| Nation Broadcasting Limited | |
| Type: | Private Limited Company |
| Foundation: | 1999 |
| Location: | St Hillary, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales |
| Industry: | Media Radio Broadcasting |
| Area Served: | United Kingdom |
Nation Broadcasting is a British media company headquartered in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It currently owns and operates twelve Independent Local Radio stations across the United Kingdom.
Originally known as Town and Country Broadcasting, the Nation name came into being when the company took over XFM South Wales in May 2008 and rebranded the station as Nation Radio.[1] [2] [3]
In June 2018, the company changed the name of Thames Radio[4] to Nation Radio,[5] with this service becoming their national service, with DJs such as Mike Read,[6] Russ Williams and Neil Francis, broadcasting online and on DAB in 2021 from Nation Radio UK's studios in London.[7] [8]
In February 2019, Nation purchased several former Lincs FM Group and Celador Radio services from Bauer Radio, including The Breeze and Sam FM in the Solent region, and KCFM in East Yorkshire, as these stations overlap with pre-existing Bauer assets Wave 105 and Viking FM.[9]
In September 2022 Nation Broadcasting's franchise agreement with Bauer Radio ended.[10] This resulted in a series of changes being made to Nation-owned services in September and October 2022, dubbed 'The Big Switch',[11] which included the removal of Hits Radio and Greatest Hits Radio content from Nation-owned stations in favour of material largely sourced from Nation Radio UK and Easy Radio.
Nation Broadcasting runs a suite of digital-first thematic music stations, available via DAB+ transmission in a select number of areas, and UK-wide online. As at December 2021, these include:
Many of the stations were previously carried on small-scale DAB in Glasgow, but this ended with the closure of the Trial Glasgow multiplex in autumn 2021 (in preparation for the new permanent franchise, won by Nation but later sold to Like Media Group, which is due for launch in 2022.)
The group also owns stakes in a number of DAB Digital Radio multiplexes.
The group had also owned Radio Hampshire – broadcasting to Southampton and Winchester but this was sold to Play Radio, and then operated under the name The Breeze. Following the purchase of Celador Radio by Bauer Radio in February 2019, the Southampton and Winchester licences, along with a Portsmouth licence subsequently added to the network, were sold to Nation due to overlapping with the existing regional Bauer station Wave 105.
On 31 May 2019, Nation closed Radio Ceredigion and its frequencies are now used to broadcast Nation Radio Wales.[19]
In July 2010, it was announced[20] that Town and Country Broadcasting was to take over the licence to run the NME's spin-off radio station, NME Radio, after it was reduced to an online only service following DX Media pulling out of the venture.
The new NME Radio was launched on Wednesday 1 September 2010 - with familiar group presenters providing live programming for the national NME Radio service. The station also replaced the now defunct Dabbl station on the Cardiff & Newport DAB Multiplex as well as launching a brand new iPhone app.