Gold (British radio network)
Gold is a network of oldies radio stations in the United Kingdom, which was formed by the merger of the Capital Gold network and the Classic Gold network in August 2007. The station relaunched in March 2014 as a partly-automated service, broadcasting in fewer areas, after many of Gold's local AM/DAB frequencies were transferred to Smooth Radio. Most programming is broadcast from the Global Radio studios in Leicester Square, London.
Broadcast area
United Kingdom
- DAB+: 11D Digital One (UK)
- DAB: 11C Cambridge
- DAB: 10B Derby
- DAB: 11B Leicester
- DAB+: 12C London 1
- DAB: 10C Northampton
- DAB: 12C Nottingham
- DAB: 12C Manchester
- DAB: 12D Peterborough
- AM: 1458 kHz Manchester
- Freesat: 722
- Sky (UK only): 0121
- Virgin Media: 923
English
3 August 2007
The station ceased broadcasting on AM in London on 29 September 2023 leaving Manchester as the only area receiving Gold on analogue radio. On the 12th April 2024 the Gold website posted that this final AM transmitter will close at the end of the month.[1][2]
As of December 2023, the network broadcasts to a combined weekly audience of 1.6 million, according to RAJAR.[3]
Transfer of AM and DAB outlets to Smooth Radio[edit]
On 28 February 2014, Global Radio announced that all but four AM transmitters and three DAB transmission areas would be transferred to broadcast their recently acquired Smooth Radio station with effect from Monday 24 March 2014. Only London, Nottingham, Derby and Manchester would continue to receive Gold on AM frequencies, and London & Home Counties, Yorkshire, Leicester and Nottingham areas on DAB. These remained with Gold as Smooth Radio is broadcast on FM in London, the North West and the East Midlands, and the Yorkshire DAB broadcast was a relay of the London service. Global encouraged listeners not in these areas to move to Smooth Radio, or else continue to listen to Gold via satellite, cable, or internet streaming.[5]
Expansion of DAB outlets[edit]
On 7 September 2015, Global Radio announced Gold would take over the local DAB multiplex slots previously occupied by XFM, following the latter's rebrand as Radio X and its move to the Digital One national multiplex on 21 September 2015. The announcement said Gold would become available again on DAB in Manchester, Birmingham, Ayr, Bournemouth, Cambridge, Cornwall, Exeter/Torbay/North Devon, Kent, Norwich, Peterborough, Plymouth, Reading/Basingstoke, Southend/Chelmsford, on the Sussex Coast and in Swindon. This is in addition to Gold's existing DAB availability in London, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Yorkshire.[6]
On Monday 10 June 2019, Gold expanded to transmit nationally via the Digital One DAB+ multiplex; the station had been using DAB+ for its transmission in London since early 2019. The relaunch as a national service was accompanied by a new breakfast show hosted by DJ James Bassam, joining from sister station Capital.[7]
In September 2019, many of the local-level DAB transmissions of Gold were transferred to a new service, Smooth Country. Gold continues to broadcast on DAB in the East Midlands, where Smooth Country took the place of Smooth Chill.
Following the relaunch of Connect FM as part of Smooth East Midlands on 1 October 2019, Gold programming returned to the AM and local DAB platforms in Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, reversing the change made to these frequencies in 2014.
Closure of AM transmitters[edit]
Recent years has seen Global withdraw from AM transmission and by 2023, Gold only remained on AM in Manchester and London. August 2023 saw Global announce that Gold would end its AM broadcasting in London [8] and just before midnight on 29 September 2023 the final song played on Gold 1548 London was the song that had launched Capital Radio nearly half a century earlier - 'Bridge over Troubled Water'. Programming then ceased, and a retuning announcement was played until closure of the transmitter just before 1100. The Gold London outlet continues on DAB. Gold continues on AM in Manchester until the end of April 2024.