NOW Leicester


NOW Leicester is a local commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, which serves Leicestershire and Rutland. It commenced broadcasts on 6 December 2002 and is operated by NOW Digital on behalf of NOW Digital East Midlands Ltd, a consortium of Arqiva, Global Radio and Sabras Radio. The launch was delayed by the UK firemen's strike in autumn 2002, which restricted access to transmitter sites.

Original plans

NOW Digital originally proposed to use transmitters at Copt Oak and Waltham with Skeffington to follow within two years of launch. However on awarding the application the Radio Authority identified that coverage in Leicester itself may not be as good as listeners would expect, and accordingly asked Now Digital to "re-examine its transmission plans in order to address this concern", resulting in the adoption of Houghton on the Hill instead of Waltham. In their original application NOW Digital also identified two additional transmitter sites at Boundary water tower and Empingham, and their introduction would be reviewed during the licence period. Both transmitters carrying the NOW Leicester ensemble also carry the national commercial ensemble Digital One, but not BBC National DAB

Stations carried

The following channels are receivable on any digital-equipped DAB radio in the Leicestershire area:
ServiceService IDBit rateAudio channelsDescriptionAnalogue availability
BBC Radio LeicesterC933128 kbit/sJoint stereoBBC local radio station for Leicestershire and Rutland104.9 MHz
Capital East MidlandsC366128 kbit/sJoint stereoContemporary hit music96.2 MHz
96.5
102.8
105.4
Smooth ChillC1C3128 kbit/sJoint StereoChill-out music—
Gem 106C3AB128 kbit/sJoint stereo80s, 90s and current adult contemporary music106.0 MHz
GoldC8D2128 kbit/sJoint stereoOldies station owned by Global Radio—
HeartC2D0128 kbit/sJoint stereoAdult contemporary music—
Hits Radio-
LRB Digital-
Sabras RadioC5CC64 kbit/sMonoAsian music1260 kHz
Sanskar RadioC7CC64 kbit/sMonoowned by Sabras Radio—
Smooth East MidlandsC6CO128 kbit/sJoint stereoEasy listening music101.4
106.6
Pop Up RadioCFCF64 kbit/sMono LSFSpecial events service—
EPG LeicesterE1C000C38 kbit/sDataHidden service, EPG data—

Neither of Lincs FM group's two stations in the area are on the multiplex.

Former services

Services previously carried on the multiplex include:
ServiceWhat happened
Capital DisneyCeased broadcasting 30 June 2007, replaced by Traffic Radio
Century 106Re-branded as Heart 106 on 2 September 2005
Galaxy DigitalCeased broadcasting 31 December 2010, normal branding ceased 19 December in advance of the launch of Capital, replaced by Heart London
Heart East MidlandsRe-branded as Gem 106 on 31 December 2010
Leicester SoundCeased broadcasting 3 January 2011, replaced by Capital East Midlands
Saga 106.6Re-branded as Smooth Radio on 27 March 2007
Ceased broadcasting 24 January 2006, replaced by XFM
Traffic RadioCeased broadcasting 31 August 2011
XfmLaunched nationally as Radio X on Digital One, replaced by Chill which returned to the multiplex six years since it had previously been removed following a ruling by the Office of Fair Trading following the GCap/Global merger

Original proposals

Now Digital and EMAP competed for the licence, the services proposed by both applicants were as follows:-
transmitter next to the M1 motorway

NOW Digital

Additionally EMAP proposed that the following services would be broadcast on a part-time basis: