Switch Scotland is a DAB digital radio multiplex broadcasting across

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Central Belt The Central Belt of Scotland is the area of highest population density within Scotland. Depending on the definition used, it has a population of between 2.4 and 4.2 million (the country's total was around 5.4 million in 2019), including Great ...

, with its coverage area encompassing major population centres such as

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 ...

and

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 ...

and the surrounding area. The service overlaps with local-level DAB multiplexes centred on particular cities and towns (such as Score Glasgow and Score Edinburgh), meaning that listeners in central Scotland are able to tune into three levels of coverage - national, regional and local services. Stations carried on Switch Scotland include relays of local FM/MW services and also of stations only available in that area on DAB. Many of the DAB-only stations are relays of programmes from other areas:

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

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 ...

and

Heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide t ...

originate in London and Kerrang! Radio in Birmingham. Prior to Smooth Radio parent

GMG Radio GMG Radio, and for a short while Real and Smooth Limited, was a company that owned the Real Radio and Smooth Radio networks. As GMG Radio, the company was the radio division of the Guardian Media Group until it was bought in 2012 by Global Rad ...

taking over the former Saga 105.2, the regional multiplex carried a relay of

102.2 Smooth Radio Smooth London is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Smooth Radio network. It broadcasts to the Greater London area from Croydon transmitting station on 102.2 MHz. It broadcasts a soft adult contemporary radio ...

from London, with Glasgow-based Saga on the Glasgow and Edinburgh local multiplexes (in Edinburgh, the Glasgow service was relayed in place of the defunct Saga Digital.) After the Saga-Smooth changeover, Smooth London on the regional multiplex gave way to a relay of Glasgow's Smooth, and the ex-Saga slot on the local multiplexes was used by the GMG-owned jazzfm.com; in Glasgow this later became the new

Jazz FM (UK) Jazz FM is a radio station broadcasting on digital radio in the United Kingdom and Malta which predominantly plays jazz music, jazz standards as well as blues and soul music. The station, in this incarnation set up by Richard Wheatley, traces i ...

, but in Edinburgh this slot was then used to relay another GMG-owned Glasgow-based station,

96.3 Rock Radio Nation Radio Scotland (formerly ''XFM Scotland (2014), 96.3 Rock Radio'' ''Real XS,'' ''Q96'' and ''96.3QFM'') is a Scottish independent local radio station for Renfrewshire, Glasgow and West Central Scotland, owned by Nation Broadcasting. ...

, instead. Two more recent changes to services on this multiplex had both been actioned by Global Radio: the removal of rock station The Arrow in favour of a relay of the London version of

, and the relaunch of Xfm Scotland as Galaxy (which resulted in a change to the DAB arrangement, which had been carrying Xfm Scotland and Yorkshire-based

Galaxy Digital Galaxy Digital was a radio station broadcasting through the digital platform across the United Kingdom and was owned by Global Radio. It primarily broadcast in areas where Galaxy was not represented on FM, such as London, Leicester, Nottingham, ...

, and changed to carrying

Xfm London Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative rock, alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global Media & Entertainment, Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed Lon ...

and

Galaxy Scotland Capital Scotland (formerly known as Beat 106, XFM Scotland, and later Galaxy Scotland) is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global. It broadcasts to Scotland's Central Belt, an area surrounding the two cities o ...

). Following the merger of Galaxy into the

Capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

network in January 2011, Galaxy Scotland was rebranded as Capital Scotland. Following the relocation of Jazz FM to the

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 ...

multiplex, and the relaunch of Manchester's Rock Radio as

106.1 Real Radio XS XS Manchester is an Independent Local Radio station serving Greater Manchester, broadcasting a mix of indie and alternative rock music, speech and news output. The station is owned and operated by Communicorp UK and broadcasts from studios at Spi ...

, GMG made changes to their station lineup on DAB in Scotland. Smooth Radio (Glasgow) was removed from the regional multiplex and rolled down to the Glasgow local multiplex, which also continues to carry

96.3 Real Radio XS Nation Radio Scotland (formerly ''XFM Scotland (2014), 96.3 Rock Radio'' ''Real XS,'' ''Q96'' and ''96.3QFM'') is a Scottish independent local radio station for Renfrewshire, Glasgow and West Central Scotland, owned by Nation Broadcasting. ...

. Programme sharing between the Manchester and Glasgow rock stations ceased as GMG were initially proposing to sell the Glasgow station (though this plan was later abandoned). The ex-Smooth slot on the Central Scotland multiplex was then taken up by the Manchester-based Real XS. The ultimate aim of these changes appears to be to continue carriage of the Glasgow-area local FM franchises of Real XS and Smooth to the Glasgow DAB multiplex, whilst providing listeners in Edinburgh and elsewhere with access to the network versions of the stations. BBC Radio Scotland is not carried on this regional multiplex: it is instead carried on the local-level multiplexes around Scotland. However, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal is carried on the regional multiplex, meaning it is not carried on the local multiplexes for Edinburgh or Glasgow (in other areas not served by this multiplex, both BBC stations operate on local muxes).

Transmitter sites

Switch Scotland currently broadcasts using block 11D (222.064 MHz) on the following sites:

Current line-up of services

The stations currently carried on Switch Scotland are:DAB in the UK
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References

{{Radio in Scotland Digital audio broadcasting multiplexes