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Digital One is a national commercial
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. This should not be confused with In ...
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 contains a list of DAB and DAB+ radio stations operated by
Bauer Media Audio UK Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of Bauer Media Group owning brands; Absolute Radio, Greatest Hits Radio, Jazz FM, Hits Radio, KISS, Planet Rock, Magic, Kerrang! Radio and Heat Radio. History In early 2008, German ma ...
,
Global Media & Entertainment 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
News Broadcasting News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either video production, produced local programming ...
.


Stations carried

DAB DAB+


History

On 24 March 1998, the Radio Authority advertised for the first national ensemble to be broadcast on DAB, with the three Independent National Radio services on FM and medium wave required to be included in the ensemble. This included Classic FM, Talk Radio UK (now
Talksport Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...
) and Virgin Radio (now
Absolute Radio Absolute Radio is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Absolute Radio Network. It broadcasts nationally across the UK via digital audio broadcasting. The station focuses on alternative ...
). The licence was awarded to the sole applicant, GWR Group and NTL Broadcast to form Digital One. The original licence application included the following stations: Digital One was due to launch on 1 October 1999, but this was postponed until 15 November 1999. The "Classic Gold Rock" service eventually went on air as Planet Rock, which remains on air, having migrated from D1 to the Sound Digital multiplex in 2016; it is, however, the only one of the D1 launch stations (bar the INR simulcasts) still to be broadcasting as of 2017, and is also the longest-established DAB-first service in UK national radio, having been a digital-only service until 2013, when new owner Bauer put PR on their 105.2 FM frequency in the West Midlands (previously Kerrang! Radio); the FM berth was turned over to
Absolute Radio Absolute Radio is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Absolute Radio Network. It broadcasts nationally across the UK via digital audio broadcasting. The station focuses on alternative ...
in September 2015, leaving Planet Rock as a digital-only service once again. The "plays, books and music" service went on air as Oneword. The "Teen & Chart Hits" service became Core, and the "Soft AC" service – which was ultimately provided by the then Capital Radio Group (now part of Global Radio) was launched as Life (later known as Capital Life). The "Sports Channel" proposal was dropped as a separate entity and instead combined with Talk Radio in 2000 to form the current
Talksport Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...
as broadcast on AM and DAB. ITN's rolling news service ultimately went on air as part of the multiplex, later joined by a business news service provided by Bloomberg. "Club Dance", however, never made it to air. The space released by the absence of the Club Dance and Sports Channel services from the eventual lineup was used to allow the Oneword service to end at midnight rather than the proposed 7pm, and also freed up a slot for a melodic easy-listening music service aimed at an older audience, the Saga-operated
PrimeTime Radio PrimeTime Radio was a national UK radio station. Launched in 2000, it was part of Saga Radio Group until it became independent in 2004. It operated as a sister station to Saga DAB radio, Saga Digital radio. The line up featured a variety of pres ...
. After the closure of
PrimeTime Radio PrimeTime Radio was a national UK radio station. Launched in 2000, it was part of Saga Radio Group until it became independent in 2004. It operated as a sister station to Saga DAB radio, Saga Digital radio. The line up featured a variety of pres ...
in 2006, the original licence was amended to allow the launch of a new classic and contemporary jazz service, TheJazz which was launched on 25 December 2006, before 31 December 2006 deadline set in the licence amendment. On 11 February 2008 GCap announced that it was selling its interest in Digital One to Arqiva and that "non-core" DAB stations Planet Rock and TheJazz would be closing by the end of March 2008. Whilst TheJazz ceased broadcasting at midnight on 30 April 2008, Planet Rock was sold off and remains on air. GCap also closed down their two other D1-only stations, Core and Capital Life, prior to GCap being taken over later in 2008 by
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 Chrysal ...
.


