English broadcaster to launch on Belgian DAB+
By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 1 June 2015, 3.00am edt
Radio X, the English-speaking commercial radio station for Belgium, based in Brussels, has announced it will start broadcasting on DAB+ digital radio from this summer - eventually reaching around 8 million homes.
Radio X will be the only English-speaking radio station on the Belgian national DAB+ multiplex, which was switched on in May. It will start broadcasting in mid-August in Brussels and Antwerp, and further expansion throughout Flanders is due by early 2017.
Chief Operating Officer Lee Middleton said: "These are exciting times for radio in Belgium, and also Radio X. The switch to broadcasting on DAB+ provides the country with a radio station it rightfully deserves and can benefit from, right from its heart, Brussels."
Radio X becomes the latest station to use new broadcast platforms to reach audiences in their own language. In Switzerland, the English-language WRS has been broadcast on DAB+ in the Lake Geneva area for some time. London has a number of stations for French, Polish, Arabic and South Asian languages.
Radio X has also launched a crowdfunding campaign to seek support from its listeners, lovers of radio and potential investors, for the move to digital radio.
Founder Paul Heath said: "The Radio X team are looking forward to taking what we've learnt and achieved in the last three years on to a freely available platform, DAB+, giving our customers and future customers the ultimate platform to listen to us on, in addition to our online stream, app and on-demand listen-again content.
"We are also very aware of the major step-up in the cost to operate and the newness itself for Belgium in having commercially available digital radio stations to enjoy.
"Therefore, educating advertisers and demonstrating the fuller picture, the real opportunities available, and the actual affordability and benefit of advertising and working with us via this platform, is one of our primary goals from now on".