Digital One suffers more closures 

12 January 2008 tbs.pm/7

As my colleagues have already pointed out, DAB, or more precisely the Digital One multiplex, has lost two more stations. Oneword’s closure was not a big surprise, it was expected and predicted for quite some time. And Core has been looking dicey ever since GCap announced that they were not investing in Core or Life. So the news of Core’s closure is not wholly unexpected either. And I am waiting to find out when Life will be for the chop. I liked that station, despite the fact that it is mostly a jukebox. It’s one of the few places on commercial radio that still broadcasts the 3 minute IRN bulletin.

But there is good news, as the death of Core has led to the arrival on DAB of BFBS Radio 1. Radio 1 is your basic music and news station, although with a particular bias towards the forces and defence news. Although this is only a trial service, I for one welcome the arrival of BFBS onto DAB. It’s good to see it, and I look forward to seeing who else arrives onto Digital One. When Life closes, that will free up more space for a station that can truly do the business, and when the Mobile TV service that is currently using some of the Digital One multiplex closes later this year, perhaps, just perhaps, we will see some better radio services.

It won’t be too long before we will see the new multiplex from 4 Digital Group launching. I’m already waiting for the first signs of test transmissions from that multiplex, and with services inlcuding Channel 4 Radio, Pure4, Sky News Radio, Original and the return of the original Talk Radio, I’m itching to see just what GCap will do with the Digital One multiplex now that real competition is coming nationally to digital radio.

A Transdiffusion Presentation

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Ian Beaumont Contact More by me

A member of the Transdiffusion Broadcasting System
Liverpool, Friday 29 March 2024