Virgin Radio set to return as a digital station

The UK’s new national digital radio multiplex will be run by Sound Digital, a consortium of Arqiva, Bauer and UTV Media GB, it has been announced.

Ofcom said on Friday that digital radio listeners will soon benefit from a choice of new national Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) radio stations, expected to launch in March next year.

Sound Digital’s line-up will include:

Virgin Radio – rock and pop music
talkRADIO – news and current affairs
talkSPORT 2 – live sport and sports talk
talkBUSINESS – business and finance programmes
Sunrise Radio – Asian music and speech programmes
UCB Inspirational – Christian music
Premier Christian Radio – Christian music and speech
Jazz FM – jazz music
British Muslim Radio – Asian music and speech
Absolute 80s – 80s music
Magic Mellow – relaxing and melodic music
Planet Rock – classic rock music
Heat Radio – pop music, celebrity gossip and entertainment
Kisstory – ‘old skool’ dance tunes and anthems

In July last year Ofcom advertised a licence to run a second national digital radio multiplex, which will expand the number of digital radio stations and provide more choice for listeners.

The new multiplex – the airwaves needed to broadcast digital radio stations – launches as recent studies show that almost half of UK adults say they now own a DAB digital radio set and 36.3% of all radio listening is on a digital radio.