New spin-off stations from BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 3 have appeared on DAB+ compatible digital radios.
The new stations, BBC Radio 1 Anthems, BBC Radio 1 Dance and BBC Radio 3 Unwind, were already available online on BBC Sounds. Radio 1 Dance launched in 2020 with Radio 1 Anthems and Radio 3 Unwind joining BBC Sounds last year.
A spin-off station from BBC Radio 2 and an expansion of BBC Radio 5 Sport Extra’s hours were planned by the BBC, but the BBC’s proposals were rejected by Ofcom.
BBC Radio 1 Dance hosts shows already broadcast on Radio 1 like Radio 1’s Essential Mix and the Radio 1 Residency which features some of the world’s biggest DJs. The station also airs Radio 1 Dance Party and Future Dance which the BBC says “play an important part in nurturing up and coming producers, DJs and electronic artists”. The station on DAB+ would also see new commissions, with 45% of tracks being from UK artists and a third of music in daytime being new music.
BBC Radio 1 Anthems extends a brand already used on the main Radio 1 station. The station plays music from artists supported by Radio 1 in the 2000s and 2010s and will feature “iconic tracks and lesser heard gems”. The BBC says the station will showcase new talent and offer “authentic human curation” as opposed to algorithmically generated playlists.
Playing around 4,000 tracks in a year, the BBC’s proposals would see British artists making up a third of them, and “a quarter of the tracks unlikely to get regular play on key commercial stations”. The station will include existing on-demand content and hip-hop, R&B, rock and pop tracks. On Tuesday morning the station had played artists like Orson, Pink, Katy B and ZAYN.
BBC Radio 3 Unwind features classical music that helps listeners unwind and destress. The BBC says it will feature both new and familiar classical music, “intertwined with voices and soundscapes to create a fresh, distinctive sound that transports listeners to a place of calm”. The station will draw on a library of around 8,000 tracks.
The new station will champion music by living composers and feature existing content like the Mindful Mix and Ultimate Calm as well as new commissions. The proposals would see the extension to BBC Radio 3 offer shows that combine speech and music, as in The Music & Meditation Podcast and The Sleeping Forecast, “a combination of Radio 4’s Shipping Forecast and classical music from BBC Introducing artists”.
Spin-off stations on digital radio
The introduction of the new DAB+ stations on digital radio is the largest change to the BBC’s DAB offering since the launch of Radio 6 Music, BBC7 and Radio 1Xtra in 2002.
The launch of the new stations on DAB+ was subject to approval by Ofcom, which permitted the launch of the Radio 1 and Radio 3 extensions but did not allow the introduction of extensions to Radio 2 and Radio 5 Sports Extra. Ofcom cited the “significant impact on fair and effective competition”, mentioning stations like Boom Radio and talkSPORT.
Spin-off stations from commercial radio have been available digitally for many years with outlets like KISSTORY, Absolute 80s and Heart 80s being some of the UK’s most popular digital stations. They have been joined by ‘brand extensions’ from Capital, Smooth and others.
Each of the new DAB+ stations is broadcasting at 32kbps. Existing BBC national DAB radio stations like BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6 Music have dropped from 128kbps to 112kbps. On Tuesday morning BBC Radio 3 was broadcasting at 160kbps.
As of 9am on Tuesday morning the BBC and the individual stations do not appear to have publicly announced the launch of the stations on DAB+.