Archive for the ‘Analogue Radio’ Category

Insight Radio for national DAB ?

July 22, 2008

Glasgow’s Insight Radio broadcasts on 101FM, from an Anniesland based transmitter, and is available throughout the UK and Europe via satellite.

The station is now reported to be in talks with DAB multiplex operators with a view to securing space on that terrestrial digital platform. This could be a national DAB network or a series of local DAB networks.

It has also been reported that the station will launch on Freesat next month.

Original 106FM Sold

July 22, 2008

Aberdeen’s Original 106FM has been sold by Canwest Media to Jonathan Arendt, Richard Johnson and current managing director Iain McKenna.

Under a licence agreement the station will continue to operate under the Original FM brand name.

Another Community Station forced to close

July 18, 2008

Just 10 months after launching, community radio station Radio Cardiff has cease broadcasting.

Radio Cardiff began broadcasting on October 8th 2007, providing local news and information with music  featuring reggae, soul, jazz, funk and house music.

The station reportedly blames the closure on a delay in funding from the Welsh Assembly Government and Cardiff County Council.

New Wave Media on the Aquisiations Trail?

July 16, 2008

Richard Findlay, former chief executive of Scottish Radio Holdings and owner of Dundee’s Wave 102, is expected to buy up five radio stations in Ireland later this week.

Findlay and his son Adam own New Wave Media and are understood to be offering more than 50 million pounds to buy the stations.

The stations are reported to be Ocean FM (Sligo/Donegal), KCLR (Kilkenny/Carlow), Tipp FM (Tipperary), KFM (Kildare) and Mid West Radio (Mayo).

Aberdeen’s Original Up For Sale ?

July 9, 2008

The north-east’s new radio station Original 106 FM could already be up for sale with owners Canwest Mediaworks reported to be preparing to exit the UK radio industry.

Canwest had previously indicated that “anything is for sale at any time at the right price” but staff at the three Canwest radio station were told on Friday that the company is “considering the sale of its radio operations”.

HCJB Discontinues SSB

June 29, 2008

HCJB The Voice of the Andes have announced that they are discontinuing their 25950kHz single sideband (ssb) transmissions.

For 20 years, HCJB has been one of the few international broadcasters transmitting on ssb. The signal was often reliably receivable in many parts of the world, even in poor band conditions, despite its relatively low power of just 1kW.

Community Radio Station to Close

June 21, 2008

London community radio station TGR Sound, broadcasting to the Bexley, Dartford, Thamesmead and Woolwich areas, will cease broadcasting at 1pm on Sunday 22 June.

A statement published on the TGR Sound website describes the financial conditions which have led to the closure:-

It is with much regret we have to announce, that as of Sunday 22nd of June, your local Community Radio Station, 103.7 FM TGR Sound will cease broadcasting.

Since its launch in 2004, the station has provided over 300 community groups with support and free publicity for their events and services, trained in excess of 5,000 people and forged partnerships with 200 organisations. This has all been achieved by the hard work and dedication of a team of mainly volunteers.

103.7FM TGR Sound was well regarded by OFCOM and had become as one of the foremost community radio stations and possibly one of the only stations that would have been in a position to offer ‘Live’ broadcasting from 6.00am to Midnight, seven days a week had it been able to continue.

However despite the efforts of our members to bring in advertising and sponsorship from the local councils and both local and national companies, it has proved an impossible task in an increasingly difficult and competitive environment.

Although regular revenue from training and hosting festivals existed, it is not sufficient to cover the total costs of running an FM Radio Station and therefore we became increasingly dependant on grants and funding to survive and pay for the cost of rent, electricity and other essential services. These forms of funding by their very nature cannot be guaranteed and a succession of rejected applications have left 103.7 FM TGR Sound with no major source of income for the remainder of this year.

We would like to thank everyone for all their hard-work and involvement – not only the volunteers but the community groups, organisations and individuals who helped to make 103.7 FM TGR Sound the number one listened to local radio station across Bexley, Dartford, Thamesmead and Woolwich.

Virgin Radio Sale Agreed

June 20, 2008

In 2000 the UK-wide AM station Virgin Radio was bought for £225m by Scottish Media Group.

At the beginning of June, The Times of India media group offered SMG £53m for the station.

SMG have confirmed the sale of the station, an EGM earlier this morning having agreed that the sale will be completed by June 30.

The station will be managed by UK based radio group Absolute Radio.

Awards for Scottish Radio

June 20, 2008

Scottish radio stations featured in the New York Festivals Radio Broadcasting Awards this year.

Clyde 1’s Superscoreboard football show took gold in the Sports Commentary/Analysis category along with  bronze in the Best Sports Coverage category.

In the Ongoing News Story category, ‘Going for Gold’, Radio Clyde’s coverage of Glasgow’s successful bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games,  took silver.

And in the Music Special category, ‘Made in Scotland’, Clyde 2’s tribute to Scottish Music, received a bronze award.

It was gold also for Forth 2’s Darran Adam who received his award in the Best Ongoing News Story category for the station’s coverage of the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections.

Radio Borders

June 12, 2008

STUART CAMERON will take over the four hour Sunday breakfast show on Radio Borders on July 6th.

It is hoped that a full country music programme  will follow by the end of the year.

Radio Borders was announced as Britain’s number one station this year in terms of having the highest audience share.

“It’s been a long time since country music formed part of the output on Britain’s leading station, and I’m quietly confident that this could change in the near future,” said Stuart, winner of the Country Music Association’s Overseas Country Music Broadcaster Award in 2002.