Gold’s new weekday schedule revealed

Gold goes all-jukebox from 10am weekdays

Gold (radio) has unveiled its forthcoming weekday changes to the schedule, thanks to updated listings information on its website for Monday, 24th March. It’ll be available in far fewer places on mediumwave and DAB digital radio.

You can also get an internet radio if you want to listen online to Gold, if you find you’re no longer in the station’s revised coverage areas of London & Home Counties, East Midlands or Manchester from March 24th.

Avid listeners will doubtless lament the loss of the presenter rollcall – let’s face it, the station sound won’t be the same by any stretch of the imagination. The station’s schedule seems to infer it will carry less advertising breaks, which is great if you’d rather back-to-back music, but you could stick on a sixties or seventies CD instead, if you find you can no longer receive Gold via your traditional tranny.

Where has Gold radio gone?

It has disappeared from many am(mediumwave) and DAB frequencies from 24 March, replaced by Smooth Radio. It hangs on to a few frequencies where Smooth is already broadcast on FM. It’ll still broadcast sounds of the sixties and seventies – and look out for the new seventies, 80s and 90s station due to start on national DAB digital radio, soon.

 

Anyway, here’s the Monday schedule shamelessly purged and edited from the Gold website:

6am

The More Music Breakfast Show With Tony Dibbin
Join Tony for more music in the morning, History or Mystery, The Rock n Roll Alarm Clock and guess the Golden Year at 9am.

10am

Gold’s 10 In A Row
Gold plays 10 hits in a row commercial free.

1pm

Gold’s Number 1’s At 1
This Gold with 60 minutes of massive Number 1 hits – nonstop!

2pm

Gold’s 10 In A Row
Gold plays ten hits in a row, without any ad interruptions

4pm

The Gold Rush
The greatest hits of all time plus travel, news, weather, finance and sports news for the drive home

8pm

Gold’s Music Marathon
Playing the greatest hits of all time nonstop and uninterrupted

10pm

Gold’s Nonstop Sixties
60 minutes of Sixties hits, nonstop

11pm

Gold’s Nonstop Seventies
60 minutes of Seventies hits, back-to-back

midnight

Nonstop Gold
Playing the greatest hits of all time, continuously throughout the night

Gulp. Gold radio confirms via Facebook page it’ll go jukebox after 10am weekdays

Gold – going non stop jukebox for most of the day from 24th March

It sounds as if Gold radio will be dropping weekday and weekend presenters outside of its breakfast shows from 24th March 2014, confirmed by a response from Gold’s PR team, following a query submitted by a Gold listener to its facebook page.

Tony Dibbin presents the Breakfast Show from 6am to 10am every weekday morning, with David Andrews looking after Saturday breakfast from 8am to midday, and Tony taking back the helm from 8am to midday on Sunday.

After that, for the majority of the time, it’s back-to-back music as Gold switches to jukebox-only mode, and would appear to be losing presenters such as Dean Martin, Andy Peebles, Shaun Tilley, Eamonn Kelly and Paul Coyte. Let’s hope that the new, national DAB digital commercial station “featuring music from the 70s, 80s and early 90s with particular appeal to audiences aged 35-54”, pencilled in for an imminent launch, might make use of at least a few (if not all) of these presenters, their experience and talent.

If you haven’t heard, Gold will only be available on traditional analogue radio in Greater London (1548am/MW), Manchester (1458am/MW) and Nottingham & Derby (945am/MW & 999am/MW). It will also broadcast on DAB digital radio in London and in the East Midlands, however the London signal will reach many parts of the home counties, thanks to DAB transmitters at Alexandra Palace, Arkley, Bluebell Hill, BT Tower, Colindale House, Crystal Palace, Guildford, Hampstead, Harrow Weald, Hemel Hempstead, Leatherhead, Stoke d’Abernon, Mount Vernon, Otford, Reigate, Richmond Hill, Shepherds Bush, Shooters Hill, Sidcup, Staines, Uxbridge and Zouches Farm. It’s worth doing a rescan from an upstairs room if you can’t get (or haven’t tried getting) Gold in west Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, Hertfordshire, Essex, Buckinghamshire and other counties surrounding London.

With the reduction in presenters, it’ll be interesting to see the appetite from loyal listeners for the continuation of the station. Even more illuminating will be the new 70s, 80s and 90s station on Digital One due to launch soon.

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Gold ditched from DAB in many areas from Monday 24th March

Gold’s frequencies will be used to carry a ‘refreshed’ Smooth Radio instead later this month

STOP PRESS (14th Sept 2015): Read about how you can hear Gold radio now in many parts of Scotland and England – it’s back!

Thinking of tuning into Gold over the next few weeks? Well you’d better do so while it’s still easy to pick up on DAB and mediumwave, as the station’s frequencies make way for a refreshed Smooth Radio.

The station is losing many of its frequencies across England and Wales on Monday 24th March 2014, but if you’re lucky enough to live in and around Greater London (1548am/MW), Manchester (1458am/MW), Nottingham & Derby (945am & 999am/MW) you can still hear Gold on analogue radio. It will also broadcast on DAB digital radio in Greater London and in the East Midlands, as Smooth is already available on FM and DAB in these places, so won’t be taking its slots here. Yorkshire, too, has had a reprieve, as it appears Gold will continue to be broadcast on the region’s DAB digital multiplex until its closure in 2015 – however, it’s not broadcast on AM(MW) or FM in the region.

Will Gold still be available in my area on DAB?

Several reports suggest that it might continue on DAB in south Wales on the South-East Wales multiplex, but unless Smooth takes spare capacity on the multiplex, it’ll simply be swapped for Gold, which is on the multiplex at present. It’s a similar situation for other multiplexes, with Smooth replacing Gold where the station currently broadcasts, except for the three regions given above.

If you’re at home and in reach of a Smartphone, you can download the station’s own app, tune in via the UK RadioPlayer or TuneIn via PC or smartphone (including WindowsPhone on your Nokia 520 or similar), get yourself an internet radio (useful if you also want to seek out alternative sixties and seventies music radio stations) or dial up Sky Channel 0121, Virgin Media Channel 959 and FreeSat Channel 722.

Trouble is, infrequent listeners may wonder what on earth is going on when they dial up their favourite provider of 60s and 70s rock and pop, only to find out it has been swallowed up by a female-friendly mix of soft ballads and easy listening.

If you’re in the two DAB coverage areas listed above, you may want to dust off your DAB and do a re-tune, to see if you can pick up Gold on digital once again.

Why is Gold leaving DAB? A station with Smooth Radio’s appeal is easier to promote to female stay-at-home listeners (and sell to advertisers) than a rock and pop station aimed predominantly at men. The station’s operator is gambling on attracting many more listeners to a new Smooth Radio, offsetting a substantial loss of Gold listeners.

While the changes don’t make much sense for the loyal listener, in pure economic terms more listeners mean greater revenue, leading to a more successful commercial station.
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