Closure of Great Yorkshire Radio

Digital station Great Yorkshire Radio appears to have quietly closed at the start of January this year (2022).

The digital only station was broadcast on the Lincolnshire DAB multiplex using DAB+ and overspill reception to target parts of East and South Yorkshire. The station had previously broadcast on the North Yorkshire multiplex. The station had close links with community FM station Driffield FM, and carried similar branding and jingles.

The station was removed from the Lincolnshire DAB multiplex on the 4th January, but may have stopped regular broadcasts earlier than this. Closure doesn’t appear to have been publicised, with the Twitter feed making no mention of closure, having last been updated in December 2021. Facebook and Instagram pages appear to have been taken offline.

Curiously, although almost all content has been removed, the website remains online. At the time of typing, this is currently only displaying the station logo. This may be a sign of further developments.

DAB Highlights

A number of DAB changes took place towards the beginning of December (2020), and here’s a run down of the main stories.

Around the 1st, Great Yorkshire Radio migrated from the North Yorkshire local multiplex, to the Lincolnshire multiplex. The latter has some over spill into parts of North and East Yorkshire, and the station appears to be refocusing to become a larger regional service for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. DAB+ at 32 kbps is still used.

York Mix (initially as festive service Xmas Mix), has now joined the North Yorkshire DAB multiplex. The station is targeting the area previously served by Minster FM, which closed earlier this year. Similar (but unconnected) service This Is The Coast is also on the North Yorkshire multiplex, targeting Scarborough, Bridlington, and Whitby, all left un-served when Yorkshire Coast Radio closed. Both are using stereo DAB+ at 32 kbps.

On the Central Scotland multiplex, Scottish Sun Chill has replaced Scottish Sun Greatest Hits. The new service has an easy listening/pop format, and retains 128 kbps of joint stereo normal DAB. No other changes have occurred on this multiplex since Sunoh Radio left, but Central FM has been run in varying configurations.

Lastly, and perhaps the biggest change, is the launch of Union Jack Dance and Union Jack Rock, which took place on Friday 11th December. Both follow the same format of British music and comedy, with listener controlled playlist as Union Jack, but with dance music and rock music respectively. The same 32 kbps stereo DAB+ parameters are used, with Union Jack Dance replacing Jack Radio, and Union Jack Rock filling the vacant space on the SDL National multiplex.