Coverage

The London 3 network consists of 12 transmitters spread across Greater London. From Luton in the North to Guildford in the South; Slough in the West to Maidstone in the East. The map here shows the approximate circumference of the London 3 transmission area. For a more detailed view check out the transmission plot from Arqiva (DRG's transmission provider) that will help you to see if you are within our predicted coverage area.

To check the full list of services available to listeners in any particular area, use the digital radio postcode checker.

DRG cannot guarantee coverage and local geography can make a difference. Listeners on the edges of the coverage area may require a fixed external aerial to improve their your reception.

What you need

• Place to broadcast from: This doesn’t have to be a studio, but it has to be a fixed point where a connection to the transmitters can be installed.
• Licence from Ofcom: You will need a Digital Sound Programme Service licence from Ofcom. These licences are issued on request and a single DSP licence covers all digital radio services that a particular person wants to broadcast, on any number of local multiplexes.

Technical choices

• Audio quality: The London 3 multiplex broadcasts on the 11B DAB frequency using MP2 audio encoding. As a service provider you can choose from a range of audio quality levels, for example Stereo 128kbits (best for a music service) or Mono 64kbits (appropriate for speech services). Higher kbits services require more capacity and therefore cost more.
• Error protection: this determines the amount of overhead inserted in the digital signal to improve reception on the edges of reception area. Greater error protection levels require more capacity and therefore cost more.

Costs

• The cost of capacity on the multiplex varies according to how much capacity your station uses. Speech stations need less capacity than music stations and stereo stations need more capacity than mono. Stereo 128kbps is at the top end of that range.
• Note that this price does not include contribution (the equipment and line required to get the audio signal from your studio to the transmitter) or Ofcom fees.