British Radio

Welcome to the British Radio section at the Astra 2D Website. Under this section you will find pages covering the history of radio in the British Isles, BBC radio, commercial radio, UK DAB radio, Freevieiw digital radio, digital satellite radio and information and links on Internet radio services.
Radio listening remains a popular medium and listeners in the UK and beyond have a wide choice of stations genres to choose from.

BBC Radio

The BBC today runs ten national domestic radio stations, five of which are only available in a digital format: via DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting – i.e. Digital Radio), the Internet or the different forms of Digital Television in the UK.
The BBC also runs regional radio stations throughout the UK, for example BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Devon. These stations focus on regional issues to a greater extent than their national counterparts.
The BBC radio services began in 1922 with the British Broadcasting Company, Ltd., which was licensed under pressure to provide a radio service for the British public. It was licensed by the British Government through its General Post Office which had original control of the airwaves because they had been interpreted under law as an extension of the Post Office services. Today radio broadcasting still makes up a large part of the corporation's output and this is still reflected in the title of the BBC's listings magazine called Radio Times.

To read more about BBC Radio, click HERE.

Commercial Radio

There are 3 national commercial stations (Classic FM, TalkSPORT and Virgin 1215) and 1 national digital multiplex carrying 8 radio services. In addition there are over 270 independent local radio (ILR) analogue services and 46 local digital multiplexes carrying over 200 radio services. There are around 120 Radio Licensable Content Service Licences in issue, and more than 120 long-term restricted services. There are also around 70 Local Digital Sound Programme and 11 National Digital Sound Programme licences in issue; and over 4,600 short-term Restricted Service Licenses (RSLs). For more information go to Ofcom's website.

To read more about Commercial Radio in the U.K., click HERE.

DAB Radio

DAB stands for Digital Audio Broadcasting and is a method for the digital transmission of radio signals. DAB is the transmission technology of the future and will replace FM radio in the medium to long term.
The DAB method was developed in Europe within the framework of EUREKA project 147 and is currently being introduced in a large number of countries. The country with the widest availability of DAB is the UK. About 85% of UK households can receive DAB, and the number of DAB radio stations is now more than 400. A recent survey shows that more than a third of the UK population knows about DAB technology.

To read more about DAB Radio in the U.K., click HERE.

Freeview Radio

Freeview offers a wide selection of stations including Smooth FM, Heat, Magic, Mojo, talkSport, Premier Radio and more. In all, there are over 20 radio channels in addition to the 30 or more free TV channels already available.
Among the list of stations include the BBC services - BBC Five Live Sports Extra, BBC 6 Music, 1Xtra, BBC Asian Network, BBC 7 and the BBC World Service. There are also a number of BBC regional variations available.

To read more about Freeview Radio, click HERE.

Radio on Sky Digital

You can receive a vast number of digital radio stations via the Sky Digital satellite platform.
Digital Satellite radio (DSat) is completely different from standard DAB digital radio, however it offers a wider choice in stations.
It includes regional channels that broadcast on digital satellite as well as standard AM/FM radio. These include BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, BBC Asian Network, BBC Radio Cymru, YouthFM, Cross Rhythm, Heart FM and many more.

For Sky Digital Radio listings, click HERE.

Freesat Radio

The Freesat service from the BBC and ITV is due to launch in 2007. There are no details about the radio services that will be available via the new digital satellite platform.

Internet Radio

Internet radio is a broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet. Not every internet "radio station" has a corresponding traditional radio station. Many internet radio stations are completely independent from traditional ("terrestrial") radio stations and broadcast only on the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as streaming.
Because the radio signal is relayed over the Internet, it is possible to access the stations from anywhere in the world—for example, to listen to an Australian radio station from Europe or America. This makes it a popular service for expatriates and for people who have interests that may not be adequately catered for by their local radio stations (such as progressive rock). Some of the internet radio services offer news, sports, talkback, and various genres of music—everything that is on the radio station being re-broadcast.

One of the most common ways to distribute internet radio is via streaming technology using a lossy audio codec. The MP3 codec is most popular, followed by Ogg Vorbis, Windows Media Audio, and RealAudio. The bits are "streamed" over a TCP/IP connection, then reassembled and played within about 2 seconds. Therefore, streaming radio has about a two-second lag time.