a new small-scale DAB multiplex in the coming weeks. The station is now looking for anyone interested in being on the multiplex to get in touch. Group Director Patch Jobson is pleased that the group has now reached the point where applications can be made. "With this new addition to Taunton we’re really excited and looking forward to bringing a range of services to a great listener community. As a traditional market town, our listeners are still very much big radio fans, and if we can enhance that experience that can only be a good thing."

Angel Radio +1 has launched on DAB in Portsmouth offering a time-shifted version of the community radio service. The station, which recently celebrated 25 years since it first started broadcasting, believes it’s the first time-shifted terrestrial radio service in the UK. Tony Smith, founder of Angel Radio said: “Since its first RSL in 1999, Angel Radio has been leading the way on so many fronts, creating radio by and specifically for older people. In 2015 we launched one of the UK’s first, and most innovative, Small Scale DAB multiplexes. Today we are taking that innovation one step beyond, with Angel Radio +1. Our timeshifted broadcast allows listeners to catch their favourite show if they missed it, or even just listen again to their favourite song again an hour later.”

Following a successful public consultation and the support of Ofcom, all 19 radio stations using the Winchester Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) network, some broadcasting exclusively on DAB, are available again. Managing director of Outreach Radio, Osman Sen-Chadun, founded a new rescue consortium, including Winchester Radio, Winchester Today, Outreach Radio and Southampton’s Voice FM, to get the Ofcom licences and retrieve the equipment from liquidators. On 8 February, they were back on air. With support and guidance from Ofcom, new plans were agreed and the required public consultation began. During this time, the Winchester DAB team prepared a new transmission site, just 200m away from the original site in Crabwood Farm, in sub-zero temperatures ahead of the launch.

The team behind the recreated LASER558 have obtained a licence to broadcast on DAB digital radio. Whilst a DAB (DSP) licence is available upon application these days, it marks another station using a previously unlicensed brand name and taking it legal. LASER558 will soon be on the relaunched Winchester DAB and the forthcoming Basingstoke DAB multiplexes. Station Director, Steve Bannister, said: “We are very excited to be able to announce that, after forty years of being classed a ‘pirate’ radio station, LASER558 is finally broadcasting legally in the UK and that we’ll be available on DAB Radio.

Members of Wrexham Premier Community Radio say they are "delighted" to announce that it has been granted a Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) licence by Ofcom. Wrexham Premier Radio will go live via the new Wrexham DAB multiplex on 17 February. Since the station's inception during lockdown, Wrexham Premier Community Radio has provided information, companionship, and support to those isolated and in need during challenging times. The station was born out of a necessity to combat loneliness, support mental health and well-being, and ensure that accurate information reaches those most vulnerable in our community.

A WIRRAL Christian and community radio station aims to reach a new audience after launching on a new digital service. Flame CCR, which was established in 2000, already entertains listeners from around the world through its online service and its recently launched app. After acquiring a digital licence to broadcast on the new Liverpool DAB+ in December, programme makers are excited that they can now reach many more people in the region. Station manager, Norman Polden, is very excited about its future. He said: “Now Flame CCR is a lot busier, broadcasting 24/7 from our own studios in via internet www.flameradio.org and the Flame Radio App to the world, and now also on DAB+ to Merseyside, via a transmitter on the St John’s Beacon in Liverpool city centre."

Following 13 years of online streaming, 6 Towns Radio is joining a local small-scale DAB multiplex in the new year. The community station will have a potential audience of 300,000 local people across Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. A station spokesperson said: “We’re all absolutely delighted to be able to announce the news that we’ll be available on DAB, it has been a long time coming and the hard work behind the scenes from all volunteers has meant we have got to this point." The DAB transmission network in Stoke and Newcastle is operated by local non-profit, the Alternative Broadcast Company (ABC).

Fun Coast Digital Director Alistair Clarke MBE takes a look at small-scale DAB can work well for a community. "Fun Coast Digital CIC successfully bid to Ofcom to run the digital radio transmitter in Blackpool, was awarded the licence in May 2022 and three months later on September 1st we put the first few stations live on air. One year on, in-car entertainment screens in Blackpool are bursting with 11 locally-broadcast digital radio stations providing an eclectic mix of chat and music."