Absolute Radio 90s is a semi-national digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Absolute Radio Network. Its output is non-stop 1990s hits. The station launched on DAB in London in June 2010 and on the

Digital One Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. , the multiplex covered more than 90% of the population from 137 transmitters. Coverage was extended to Northern Ireland in July 2013. It cont ...

platform on 25 August 2010 and was initially available for one month as a "test".RadioToday
However, the availability of the station nationally continued beyond the end of September, and after a strong opening

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was call ...

figure, it was confirmed that the 90s service would continue to be available on Digital One. It remained on that multiplex until January 2015, when its slot was given over to

Magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

. Ahead of this change Absolute 90s began appearing on a number of local DAB ensembles from 12 December 2014, replacing

Kerrang! Radio Kerrang! Radio is a specialist digital rock music radio station owned and operated by Bauer and forms part of the Kiss Network. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 341,000 listeners according to RAJAR. Stations Hist ...

in many cases. Absolute 90s continues to broadcast nationally via satellite TV and online, and on 29 January 2018 the station went nationwide on DAB.

Background

The station was announced in May 2010 when Absolute Radio 80s launched on the

national multiplex.

Launch

The service was launched on 21 June 2010 by Christian O'Connell at 10am with the Oasis song " Roll With It" the first song played on the station. It was then followed by a 90s mixtape. Like its other digital spin-offs, Absolute Radio 90s also carries the Dave Berry breakfast show from Absolute Radio. During the 2013 season, Absolute Radio 90s was the UK's broadcaster of NFL (

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

) games, taking over in that capacity from

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra (formerly BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra) is a national digital radio station in the United Kingdom, operated by the BBC, and specialising in extended live sports coverage. It is a sister station to BBC Radio 5 Live a ...

. (Absolute Radio abandoned NFL broadcasts in 2014.)

Availability

The service, which took over the slots previously used by Absolute Radio 80s, was available in London on the Switch Digital multiplex. The station replaced

dabbl Dabbl was a user-controlled radio station broadcast on the Internet and on DAB Digital Radio in Cardiff 24 hours a day and in London from 7pm to 6am daily. Its content was chosen by members of Absolute Radio's website VIP Service, who select so ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, Newbury,

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

, Swindon and

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. The service is also available on

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

(channel 0203). Absolute Radio 90s launched on the

platform in August 2010, initially as a test due to run until 30 September 2010. This used the broadcast capacity of

Absolute Radio Extra Absolute Radio Extra was a part-time radio service similar to BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. The station was launched to broadcast the live coverage of the Premier League Games under the Rock n Roll Football brand, also broadcast on the main Ab ...

during that station's downtime. The trial was subsequently extended, and in November 2010 it was confirmed that the station would remain on Digital One, sharing with Extra as before, on a permanent basis, and that a new station, Absolute Radio 00s ("Noughties") would launch on DAB in London in December (in the former 90s slot.) As a result of its national launch Absolute Radio 90s has now also been removed from the other local DAB multiplexes it broadcast on ( Absolute Classic Rock took over the slot on the

local multiplex). As a result of sharing its

slot with

, Absolute Radio 90s was off-air on DAB between 1:30pm and 6:30pm on Saturdays. However, the digital TV and internet broadcasts of the 90s station were uninterrupted and continuous throughout this period. Following the closure of Absolute Radio Extra, Absolute Radio 90s regained a full uninterrupted service on all platforms. At the end of 2017, Absolute Radio 90s resumed transmitting nationally on Digital One, taking the place of temporary station Magic Christmas, and so during 2018 had dual illumination on local and national tier. In February 2019, as part of the reorganisation of DAB capacity required ahead of the launch of

Scala Radio Scala Radio is a classical music digital radio station in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Radio since its launch in March 2019. The station broadcasts nationally on DAB via the Sound Digital multiplex and online through websites ...

, Absolute Radio 90s began transmitting on

SDL National Sound Digital is a semi-national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva, Bauer Media Group and Wireless Group. The multiplex covers 73% of the population from a total of 45 transmitters. History Following ...

(taking the place of

Heat Radio Heat Radio is a British digital radio station, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Kiss Network. It broadcasts online to the UK and on Digital Radio in Inverness. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 456,000 list ...

) with its other slots vacated, the Digital One slot going to

Kisstory Kisstory is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Kiss Network. Playing "old skool and anthems", it is a sister station to Kiss. As of June 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 2.1 million listeners, ...

and local-tier slots to Magic Chilled, both of which in turn gave up their SDL capacity to Scala.

References

External links

* {{National Football League on television and radio Absolute Radio Radio stations established in 2010 2010 establishments in the United Kingdom 1990s-themed radio stations Bauer Radio