Community radio managers come together to form OxDAB

A group of community radio managers has teamed up to bid for the upcoming Oxford small-scale DAB multiplex licence.

They are Martin Steers from NLive, Dean Kavanagh from Switch Radio, and Barry Clack, director of Witney Radio.

Martin is a co-founder of the UK Community Radio Network, representing community radio stations.

Dean has operated a trial small scale multiplex for the last seven years, has recently won a permanent service, and is also co-director of a software development company building solutions for small-scale DAB.

And Barry Clack runs a community radio station covering West Oxfordshire.

He commented: “Good local radio is important, Oxford needs a good local service, something which has been lacking since the demise of FOX FM in 2009.

“When Fox joined a large networked radio group, that local identity which listeners enjoyed was lost and never returned. This identity and structure is what has made Witney Radio a success and will become welcomed by the residents of Oxford when we bring back not just local radio, but a collection of local radio stations, broadcast from local people, back to the city of Oxford.”

OxDAB has informed RadioToday that it is interested in hearing from local prospective broadcasters who wish to begin broadcasting on DAB.

Dean Kavanagh continued: “We want new local broadcasters to be able to take to the airwaves with content aimed at their local community. Who better to become a broadcaster than someone who lives within the community they wish to communicate to!”

First DAB Oxford Ltd will also be applying for the same multiplex licence. First DAB Oxford is made up of UK DAB Networks, Like Futures, OX4 (First FM) and Jonathan Cohen.

The closing date for applications in the third round is April 25th 2022 and you can see who’s applying for which areas in our exclusive page here.