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Radio stations team up for DAB application

The station managers of Embrace, Revolution, NLive and Inspiration FM

All 4 of Northampton's local community radio stations have come together to apply for a new DAB multiplex licence from Ofcom.

Northampton based Ofcom Community Radio Stations, Inspiration FM, NLive Radio, Revolution Radio, and Embrace Radio are coming together to jointly bid for the local DAB MUX which is currently open for applications.

If successful it will enable all these stations and more to broadcast on DAB across the Northampton area, serving the local are with local radio services and securing a DAB future for these stations.

Martin Steers, Station Manager of NLive Radio said: “It's great that we've managed to bring the stations together with a single purpose, I hope it's a start of a good positive relationship which may lead to other opportunities of collaboration”

The joint bid will see the stations form Northampton DAB a new community based organisation to bid for, and operate what is known as a small scale DAB (SSDAB) MUX which will enable all those stations and many more broadcast across the town.

The group are interested to hear from other existing stations, or aspirational stations across the area, local, regional or even nationally that might be interested in broadcasting to Northampton.

Mark Dean, Joint Station Manager of Inspiration FM said: “As Northampton's longest running community station, we're proud to be a partner of this joint venture and look forward to the opportunities it brings to Northampton's diverse communities”

As well as the existing four community stations, there is opportunities for other community groups and organisations to look to launch new stations to serve groups and communities that are currently underrepresented and underserved by existing stations.

This could be anything from stations of common interest to ethnic groups, and religious organisations.

Jim Byrne, Director of Embrace said “All the local stations working together makes us stronger together and a more sustainable future for us all, as a local guy I believe in the Northampton and what we can do as one town together”

The application process is being managed by regulator Ofcom, with the deadline in the middle of November, hopefully there will be an announcement made after Christmas. If successful, they will have 18 months to launch the MUX and get the service on-air.

Chris Gregg, Station Manager of Revolution Radio said: “Bringing Northampton together is part of our aim at our station, we are excited to be part of a joint bid that brings the stations of the town together”

Anyone wanting to find out more is encouraged to head to northamptondab.co.uk especially anyone that may be interested in launching a station in Northampton and want to be part of the mix of stations at launch.

 Local news content from CItiblog - read more at citiblog.co.uk

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