Radio listeners in the west of the South Hams will be able to benefit from an increased selection of digital radio stations.

PlymDAB has won Ofcom’s small-scale Digital Audio Broadcasting licence for a new multiplex serving the city of Plymouth and beyond and include Wembury, Woolwell, Noss Mayo and Ivybridge.

DAB+ allows many more radio stations to be put into the same bandwidth than traditional FM and AM analogue radio. The higher the bit rate used, the better the technical quality.

Like TorDAB in Torbay, which won it’s licence at the beginning of January, one of it’s main shareholders is Exe Broadcasting which runs Radio Exe based in Exeter. Other partners include Clear Sky Publishing and Westward Media.

The service from TorDAB will serve some parts of the South Hams including Dartmouth and Totnes with another multiplex to follow covering unserved areas of the district in due course. It was pointed out by the bidders that the density of the South Hams is 96 residents per square kilometre which is around half that of both Torbay and Teignbridge and even lower in the south west making it unaffordable to serve the whole area. To cover the entire district with its hilly terrain would involve building a number of costly relay stations.

PlymDAB’s main transmitter will be on the Staddon Heights in the South Hams overlooking the city.

Possible stations to be carried include a new rolling news service Devon20Twenty Plymouth, Radio Exe Plymouth, Hospital Radio Plymouth, The Workshop (Plymouth Marjon University student radio), South Devon Radio, Phonic FM, Ocean City Radio, Gateway Radio and the north Devon community station The Voice.

The operators hope that both multiplexes will begin broadcasting by the end of this year.

PlymDAB will serve around 290,000 listeners while for TorDAB the figure will be around 200,000.

The operators of both multiplexes would like to hear from any radio stations which would like to provide services. Potential operators have to hold Ofcom, PRS and PPL licences but they are happy to provide information on how to obtain them.

More information is available from [email protected] or [email protected]