Gaydar Radio
Encyclopedia
GaydarRadio is a British digital radio station
for gay men
, lesbian
s and gay friendly people. It is available on DAB
multiplexes in London
and Brighton
and also online. It broadcasts 24 hours a day, with live programming from 5am to midnight during the week, 7am to midnight at weekends.
and mainstream pop music
, interspersed with chat and news. In contrast to much of the UK radio industry, the editorial focus is on personality rather than a strictly formatted music mix. This more relaxed style allows the presenters to talk with their listeners about gay life.
The music becomes more club-orientated during the late evenings and also at the weekend when Club Nation presents the best feel good music non stop. This music policy also gets the station a huge following from the straight community.
The station encourages interaction between presenters and listeners via text, email and online. It has a reach of 488,470 (Ipsos MORI/Rajar 18 May – 26 July 2010) listeners a week in the UK, plus another 2.2 million listening online around the world.
GaydarRadio is based in Twickenham
in South West London
, in a building called Queen's House, a name that provides a frequent source of amusement for the presenters.
In October 2007 the station relaunched its website as part of GaydarNation and the following month launched GaydarRadio Jukebox offering music downloads of its most popular tracks and exclusive mixes. GaydarRadio Jukebox ceased to exist in 2009, and has since been re-branded as part of 'CD Pool Sixpack' by its parent company.
website came from broadcaster Mark Ovenden
and radio engineer Quentin Nield. Ovenden was at the time working at the Ministry of Sound Radio
and set up a meeting in Spring 2000 between the owners of Gaydar and his boss James Bethel. Bethel proposed to provide the service to Gaydar for £100,000 annually which was clearly way too high for a fledging concept.
Instead GaydarRadio was started in 2001 as an internet-only station, being an audio offshoot of the dating website and completely independent of outside assistance. According to the first station director Jamie Crick, the entire station was originally played off a single PC on a table propped up with a gay clubbing directory.
Following its success, it moved onto the Sky platform in 2002 before leaving on 18 February 2011 after a "substantial decline" in its audience figures through the platform. Meanwhile another gay radio station called Purple Radio, which launched a few months before than Gaydar Radio with the backing of Kelvin Mackenzie
and Lord Waheed Alli, was broadcasting as part of a bouquet of services provided by the Digital Radio Group (then part of the GWR Group). Purple was run from the Hanover Grand nightclub and tried a number of pioneering nightly broadcasts from gay bars and clubs but this proved far too costly and the station took the decision to merge with Gaydar Radio. Gaydar Radio took the decision not to continue with Purple Radio as a separate output and put in a successful submission to the Radio Authority to take over Purples' frequency, and gained a DAB
outlet on the London 3 Digital multiplex in 2004.
In 2003 while Bethel was working at Capital Radio
group, Gaydar Radio was part of a successful application to be on the Sussex Coast DAB multiplex - part of this deal was an unrealised provisional agreement for the Capital group to find space to add the GaydarRadio service to its bouquet available on the Greater Manchester
multiplex.
In 2006 the station won Best Radio Station at the BT Digital Music Awards.
At the 2007 Sony Radio Academy Awards
(the UK Broadcasting "Oscars"), GaydarRadio went on to win Digital Terrestrial Station of the Year. It also collected the same award at the 2007 and 2008 Commercial Radio 'Arqiva' Awards.
Digital radio in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the roll-out of digital radio is proceeding since test transmissions were started by the BBC in 1990. The UK currently has the world's biggest digital radio network, with 103 transmitters, two national DAB ensembles and 48 local and regional DAB ensembles...
for gay men
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
s and gay friendly people. It is available on DAB
Digital audio broadcasting
Digital Audio Broadcasting is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, used in several countries, particularly in Europe. As of 2006, approximately 1,000 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format....
multiplexes in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
and also online. It broadcasts 24 hours a day, with live programming from 5am to midnight during the week, 7am to midnight at weekends.
