Ofcom has advertised 40 additional areas in the eighth and final round of small scale DAB licences.

 

The following new areas are included:

• Aberystwyth
• Andover
• Armagh
• Ballymena
• Barnsley
• Barnstaple & Bideford
• Brecon
• Burton-on-Trent & Lichfield
• Bury St Edmunds, Thetford & Mildenhall
• Cheltenham & Tewkesbury
• Chesterfield
• Chippenham & Malmesbury
• Coleraine
• Cookstown & Dungannon
• East Cornwall
• East Edinburgh & South Forth coast
• Falmouth, Penzance & Redruth
• Gairloch
• Girvan & Cumnock
• Grantham & Sleaford
• Grimsby
• Kilmarnock
• Leamington Spa & Stratford-upon-Avon
• Mansfield & Worksop
• Monmouth
• Newbury
• Newquay, St Austell & Truro
• North Powys
• Omagh
• Perth
• Peterlee
• Pitlochry & Aberfeldy
• Scunthorpe
• Skye & Lochalsh
• South Hams
• South Powys
• Stroud
• Telford & Shrewsbury
• Tiverton
• Ullapool

 

With an additional 10 areas being re-advertised from previous rounds:

• Berwickshire & Roxburgh
• Chester
• Derby
• Dundee & North East Fife
• Guildford & Woking
• Lincoln
• Kintyre, Islay & Jura
• South West Fife
• South West Sussex
• Weymouth & Dorchester

 

The closing-date for applications is 5pm on 10 December 2025.

 

Source: Ofcom

Changes on the Hereford-Worcs Local DAB ensemble:

HITS RADIO H&W has been relabelled Hits Radio H&W.

  

Changes on the North West Wales Local DAB ensemble:
HITS RADIO UK has been relabelled Hits Radio N Wal.

 

Changes on the Blackpool SSDAB ensemble:

Red Rose Radio has been removed since the previous observation.

 

Source: Wohnort

Changes on the Central Scotland Regional DAB ensemble:

Virgin Pride has now been removed. 

 

Changes on the Birmingham Local DAB ensemble:

HITS RADIO Bham has been relabelled Hits Radio Bham.

HITS RADIO PRIDE has been relabelled Hits Radio Prd.

  

Changes on the Derbyshire Local DAB ensemble:
HITS RADIO EMids has been relabelled Hits Radio EMids.

 

Changes on the Edinburgh Local DAB ensemble:

HITS RADIO UK has been relabelled Hits Radio UK.

HITS RADIO PRIDE has been relabelled Hits Radio Prd.

 

Changes on the Glasgow Local DAB ensemble:

HITS RADIO UK has been relabelled Hits Radio UK.

HITS RADIO PRIDE has been relabelled Hits Radio Prd.

 

Changes on the South East Wales Local DAB ensemble:

HITS RADIO UK has been relabelled Hits Radio UK.

  

Changes on the Surrey-NSussex Local DAB ensemble:
HITS RADIO UK has been relabelled Hits Radio Surr.

FunKids Windrush has been removed. 

 

Changes on the Cheshire Mid SSDAB ensemble:

CheshireONE appears to be running without an audio stream at the time of observation.

 

Changes on the Stirling & Falkirk SSDAB ensemble:

Edge 1 and Edge 2 have been removed since the previous observation.

 

Observation from Wohnort DAB: 

The Scottish transmitters using Block 12A were reported briefly to be transmitting a distinct ensemble labelled D1 Scotland with a different EId (albeit with the same services lineup) compared with D1 National in the rest of the UK on Block 11D. 

Since then, Block 12A in Scotland has reverted to broadcasting the same ensemble as rest of the UK.  

During its brief appearance, D1 Scotland appeared to be using the same EId as the local ensemble Wolv'ton & Shrop.  

 

Source: Wohnort

Changes on the SDL National DAB ensemble:

HITS RADIO  CHIL has been relabelled Hits Radio Chil.

 

Changes on the Bristol Local DAB ensemble:
HITS RADIO WEST has been relabelled Hits Radio West.

 

Changes on the Gloucestershire Local DAB ensemble:
HITS RADIO UK has been relabelled Hits Radio Glos.

 

Changes on the Surrey-NSussex Local DAB ensemble:
HITS RADIO UK has been relabelled Hits Radio Surr.

FunKids Windrush has been removed. 

 

Source: Wohnort

Changes on the London 2 Local DAB ensemble:

Virgin Pride has now been removed. 

 

Changes on the Essex Local DAB ensemble:

Radio Essex has switched from 80 kbit/s Mono to 112 kbit/s Joint Stereo.
HITS RADIO UK has been relabelled Hits Radio Essex. 

 

Changes on the Portsmouth SSDAB ensemble:

Bitrates changed for 4 services. 

 

Source: Wohnort

Bauer rebrands:

This month Bauer is rolling out service rebrands across its Hits Radio portfolio.

This involves switching from an all upper case format to mixed case e.g. HITS RADIO PRIDE becomes Hits Radio Prd. This is being repeated across the regions e.g. HITS RADIO EMids becomes Hits Radio EMids.

Bauer is taking advantage of the removal of regional programmes by renaming some of the regions which, hitherto, carried the HITS RADIO UK service name. With new regional names such as Hits Radio NWal (in North Wales), Hits Radio BBH (in Beds, Bucks & Herts), Hits Radio Kent, Hits Radio Essex, Hits Radio Glos, Hits Radio Surr, Hits Radio Sussx replacing the UK brand names on regional ensembles.

In Scotland, where Bauer legacy brands are still used, the service is now labelled Hits Radio UK.