Gaydio is a radio station for the

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

(

LGBTQ+ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

) people in the United Kingdom, broadcast on 88.4 FM in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, on

DAB digital radio Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services. Types In digital broadcasting syst ...

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

, parts of the

Home Counties The home counties are the counties of England that surround London. The counties are not precisely defined but Buckinghamshire and Surrey are usually included in definitions and Berkshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent are also often inc ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

and

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, and online through its website, mobile apps, Smart Speakers and the UK Radio Player. Since October 2018 a separate company, Gaydio Brighton, also operates a service in

on 97.8FM and DAB Radio. The majority of Gaydio is networked with 6 advertising 'splits' although there is some bespoke local programming in Brighton & Manchester. Gaydio became the UK's first LGBTQ+ FM radio service when it launched full-time on Friday 18 June 2010, expanding into digital radio when it acquired the DAB licences formally owned by

Gaydar Radio GaydarRadio is a podcast on Mixcloud streaming service, which used to be a British digital radio station for gay men, lesbians and gay friendly people, on DAB multiplexes in London and Brighton and also online. It was broadcast 24 hours a d ...

in 2013. The station attracts around 850,000 listeners per month, making it one of the biggest LGBTQ+ media platforms in the UK.

History

Gaydio completed an

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

application for a full term licence which was granted on 7 November 2008 when Ofcom announced that Gaydio had been awarded a 5-year full-time community service FM licence.

Relaunch

Gaydio relaunched as a national station on Monday 7 January 2013 following the acquisition of

DAB radio Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services. Types In digital broadcasting sys ...

licences previously owned by

owners QSoft. The station now holds several UK radio licences including the original FM licence in Greater Manchester (88.4 FM), a DAB licence for London (11B DRg). The new sound of Gaydio - a mostly upbeat dance format - was accompanied by a new slogan 'The Beat Of Gay UK', and was launched at 7am on Monday 7 January 2013 with the return of the 'Chris and Emma at Breakfast' show broadcast across all three licensed areas and online.Gaydio celebrates being the 'beat of gay UK' - Gay Star News
/ref> Since then the slogan has been phased out as the station aims to broaden its appeal, with subtle changes to the music format.

Awards and nominations

External links

Gaydio official site

References

{{Manchester Radio Community radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations in Manchester LGBT-related radio stations LGBT-related mass media in the United Kingdom LGBT culture in Manchester 2000s LGBT-related mass media Radio stations in Sussex Radio stations in London Radio stations in Glasgow Radio_stations_in_Edinburgh Radio stations in Cardiff Radio stations in Birmingham, West Midlands 2006 establishments in the United Kingdom Radio stations established in 2006