Format
The station plays a mix of danceElectronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
and mainstream pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, interspersed with chat and news. In contrast to much of the UK radio industry, the editorial focus is on personality rather than a strictly formatted music mix. This more relaxed style allows the presenters to talk with their listeners about gay life.
The music becomes more club-orientated during the late evenings and also at the weekend when Club Nation presents the best feel good music non stop. This music policy also gets the station a huge following from the straight community.
The station encourages interaction between presenters and listeners via text, email and online. It has a reach of 488,470 (Ipsos MORI/Rajar 18 May – 26 July 2010) listeners a week in the UK, plus another 2.2 million listening online around the world.
GaydarRadio is based in Twickenham
Twickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...
in South West London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
, in a building called Queen's House, a name that provides a frequent source of amusement for the presenters.
In October 2007 the station relaunched its website as part of GaydarNation and the following month launched GaydarRadio Jukebox offering music downloads of its most popular tracks and exclusive mixes. GaydarRadio Jukebox ceased to exist in 2009, and has since been re-branded as part of 'CD Pool Sixpack' by its parent company.
Schedule
- Breakfast runs between 7am and 11am and is co-presented by Neil Sexton and Debbie Ryan, featuring the daily competition 'Spinning Around' and 'The Coming Out Story'. Also regular correspondents share the latest news and events from their corner of Gay UK, with Andre Harmsworth, from national newspaper 'Metro' giving a showbiz round up every Thursday and John Kennedy O'ConnorJohn Kennedy O'ConnorJohn Kennedy O'Connor is an author, entertainment and political commentator, based in the United States. Born in North London, United Kingdom, he has written, reported and broadcast for numerous media organizations, as well as writing, creating and producing media events for a number of...
reporting from the USA on the Sunday show. - Simon "The Legend" Le Vans presents the morning show, taking requests and looking for a daily threesome as well as his daily quiz feature "who the hell is this dear?", which is essentially a copy of the common 'mystery voice' feature.
- Alex Baker presents afternoons from 2-6. GaydarRadio's youngest presenter, he joined the station straight from student radio, initially presenting an early breakfast slot.
- Phil Marriott presents the latest new music for GayUK weekday evenings from 6-10pm. Phil also runs the station's Friday mix show, branded 'Club Nation'.
- Tony English presents Saturday night's Club Nation.
- Maria Peters presents the late show, Sunday to Thursday from 10pm to midnight.
- Weekend shows start with Neil and Debbie, with Simon Le Vans, Tony English, Phil Marriott, Andrei Harmsworth and Alex Baker also presenting their own shows.
Management
- The Programme Controller is Robin Crowley ("Producer Robin")
- The Station Engineer is Quentin Nield ("The Pocket-sized Engineer").
- The On-air News Editor is Scott Roberts.
- The Station Producers are Alex Baker and Neil Sexton.
- The Music Controller is Phil Marriott.
History
The first proposals for an audio stream on the GaydarGaydar (website)
Gaydar is a worldwide, profile-based dating website for gay and bisexual men, women and couples over the age of 18. Although many of the individual profiles are publicly accessible on the Internet, to gain more functionality and interact with other users, a registration is required and a guest...
website came from broadcaster Mark Ovenden
Mark Ovenden
Mark Ovenden F.R.G.S. is a broadcaster and author who specialises in the subjects of graphic design, cartography and architecture in public transport, with an emphasis on underground rapid transit....
and radio engineer Quentin Nield. Ovenden was at the time working at the Ministry of Sound Radio
Ministry of Sound Radio
A UK based radio station operating since 1999, it is now found on the Ministry of Sound website as streaming audio.Current MoS radios DJs include X-Press 2, Hed Kandi residents Des Paul and Andy Norman, Markus Schulz, Ross Allen, Stuart Patterson, Terry Farley, DJ Storm, Hospital Records, The Idjut...
and set up a meeting in Spring 2000 between the owners of Gaydar and his boss James Bethel. Bethel proposed to provide the service to Gaydar for £100,000 annually which was clearly way too high for a fledging concept.
