Independent national radio

Legislation in 1990 empowered the Radio Authority (now taken over by Ofcom) to award at least three independent national radio licences by a process of competitive tender. Until then the only national stations belonged to the BBC. The legislation required that one of the services should be speech-based and another devoted to music other than pop music. The third licence was open to 'all-comers'. The three licences were awarded to:

• Classic FM, the UK's first independent national radio station, which began broadcasting a classical music service in September 1992. Today, Classic reaches 6.3 million listeners each quarter of the year;

• Virgin 1215, which came on air in April 1993 and plays mainly pop and rock music. Virgin, which broadcasts on AM, is now owned by Scottish Media Group and reaches 2.8 million listeners a quarter. It is supplemented by a separate Virgin station, which operates under a local London licence on FM – awarded in 1995; and

• Talk Radio UK, which came on air in February 1995 as a speech-based service. Following significant changes, it is now a sport and chat network called TalkSport. Owned by The Wireless Group, it reaches 2.22 million listeners each quarter.

All three stations broadcast 24 hours a day. In addition, UK listeners can receive an Irish commercial radio station – Atlantic 252 – which broadcasts across about two-thirds of the UK, although it does not operate with a UK licence.

Independent local radio

Independent local radio (ILR) stations have been broadcasting in the UK since 1973 when the first two – LBC and Capital Radio – went on air in London. Since then ILR has firmly established itself. More and more of its services – currently about 254 (including 16 regional licences) – go out to towns, cities and rural areas throughout the UK and the number is set to increase. ILR stations broadcast a wide variety of programmes and news of local interest, as well as music and entertainment, traffic reports and advertising. There are also stations serving minority ethnic communities.

Ofcom awards independent local licences. They are not allocated by competitive tender. The success of licence applications is determined partly by the extent to which applicants meet the needs and interests of the people living in the area and partly by whether they have the necessary financial resources to sustain programme plans for the eight-year licence period. Some of the locations for stations have been selected with small-scale community radio in mind. To develop a wide range of radio services, Ofcom is licensing a number of more specialist stations.

Digital audio broadcasting

Although it is in the earliest stages of roll-out, an exciting development in UK radio is the arrival of digital audio broadcasting (DAB). DAB involves compression of data that, in simple terms, means more stations can be broadcast in the same piece of radio spectrum. Digital stations are broadcast via national or local/regional multiplexes and also carry a text channel. The key benefits of DAB are simplicity of operation, improved sound quality (especially in-car) and more stations to choose from. Most people will continue to listen via radio sets.

Currently there are two national digital radio multiplexes, both of which are capable of providing 9–10 services. One is controlled by the BBC, which switched on the world's first digital audio pilot service in September 1995, the other is reserved for independent national radio. The BBC's national multiplex offers simulcasts of some of its national stations and is constantly working to provide new services. There are five ways to listen to BBC digital services – via DAB radio, digital satellite and cable TV, Freeview and the internet. The first national commercial digital multiplex, operated by Digital One, began broadcasting on 15 November 1999. At the launch, the three existing national stations (Classic, Virgin and TalkSport) plus two new national stations (Core and Planet Rock) were available. In 2000 other stations were launched, including Life and Oneword. Digital One also has capacity for text, multimedia and interactive services. Its coverage of the UK is over 80 per cent of the population.

In addition, a multiplex is being made available for local services in most parts of the UK. In May 2000 a consortium called CE Digital began broadcasting in Birmingham, Greater London and Manchester having been awarded the first three local digital multiplex licences in 1999. While national multiplex licences are awarded to companies whose applications are best calculated to promote the development of digital terrestrial radio, applications for local multiplexes are judged on the variety of services proposed, and on how they meet the tastes and interests of listeners in the area concerned. On average, one local multiplex is licensed per main UK population centre, each providing about eight digital stations to listeners within the transmission region. Combined with Digital One and the BBC's national line up, the local multiplex makes a total of around 26 services per region (the main exception is Greater London where three multiplexes have now been licensed).