My DAB radio had Gold and when I went away I turned it off. Now it’s gone?
– Pat
Until summer 2019 the radio station Gold was available in some parts of the UK, such as Birmingham, Manchester and Kent.
In June 2019 the station became available across the UK and the ‘version’ of Gold you had been listening to was removed. You may be able to perform a rescan or retune with your radio to find ‘Gold UK’ and continue listening to the station.
If you can find and listen to Gold UK and previously had Gold on a preset you can save the preset again so that you don’t go back to the non-working version of Gold.
If you receive digital radio stations from Humberside or Lancashire you may have only noticed this change more recently.
Why can’t I get Gold on my DAB radio? I live in Exeter, Devon.
– Ann
Gold was previously available from the local digital radio transmitters in Devon. It appears that Gold is no longer broadcast locally in Devon, but you should be able to receive the station due to its national coverage instead. You can try a rescan or retune on your DAB radio to see if it finds Gold again.
Gold is now broadcast using DAB+ instead of DAB. If your digital radio doesn’t receive DAB+ stations you won’t be able to listen to Gold. You may find that the radio doesn’t find the station at all, or when you select the station there is only silence.
A small number of Pure radios can be upgraded to receive DAB+ stations, but otherwise you may need to buy a new radio.
There are some checks you can do to see if you should be able to receive Gold UK (or Gold London) with your radio:
- Perform a re-scan or re-tune and look for Gold UK (and/or Gold London if you are located in London)
- Try tuning into Gold UK.
- If this does not work, try tuning into KISSTORY – a station which is broadcast from the same transmitters but in the original DAB format. If KISSTORY can be heard, but not Gold UK, it’s likely your radio doesn’t receive DAB+ stations and may need to be replaced
When looking for a new DAB radio always look for the digital radio tick mark. This indicates that the radio will receive DAB, DAB+ and FM stations, so you’ll not miss out on any of the DAB digital radio stations currently available in the UK. Avoid radios which don’t explicitly specify that they receive DAB+. Unfortunately there are still radios on sale from major retailers which don’t receive stations like Gold UK.
I did a scan on my new DAB receiver and found “Gold UK” is broadcasting on DAB+ only BUT I can receive Gold from my local Derby transmitter, I don’t know why this is and maybe you can explain why this is.
– Ian
There are several digital radio stations across the UK which are national radio stations, in the sense that they don’t have any local news, weather, travel, commercials or programming.
These radio stations, such as Absolute Classic Rock or Magic Soul, are only available in parts of the country on DAB digital radio. They are often available on smart speakers, apps and online too.
The owners of the radio stations may have their own reasons for distributing these stations in this way. There currently isn’t enough digital radio capacity to broadcast all of these stations nationally, but there may be space in local areas in the UK. For example, Smooth Country can be received on DAB in Norfolk, Nottinghamshire and some other areas. Magic Soul is not available in those areas, but can be heard in Manchester and on Teesside.
Until recently this was the case for Gold. Although it is no longer available in the original DAB format in some parts of the UK, it is now available UK-wide in DAB+. According to regulator Ofcom as of April 2020 the radio station Gold is still available in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Cambridgeshire and Plymouth. In those areas it may be possible to receive Gold and Gold UK.