Sound Digital

Sound Digital Network
Licensed area United Kingdom
Frequency 11A (216.928 MHz)[1]
Air date 29 February 2016[2]
Owner Arqiva (40%)
Bauer Media Group (30%)
Wireless Group (30%) [3]
Website https://www.arqiva.com/overviews/radio/sound-digital-national-multiplex/

Sound Digital is a semi national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva, Bauer Media Group and Wireless Group. The multiplex covers 73% of the population from a total of 45 transmitters.[3]

History

Following the collapse of the winning 4 Digital Group bid for the second national ensemble in 2008, the capacity was re-advertised in 2014.[4] Two bids were received, Sound Digital and Listen2Digital, a consortium run by Orion Media and Babcock International Group. [5] On 27 March 2015, Sound Digital were selected as the winner.[6]

Between award and launch, Premier Praise and Panjab Radio, a Listen2Digital station, joined the line up along with DAB+ stations Fun Kids and Magic Chilled.[7] Also, BMR and UCB Inspirational were rebranded Awesome Radio and UCB2 respectively and talkBUSINESS was replaced by Listen2Digital station Share Radio.[8]

Test transmission commenced in February 2016, which consisted of Sound Waves and Sound Waves+ for DAB and DAB+ respectively.[9] An official launch took place on 29 February, with the majority of stations launching on this date and the remainder following over the next month.

Of the 170+ cleared transmitters only 45 have been used and complaints have been made regarding the lack of coverage in Cornwall, parts of East Anglia, Scotland and Kent[10][11][12].

'Awesome Radio' was shut down on 29 August 2017[13]

On 15 May 2018 it was announced that SDL will add 19 transmitters in the South West, East Anglia, Wales and North of Scotland, increasing Sound Digital’s coverage by nearly 4 million new listeners in more than 1.6m new households.[14]

Stations carried

DAB

Service Service ID Bit rate Audio channels Description DAB launch date
Absolute Radio 80s C8D8 80 kbit/s Mono 80s music 29 February 2016
Heat Radio CFD8 Pop music, celebrity gossip and entertainment
Kisstory C4D8 Classic dance, R&B, hip-hop tunes
Mellow Magic C5D8 Relaxing and melodic music 15 March 2016
Panjab Radio CED8 56 kbit/s Mono LSF Delivering extra choice for British Sikhs and Panjabi speakers 29 February 2016
Planet Rock C7D8 80 kbit/s Mono Classic rock radio
Premier Christian Radio CCD8 64 kbit/s Mono LSF Christian music and speech
Premier Praise CDD8 Sister station to Premier Christian Radio 27 March 2016
Sunrise Radio C9D8 Asian music and speech programmes 29 February 2016
Talkradio C0D8 Mono News and current affairs 21 March 2016
TalkSport 2 C1D8 Mono LSF Live sports and sports talk 15 March 2016
UCB2 CBD8 Christian music 29 February 2016
Virgin Radio UK C3D8 80 kbit/s Mono Rock and pop music 30 March 2016

DAB+

Service Service ID Bit rate Audio channels Description DAB+ launch date
Fun Kids CFD8 32 kbit/s Stereo HE-AAC v2 National children’s radio station 29 February 2016
Jazz FM CAD7 32 kbit/s Stereo HE-AAC v2 Jazz music 29 February 2016
UnionJack C7FF 32 kbit/s Stereo HE-AAC v2 British rock/pop 9 September 2016
Magic Chilled CED7 32 kbit/s Stereo HE-AAC v2 Fresh laid-back hits 28 March 2016
ForcesRadio BFBS C5E0 24 kbit/s Stereo HE-AAC v2 Armed forces radio 24 January 2018
Jack 3 CAE0 32 kbit/s Stereo HE-AAC v2 Temporary fill before new jack radio station 6 April 2018

References

  1. ↑ "SDL National". Ofcom. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  2. ↑ "A Dozen Stations Launched On New DAB Multiplex". Radio Today. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  3. 1 2 "More digital radio stations on their way to UK listeners". Ofcom. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "Two horse race for Digital 2 DAB multiplex". a516digital. 2015-01-29. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  5. ↑ Martin, Roy (2015-01-29). "Orion Media partners with Babcock for D2 bid". Radio Today. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  6. ↑ Martin, Roy (2015-03-27). "Sound Digital wins national DAB multiplex". Radio Today. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  7. ↑ Martin, Roy. "Fun Kids to go national as DAB+ radio service". Radio Today. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  8. ↑ "Sound Digital: full station list announced". a516digital. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  9. ↑ "Sound Digital tests: See how hi-tech your digital radio is". a516digital. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  10. ↑ http://www.a516digital.com/2014/07/10-things-to-know-about-digital-2-dab.html
  11. ↑ http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/digital-radio-listeners-in-east-anglia-miss-out-on-18-dab-stations-1-4506913
  12. ↑ http://www.a516digital.com/2016/02/the-digital-radio-divide-are-you-still.html
  13. ↑ "Awesome Radio Shutdown".
  14. ↑ https://radiotoday.co.uk/2018/05/sdl-to-extend-coverage-of-national-dab-mux/
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