Instead GaydarRadio was started in 2001 as an internet-only station, being an audio offshoot of the dating website and completely independent of outside assistance. According to the first station director Jamie Crick, the entire station was originally played off a single PC on a table propped up with a gay clubbing directory.
Following its success, it moved onto the Sky platform in 2002 before leaving on 18 February 2011 after a "substantial decline" in its audience figures through the platform. Meanwhile another gay radio station called Purple Radio, which launched a few months before than Gaydar Radio with the backing of Kelvin Mackenzie
Kelvin MacKenzie
Kelvin Calder MacKenzie is an English media executive and former newspaper editor. He is best known for being editor of The Sun newspaper between 1981 and 1994, an era in which the paper was established as Britain's best selling newspaper.- Biography :MacKenzie was educated at Alleyn's School...
and Lord Waheed Alli, was broadcasting as part of a bouquet of services provided by the Digital Radio Group (then part of the GWR Group). Purple was run from the Hanover Grand nightclub and tried a number of pioneering nightly broadcasts from gay bars and clubs but this proved far too costly and the station took the decision to merge with Gaydar Radio. Gaydar Radio took the decision not to continue with Purple Radio as a separate output and put in a successful submission to the Radio Authority to take over Purples' frequency, and gained a DAB
Digital audio broadcasting
Digital Audio Broadcasting is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, used in several countries, particularly in Europe. As of 2006, approximately 1,000 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format....
outlet on the London 3 Digital multiplex in 2004.
In 2003 while Bethel was working at Capital Radio
Capital Radio
Capital London is a London based radio station which launched on 16 October 1973 and is owned by Global Radio. On 3 January 2011 it formed part of the nine station Capital radio network.- Pre-launch :...
group, Gaydar Radio was part of a successful application to be on the Sussex Coast DAB multiplex - part of this deal was an unrealised provisional agreement for the Capital group to find space to add the GaydarRadio service to its bouquet available on the Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
multiplex.
In 2006 the station won Best Radio Station at the BT Digital Music Awards.
At the 2007 Sony Radio Academy Awards
Sony Radio Academy Awards
The Sony Radio Academy Awards , started in 1983, are some of the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. They are run by ZAFER Associates in association with the Radio Academy...
(the UK Broadcasting "Oscars"), GaydarRadio went on to win Digital Terrestrial Station of the Year. It also collected the same award at the 2007 and 2008 Commercial Radio 'Arqiva' Awards.
Presenters
- Neil Sexton
- Simon Le Vans
- Debbie Ryan
- Alex Baker
- Maria Peters
- Phil Marriott
- Tony English
Ex presenters
- Hugh Stevenson
- Yannick Lawry
- Jason Rosam
- Sam Vangeen
- Adrian Clarkson
- Lawrie Jordan
- Baylen LeonardBaylen LeonardBruce Alan "Baylen" Leonard is a radio presenter and DJ based in London, UK. At the age 18 he moved to New York to study, and was based there for several years working as an actor and dancer in the theatre...
- Rich B
- Kris Di Angelis
- Cliff Joannou
- Richard NewmanRichard Newman (Writer & Broadcaster)Richard James Newman is a writer, broadcaster, and reality TV contestant, best known for participating in the seventh series of the British version of Big Brother.-Early life:...
- Lea Walker
- Adrian Clarkson
- Alex Duffy
- Paul Heron
- Faye Lanson
- Gary H
- Stuart Miles
- Dan Peay
- Andy Peackock
See also
- Gaydar (website)Gaydar (website)Gaydar is a worldwide, profile-based dating website for gay and bisexual men, women and couples over the age of 18. Although many of the individual profiles are publicly accessible on the Internet, to gain more functionality and interact with other users, a registration is required and a guest...