NOW Leicester is a local commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, which serves

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

and

Rutland Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest len ...

. It commenced broadcasts on 6 December 2002 and is operated by NOW Digital on behalf of NOW Digital East Midlands Ltd, a consortium of Arqiva,

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysa ...

and Sabras Radio. The launch was delayed by the UK firemen's strike in autumn 2002, which restricted access to transmitter sites.

Original plans

NOW Digital originally proposed to use transmitters at

Copt Oak Copt Oak is a place in Leicestershire in England. It is in the North West Leicestershire district, near Bawdon Lodge, Charley and Ulverscroft. In its name, ''cop'' is an old English word for ''head'', i.e. " eeaded oak" = "pollarded oak". Fe ...

and Waltham with

Skeffington Skeffington is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. It lies 11 miles/18 km east of Leicester on the A47 Uppingham road, between Billesdon and Tugby and Keythorpe. The population at the 2011 census ...

to follow within two years of launch. However, on awarding the application the Radio Authority identified that coverage in Leicester itself may not be as good as listeners would expect, and accordingly asked Now Digital to "re-examine its transmission plans in order to address this concern",Radio Authority publishes assessment of the local digital multiplex licence award for Leicester
/ref> resulting in the adoption of Houghton on the Hill instead of Waltham. In their original application NOW Digital also identified two additional transmitter sites at Boundary water tower and

Empingham Empingham is a village in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The population of the civil parish was 815 at the 2001 census including Horn and increasing to 880 at the 2011 census. It lies close to the dam of Rutland Water an ...

, and their introduction would be reviewed during the licence period. Both transmitters carrying the NOW Leicester ensemble also carry the national commercial ensemble

Digital One Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. , the multiplex covered more than 90% of the population from 137 transmitters. Coverage was extended to Northern Ireland in July 2013. It conta ...

, but not

BBC National DAB BBC National DAB is a digital audio broadcasting multiplex in the UK, for a number of radio stations which have UK wide coverage. The multiplex is owned and operated by the BBC and is transmitted from a number of transmitter sites across the cou ...

Stations carried

The following channels are receivable on any digital-equipped DAB radio in the Leicestershire area: Neither of

Lincs FM group The Lincs FM Group was the parent company of several Independent Local Radio (ILR) stations. As of Q2 2019 the group had a combined audience of 524,000. It was based in Lincolnshire, in the UK. History The Lincs FM Group was formed in the early ...

's two stations in the area are on the multiplex.

Former services

Services previously carried on the multiplex include:

Original proposals

Now Digital and

EMAP Ascential plc, formerly EMAP, is a British business-to-business media business specialising in exhibitions & festivals and information services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History Ric ...

competed for the licence, the services proposed by both applicants were as follows:- Radio mast at Copt Oak - geograph

NOW Digital

*105.4 Leicester Sound *Sabras Sound *106 Century FM *The second East Midlands regional station from launch - awarded to Saga 106.6FM (now Smooth Radio) * The Arrow - rock music *tba - pop hits *

Cube In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. Viewed from a corner it is a hexagon and its net is usually depicted as a cross. The cube is the only r ...

- children's music, launched as Capital Disney *

Asian Plus Hindu Sanskar Radio is a Hindu teachings based radio station broadcast from Leicester. It is run by volunteers and the local Hindu temples. It transmits on DAB Digital Radio Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive ...

- Asian youth

EMAP

* 105.4 Leicester Sound * Sabras Sound * 106 Century FM (Now Heart 106) * The second East Midlands regional station from launch - awarded to Saga 106.6FM (now Smooth Radio) * 107 Oak FM - ''Local radio station for Loughborough'' * TAP - ''Asian youth'' * tba - ''Oldies'' *

XFM Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed London-wide station in 1997 and nationally in 2015 ...

- ''Indie, Alternative Rock'' *

KISS A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

- ''Dance'' * tba - ''Jazz and Soul'' Additionally EMAP proposed that the following services would be broadcast on a part-time basis: * 103.2 Takeover Radio - ''Children's radio'', Saturdays 07:00-14:00 * Leicester Sports Radio - ''Local sport'', Weekend afternoons. *

Demon FM DemonFM is a student radio station based at De Montfort University in Leicester, England. The station broadcasts online during term time. It was established in 1995 by the Communications Officer of the time, Rob Martin. The first licensed broad ...

- ''Leicester student radio'', Saturdays 18:00-24:00

References

External links

Copt Oak transmitter

Houghton on the Hill transmitter

Coverage map

{{Leicestershire Digital audio broadcasting multiplexes Radio stations in Leicestershire 2002 establishments in England Radio stations in England