The Guardian is putting together plans for a speech-only digital radio station, according to a report in Broadcast.
It’s claimed the publisher would air its range of podcasts and could also make the service available online for around £1 a month.
Other audio services being considered by the paper apparently also include a streamed music service and a podcast aggregator called ‘My Guardian Pod’. The main station would feature ‘intelligence speech’, says the report, and draw on spoken word content from around the world as well as The Guardian’s own podcasts.
But a Guardian News & Media spokesperson told RadioToday.co.uk that the audio service might not end up on DAB. “We are in the early days of looking at a number of ways of building on the success of our award-winning podcasts, including the possibility of creating a streaming version of our service,” she said. “As an open publisher we are discussing a wide range of ideas with our listeners, and although a Guardian DAB radio station currently looks unlikely, as a digital-first organisation we are always exploring different options.”
The Guardian’s owners – GMG – also have a radio division which is home to the Smooth, Real and Real XS branded radio stations.
Posted on Monday, September 5th, 2011 at 3:02 pm by RadioToday UK