Former services

Services previously carried on the multiplex include: * Smooth Radio Christmas – festive music service, ran from 1 November until 27 December 2011 and operated again as a pop-up in Nov/Dec 2012, 2014 and 2015 (due to the launch of Capital Xtra there was not space for the service in 2013) * Absolute Radio 80s – 1980s music service. Transferred to the Sound Digital multiplex on 29 February 2016. * Absolute Radio 90s – 1990s music service. Moved onto Digital One from 2010 – initially sharing a slot with Absolute Radio Extra – having previously been provided on local DAB; returned to local-layer DAB in January 2015 so that its capacity could go towards the addition of Magic to Digital One. Absolute Radio 90s returned to Digital One during 2018 (replacing Magic Christmas), before migrating across to Sound Digital in February 2019, as part of a wider reorganisation of Bauer's space across national and local DAB, ahead of the launch of Scala Radio on SDL in March. * Planet Rock – Classic rock music station. Transferred to the Sound Digital multiplex on 29 February 2016. * Smooth Radio
Easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...
service relaunched in 2010 as national network; local content on local/regional FM frequencies was replaced with network output also broadcast nationally on Digital One. New owners reintroduced local content on local FM/DAB in March 2014 and withdrew Smooth from Digital One in November 2014. * NME Radio (ceased on 12 July 2010) * Panjab Radio (temporary service, ceased on 31 May 2010) * Fun Kids (temporary service, ceased on 3 October 2009) *
Birdsong Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs (often simply ''birdsong'') are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalization ...
(ceased on 1 June 2009, replaced by Amazing Radio) * TheJazz (ceased on 31 March 2008) * Capital Life (ceased on 31 March 2008) * Core (ceased on 11 January 2008, immediately replaced by BFBS Radio) * Oneword (ceased on 11 January 2008 because of financial problems, replaced by Birdsong – see the section below) *
Primetime Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to b ...
(ceased on 24 May 2006, replaced by theJazz on 25 December 2006) * D1 Temp (ceased on 9 June 2005 – see the section below) *
Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...
(ceased on 6 December 2003, replaced by D1 Temp) *
ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...
(ceased on 1 July 2003) * Smooth Radio 70s (ceased on 6 October 2013) * TeamRock SID C0C1 (started on 1 May 2013, ceased on 1 July 2015) * Premier Christian Radio (started on 21 September 2009, transferred to the Sound Digital multiplex on 29 February 2016) * BFBS Radio – following an initial three-month trial service (replacing Core), which ended on 31 March 2008, test transmissions for a permanent service began on 17 April 2009 and the station officially launched as a full-time service on Digital One at 07:00 on 20 April 2009. The station was withdrawn from Digital One on 6 March 2017; broadcasts of BFBS services on other platforms continue. * Heart Extra and Smooth Extra – these stations played automated music during the daytime, simulcasting the breakfast and evening/night programmes of Heart London and Smooth London respectively. Smooth Extra launched 27 December 2014, following the removal of
Smooth Radio (2010) From 2010 to 2014, Smooth Radio was an independent, commercial, national radio station in the United Kingdom. Owned by Real and Smootha company formerly known as GMG Radiothe station was aimed at the over-40 demographic, and competed for its a ...
from Digital One (Smooth Christmas had used the slot in November/December), with Heart Extra following in February 2016 in tandem with the migration of several stations from Digital One to Sound Digital. Heart Extra and Smooth Extra converted from mono DAB to stereo DAB+ in 2019, and closed on 12 March 2020, replaced by the national Heart UK and Smooth UK feeds (already used on other national platforms such as TV)RadioToday.co.uk, 2020-03-12
/ref> The Extra stations' broadcast slots on satellite TV had earlier been switched over to Heart 80s and Heart Dance respectively. In addition to the audio services listed above a number of data services, short lived temporary audio services, and mobile video channels have been broadcast on this multiplex.


Birdsong

''Birdsong'' was a temporary transmission of a continuously looping recording of
bird song Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs (often simply ''birdsong'') are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalization ...
. When the magazine-format digital radio station Oneword ceased in January 2008, the birdsong audio returned to the multiplex on the Oneword channel and the service name of the DAB channel changed to "Birdsong", until Amazing Radio launched on 1 June 2009.


See also

* Sound Digital


References


External links


UK Digital Radio
Digital One's consumer website (not seemingly updated since 2017). {{Media in the United Kingdom, radio Digital audio broadcasting multiplexes 1999 establishments in the United Kingdom