A partnership of local community stations including Koast Radio, Lionheart Radio and Radio Northumberland have been helped by the AkzoNobel facility in Ashington. Their support has enabled the installation of DAB radio transmitters which have opened the airways to allow multiple radio stations to broadcast via the DAB network.
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00:00Axo Nobel with Deluxe Let's Colour have supported the launch and transition of local DAB radio stations and are truly helping to paint a brighter future for the community.
00:12Small-scale DAB is an innovative, cost-effective technology that enables local commercial community and specialist radio stations to broadcast on digital radio.
00:21I caught up with Richard Finch, a director of Northumberland Community Digital, to find out more.
00:26It was certainly when I was a bit younger, and a lot of people might remember that many years ago, you had a very few radio stations on the dial, and that was because frequencies were really, really limited.
00:39The great news about DAB in the digital world is that you can get a lot more radio stations into the same frequency.
00:48So here in Northumberland, where we've launched the DAB service, we can get 20 or more radio stations all on one frequency that listeners can hear in the car or at home.
01:01So Northumberland Community Digital is a consortium brought together by three local community radio services.
01:08We've got Coast Radio, we've got Lionheart Radio, which is based in Anneke, and Radio Northumberland, which is online only at the moment.
01:18So the three stations got together. We've launched a network of transmitters, and we've already got five stations broadcasting on there, with three more to come, and others in the pipeline after that.
01:32So we're delighted with the response, since we launched just a couple of months ago in February, and things are going really, really well.
01:41The whole premise behind Northumberland Community Digital and the DAB network is to support community radio in Northumberland.
01:52And community radio is a great vehicle for people to get involved in.
01:56It gives a voice to people in the local community.
01:59It provides a platform for organisations and individuals to have their messages heard.
02:06It allows people to develop skills, voluntary work, to build confidence in people.
02:18The Kingdom listen to radio every week.
02:2170% of that listening now is through digital channels like DAB, and that figure is growing all the time.
02:28So we see this as going from strength to strength.
02:31This service can be heard in a big chunk of Northumberland, so anywhere from Cramlington, really, up to just north of Annick, along the A1 corridor and towards the coast as well, for which we must thank Northumberland County Council and other local businesses, and in particular, Axo Nobel, who've been hugely supported and absolutely brilliant in bringing this service to launch.
02:57And we couldn't have done it without them.