Jazz FM leaves national DAB digital radio

After much speculation, Jazz FM has announced it will be removing itself from the national DAB platform Digital One later this month.

The station will move from D1 to Switch Digital in Greater London in addition to online platforms from January 1st 2014.

Speaking to RadioToday, Jazz FM CEO Richard Wheatly said the station could potentially lose 150,000 from its record 700,000 listener base.

“Most of our audience listen to us on digital radio in Greater London – 400,000 people – and around 30% are listening on platforms other than DAB across the UK,” Richard said.

RadioToday can also reveal the station entered into profit last month for the first time since its relaunch.

The station is advising listeners to re-tune in London or listen via Radioplayer or its app, or via satellite services Sky (0202) and FreeSat (729)

A message on jazzfm.com says: “As we have recently announced, one of the five ways Jazz FM transmits is changing. But don’t worry! There is absolutely no reason why if you listen to Jazz FM now, you won’t be able to still. The main change is to our DAB feed across the UK”

Earlier this year RadioToday ran ads from Digital One owner Arqiva inviting applications to run a replacement jazz service. We’ll update you as soon as we know if an alternative jazz station will be made available on Digital One as per its licence requirement, or if a change has been requested with Ofcom.