Colourful Radio is a commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting on DAB across London, Birmingham, Manchester as well as online. Colourful Radio's output is split between news, current affairs and urban music hit-list.

History

Founded in 2002 by Kofi Kusitor

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

,Love Lambeth - A very colourful radio
Love Lambeth. Colourful Radio was officially revealed in January 2004 as one of the UK's first internet audio streams. Legal commercial broadcast licences for London-wide and UK DAB were also gained in the same year. In September 2005, Henry Bonsu (former presenter on

BBC London 94.9 BBC Radio London is the BBC's local radio station serving Greater London and its surrounding areas. The station broadcasts across the area and beyond, on the 94.9 FM frequency, DAB, Virgin Media channel 937, Sky channel 0152 (in the Lond ...

) joined the station as presenter of its Drivetime show. Following a live presenter-led pilot in October 2005, Colourful Radio officially launched as a fully-fledged legal commercial radio station on 30 May 2006 with a mostly speech-heavy schedule online and on

BSKYB Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

satellite.Johnny Dee
"Colourful radio makes for bright listening"
''The Guardian'' (TV & Radio Blog), 3 April 2009. In August 2008, Gordon Mac (formerly director of

Kiss FM Kiss FM, Kiss Radio or variants may refer to: Asia-Oceania * Various Kiss FM-branded stations in the Philippines ** 95.1 Kiss FM, Lucena, Quezon ** 102.3 Kiss FM, Tagbilaran, Bohol * Kiss92 FM, Singapore * KISS 969, Sri Lanka * Kiss Radio Taiwan ...

) joimed to refresh the station line up and help improve its music output. Colourful Radio officially launched on London DAB on 2 March 2009,''Radio Today'' , Industry News , "DAB Radio now in full colour"
with Gordon Mac as Head of Station, and Henry Bonsu as Director and Head of Programmes. In June 2011, Gordon Mac decided to leave Colourful in order to start a new venture Mi-Soul.Gordon Mac leaves Colourful Radio to launch new venture"
Record Of The Day. The demise of

Choice FM Capital XTRA (formerly Choice FM) is a Global-owned radio station that broadcasts on 96.9 FM and 107.1 FM in Greater London. Nationally, it is heard on DAB Digital Radio, Freesat, Sky, Virgin Media and Global Player. It specialises in hip ...

in October 2013, left Colourful Radio as the only legal commercial radio station in the

black music Black music is a sound created, produced, or inspired by black people, people of African descent, including African music traditions and African popular music as well as the music genres of the African diaspora, including Caribbean music, Lati ...

market.Elizabeth Pears
"Is Ethnic Media Becoming An Endangered Species?"
''The Voice'', 19 October 2013. In 2014, the station moved to new studios in

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

. In February 2017, the station joined DAB in Manchester, and in March DAB in Birmingham.

References

External links

Colourful Radio website
{{London Radio Radio stations in London Internet radio stations in the United Kingdom