Asian station Panjab Radio has launched nationally on the Digital One multiplex.
The station has been broadcasting for almost ten years and was previously available on Sky Digital and local multiplexes in London, West Yorkshire and the West Midlands.
The service will be the second national Asian station on DAB, as well as the BBC's Asian Network. It will consist of music, news and speech programming mainly in Panjabi and English.
The station aims to be inclusive to all people in the UK for whom Panjabi language or music is important, and has programmes with general appeal to Panjabi speakers of all faiths.
"We’re a unique station that serves a unique audience," said the station’s Managing Director, Surjit Ghuman. "This is the biggest step for our radio station since its launch and we believe the time is right for us to launch across the UK. We’re grateful to those who’ve supported this initiative and to the thousands of individual listeners".
Surjit added "It’s a significant expansion for Panjab Radio which has come a long way since its launch as a satellite station in September 2000, when it was only available on SKY."
Glyn Jones, Digital One’s Operations Director, said: "The UK radio industry has had a poor record of making sure its stations reach out to all audiences, and are inclusive of all Britain’s communities. The arrival of the first Panjabi radio station on the national airwaves is long overdue. Congratulations to the team at Panjab Radio for raising the money and getting the station on air across Britain."
UCB has also launched on DAB this morning.