Lincolnshire Update

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We’re making good progress on the build for the Lincolnshire multiplex, ready for tests in September.

All the transmitters have been installed and pre-commissioned and the telemetry is ready to go. The feeders for the the dish links are all ready, whilst the radio links are starting to be installed. This week we’re installing the contribution servers at each of the radio stations so they can provide audio to the multiplex.

We’ve still got work to do to make sure all of the dish links and circuits are working before we’re ready to test the system end to end and then get Ofcom to approve everything.

MuxCo Awarded Suffolk Licence

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Ofcom have announced today that they have awarded MuxCo Suffolk Ltd the multiplex licence to cover the Suffolk area.

The multiplex is currently scheduled to launch towards the end of next year and we plan to broadcast Heart Suffolk, Smooth Suffolk, Suffolk First, Anglia and BBC Radio Suffolk.

There is also space capacity to broadcast a number of additional radio stations. If you represent a radio station and are interested in broadcasting to Suffolk, there is more information here.

August Additions

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This weekend we’re pleased to add two new radio stations to our Surrey and South London multiplex.

Oxis Media will be launching JACK and JACK 2 tomorrow, on the 8th August. We’re pleased to welcome these stations and look forward to tuning in.

Clive Dickens, Oxis Media’s Chairman, said: “We’re thrilled to be launching two brand new JACKs into Surrey and South London. We will have a strong local commercial presence in the area as we introduce our brand to local businesses over the coming months. As always, JACK will be at the cutting edge of all things digital and we’re excited to work with various local advertisers to help reinforce their commercial messaging. We acquired the JACK brand outright earlier this year which enables great opportunities for growth, and this is the first of a number of expansion announcements we plan to make in the next twelve months.”

June and July Additions

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North Yorkshire

With the closure of MXR Yorkshire, a number of services will be moving from there to our North Yorkshire multiplex. Our favorite cheap moving companies LLC will be lending a hand thoughout the whole affaire.

Therefore on the 19th June we’ll be welcoming Capital FM, Smooth Radio and Radio Yorkshire to the multiplex.

Surrey and South London

We’re also pleased to announce that Heart’s Crawley & Surrey service will be joining our Surrey and South London multiplex on July 1st.

Readying Lincolnshire

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It’s been a long time coming, but we’re in the process of building the infrastructure necessary to launch our Lincolnshire multiplex.

Our progress, so far:

  • Circuits into the stations have been ordered and mostly installed.
  • We’ve been installing new cabins at Lincoln to house the additional equipment the rest of it, we will probably put it in a business storage. We’ve also been installing a new antenna system at Belmont to handle the extra load and the modifications.
  • The transmitters have been installed at Belmont and the others will be installed, partly alongside the work on the new cabins. Grantham is then next on the list.
  • We’ve been facing some distribution issues with our wireless links to the sites due to the large number of wind farms in the area. However we’ve been gradually working around these and also preparing some contingency planning too.

If everything goes to plan, it’ll launch in September this year.

May Additions

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We’re pleased to be announcing the addition of two new stations to our networks in May.

Orion Media will be launching Free Radio 80s on our Hereford and Worcester multiplex. The station’s currently available on DAB and AM in Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country/Shropshire, but it will be the first time it’s broadcast to Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

David Lloyd from Orion Media says:

We’re delighted to add Herefordshire & Worcestershire coverage to the footprint of Free Radio 80s. It makes a great complement to our FM service in the two counties, which continues to play a mix of new and older songs.

Free Radio 80s now safely covers the whole of the West Midlands – and listeners across the entire region can enjoy great songs from that decade, back to back.

We’re also pleased that Brooklands Radio is joining our Surrey and South London multiplex for a month-long broadcast.

Short-term broadcasts have been a big part of UK radio broadcasting for the last 20 years. More commonly seen as short-range FM RSLs, we’re keen to create a digital version. We offer, where we have availability, a way for stations to broadcast for 28 days across an entire multiplex area, covering the same territory as all of the other stations that we carry.

We’ve also been keen to make this affordable, so we’re offering it at a similar price to Ofcom’s fee for a 28-day FM RSL. There are more details here.

Free Radio 80s will start broadcasting on May 1st and Brooklands Radio on May 2nd.

 

April Changes

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On Wednesday April 1st, Heart North Wales will stop broadcasting on our Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool multiplex. We’re sad to see Heart go, and as a popular local service, we expect listeners to feel the same way.

It is always up to individual stations whether they join, or leave, a multiplex. As the multiplex operator we are keen to provide as many stations as possible and work with a variety of operators across all of our areas to find ways that work for them to broadcast on DAB. In the Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool area we’re pleased that there’s a variety of services from the local – Dee on DAB, Wirral Radio and Juice to the national – BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and Nation Radio.

Listeners will be able to keep listening to Heart North Wales by tuning to FM or listening online.

We are also pleased that on the same day, in another one of our areas, Surrey and South London, we’ll be adding an additional service to the line-up. Premier Gospel will be joining the multiplex playing a broad range of Christian Gospel music including specialist shows each evening.

Suffolk Multiplex

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Ofcom have, today, advertised a new local multiplex for the county of Suffolk.

We intend to apply for the licence with a mixture of existing and new radio services.

We are interested in hearing from potential Suffolk service providers who wish to propose a station for the area. In the first instance, please complete this form and one of the team will get back to you.