Digital One
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| Digital 1 Network | |
| Licensed area | Great Britain, Berlin |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 11D England, Wales, Isle of Man 12A Scotland LA Berlin |
| Air date | December 6 2002 |
| Owner | Digital One |
| Website | digitalone.co.uk |
| Coverage Map | from digitalone.co.uk |
Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, jointly owned by GCap Media and Arqiva. The multiplex covers approximately 87% of the UK population from a total of 103 transmitters. It has no coverage, however, in Northern Ireland, where there is a shortage of frequencies due to nearby VHF analogue TV services in the Republic of Ireland.
On 11th 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. Planet Rock however, has been giving till the end of May, whilst new owners, Global Radio decided a future for the station. theJazz ceased broadcasting at midnight, on 30th April 2008.
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[edit] Stations carried
The following channels are receivable on any digital-equipped DAB radio in the coverage area:
| Station Name | Bitrate | Audio Channels | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classic FM | 160Kbps | Joint Stereo | national commercial classical music station. | Also on FM. |
| Planet Rock | 128Kbps | Joint Stereo | semi-automated rock music station. | This station has now being sold by GCap Media to an unamed party, it is unknown whether it will continue.[1] |
| talkSPORT | 64Kbps | Mono | national sports and talk station. | Also broadcast on 1089/1053 AM. |
| Virgin Radio | 160Kbps | Joint Stereo | national rock music station. | Also broadcast nationally on 1215 AM & 105.8 FM in London. |
| Birdsong | 160kbps | joint Stereo | Originally used as a test transmission for Classic FM. It was recorded in 1992, in the back garden of Quentin Howard, CEO of the Digital One multiplex. | The bit rate was increased from 64kbps Mono to 160kbps on the 1st April. |
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[edit] Former Services
Services previously carried on the multiplex include :-
- BFBS Radio 3 month trial ended on midnight, 31 March 2008.
- theJazz (ceased at 24.00 March 31 2008)
- Capital Life[2]
- Core (ceased at 24:00 January 11, 2008[2], immediately replaced by BFBS Radio)
- Oneword (ceased at 24:00 January 11 2008[3] - currently broadcasting Birdsong, see below).
- Primetime (ceased May 24 2006, replaced by theJazz on December 25 2006)
- D1 Temp (ceased June 9 2005 - see Birdsong below)
- Bloomberg (ceased December 6 2003, replaced by D1 Temp)
- ITN (ceased July 1 2003)
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.
[edit] Birdsong
When financial news station Bloomberg, and rolling news station ITN News Radio ceased to broadcast within several months of one another in 2003, replacement audio services were never found due to a commitment in Digital One's broadcasting licence to provide a news station. This resulted in a station playing a loop of birdsong and ambient sounds, entitled D1 Temp which broadcast for almost two years. In June 2005, the capacity formerly used by the speech services, and later by the birdsong, was given over to a test transmission of video to mobile phones. When the service Oneword ceased in 2008 the birdsong audio once again returned to the multiplex on the Oneword channel. According to Gary Richardson on BBC Radio 4 the Birdsong is now getting a higher audience than Oneword did. This may be evidenced that Birdsong is now being broadcast at 160kbps in joint stereo - the same bit rate as Digital One's flagship stations, ClassicFM and Virgin Radio, and considerably higher than Planet Rock's 128kbps.
[edit] References
- ^ Strategy Presentation, GCap Media plc, 2008-02-11. Retrieved on 2008-02-11
- ^ a b West, Dave. "GCap closing two digital radio stations", Digital Spy, 2008-01-11. Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
- ^ Welsh, James. "Oneword Radio to shut down", Digital Spy, 2008-01-10. Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
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