Easy Radio London was a British radio station broadcasting to London on DAB.

History

The station began life in September 1994 as

Country 1035 Country 1035 was a country music based Independent Local Radio station based in London, England. History Announced as Europe's first dedicated country music radio station, Country 1035 began broadcasting across Greater London on 1 September 1 ...

, a country station broadcasting to London on medium wave. Over the next few years, successive takeovers and relaunches saw the station broadcast under the names RTL Country 1035, Ritz Radio 1035 and Mean Country 1035. In 2003, the

Sunrise Radio Group Sunrise Radio Group Limited was a UK radio broadcaster (chairman Avtar Lit), and ran Sunrise Radio. The company also used to own London Media Company Limited. In January 2014, Sunrise Radio Limited, owners of Sunrise Radio 1, Sunrise Radio 3, Ti ...

acquired Mean Country 1035 and renamed the station Easy Radio. Sunrise agreed a slight change of format with the

Radio Authority Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connected to ...

permitting it to reduce the proportion of pure country tracks and play more mainstream pop and rock songs that were either influenced by country music or musically compatible with it. The station's presenters during this period include
Ron Brown
on the breakfast show and Jack Kelly on the mid-morning programme. The programme controller was Simon Yates. In July 2004, Sunrise applied to

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

to change the station's format to an Asian speech station,

Kismat Radio Kismat Radio was a radio station broadcasting from the Crystal Palace Transmitter in south-east London. Background Kismat Radio was part of the Sunrise Radio Group, aimed at an audience of British Asians and South Asian expats aged 30+. ...

. In its submission, Sunrise claimed the country format had never been profitable, losing between £6m and £7m since launch, and had proven "disastrous financially". It also cited poor sound quality on medium wave. In addition, Sunrise pledged to maintain the Easy Radio service on DAB if its application to change the medium wave format was granted. The station had originally launched on the DRg multiplex for London in January 2002, during the Ritz Radio era. Ofcom granted Sunrise permission to change format in November 2004, and Kismat Radio took over the 1035 kHz frequency, with Easy Radio moving to DAB only, now playing a broader mix of music with some country crossover. In 2007 and 2008, Easy Radio formed part of successful applications by the DAB operator

MuxCo MuxCo is an operator of digital radio in the United Kingdom. It is, in joint ventures, the licensee for local DAB ensembles in various parts of England and Wales. It is owned by Arqiva, Bauer Radio Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radi ...

for digital multiplexes in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

and

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, North East

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and West

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, and

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

and

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. In June 2008, live presentation by DJs ended, with the station now playing non-stop music, interspersed with jingles and hourly news bulletins from IRN. The station played a mix of

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

and

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

, as well as a proportion of

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

tracks by mainstream artists such as

Shania Twain Eilleen Regina "Shania" Twain ( ; born August 28, 1965) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She has sold over 100 million records, making her one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists of all time and the best-sel ...

Dixie Chicks The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) are an American country music band from Dallas, Texas. The band consists of Natalie Maines (lead vocals, guitar, bass guitar) and sisters Martie Maguire (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, guitar) and Emily Stra ...

Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (born Kenneth Donald Rogers) (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particul ...

and

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ...

. It had 19,000 listeners a week, according to listening figures published by

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 c ...

for the period ending June 2008. The station closed on 28 October 2008 and was replaced on the DRg multiplex by

Former presenters

* Mark Anthony * Ron Brown (later worked for Time 106.6 on the Breakfast show). * Keith Butler * Chris England * Mark Yates * Lee Canderton * Philip Chryssikos * Gavin Harris * Sid Griffin * Kerry McCarthy * Paul Owens * Bobby Gee * Dave Silver * Stephen Ham * Gill Rickson

References

{{Reflist Digital-only radio stations Radio stations in London Radio stations disestablished in 2008