Gaydio is a radio station for the

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

(

LGBTQ+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

) community in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and is broadcast on 88.4 FM in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, 97.8 FM in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

, on

DAB digital radio Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) is a digital radio standard for broadcasting digital audio radio services in many countries around the world, defined, supported, marketed and promoted by the WorldDAB organisation. The standard is dominan ...

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

, parts of the Home Counties,

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

and

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, and online through its website, mobile apps, Smart Speakers and the UK Radio Player. Since October 2018, a separate company, Gaydio Brighton, also operates a service in

on 97.8FM and DAB Radio. The majority of Gaydio is networked with several content splits and bespoke local programming in Brighton & Manchester. Gaydio became the UK's first LGBTQ+ FM radio service when it launched full-time on Friday 18 June 2010, expanding into digital radio when it acquired the DAB licences formally owned by

Gaydar Radio GaydarRadio is a podcast on Mixcloud streaming service, which used to be a Digital radio in the United Kingdom, British digital radio station for homosexuality, gay men, lesbians and gay friendly people, on Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB multip ...

in 2013.

History

Founded in 2006 by Ian Wallace and Toby Whitehouse, Gaydio originally launched as a 4-week pop up FM station to broadcast over the

Manchester Pride Manchester Pride is a Charity (practice), charity that campaigns for LGBT, LGBTQ+ Equality Act 2010, equality across the United Kingdom, predominantly in Greater Manchester. The Charity offers dialogue, training, research and policy analysis, a ...

festival. After this trial, the station went on to complete a further three short term broadcasts and, in 2006, a joint broadcast on BBC Radio Manchester's DAB platform to mark

World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired immu ...

on 1 December. Gaydio decided to submit an

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 ...

application for a full term licence which was granted on 7 November 2008 when Ofcom announced that Gaydio had been awarded a 5-year full-time community service FM licence. This made Gaydio the first full-time LGBTQ+ service to win such a licence. The station launched their full time service on 18 June 2010, with presenter Nicksy and Black-eyed Peas, 'I've got a feeling' being the launch song. The community radio licence has subsequently been renewed in 2015 and 2020, each for a further 5 year period.

Relaunch

Gaydio relaunched as a national station on Monday 7 January 2013 following the acquisition of DAB radio licences previously owned by

owners QSoft. The station now holds several UK radio licences including the original FM licence in Greater Manchester (88.4 FM), a DAB licence for London (11B DRg). The new sound of Gaydio - a mostly upbeat dance format - was accompanied by a new slogan 'The Beat of Gay UK', and was launched at 7am on Monday 7 January 2013 with the return of the 'Chris and Emma at Breakfast' show broadcast across all three licensed areas and online.

Expansion

Following the expansion in the London market, Gaydio went on to launch in several other cities across the UK as part of the Ofcom small-scale DAB trial and later the permanent small scale DAB services. In 2018 Gaydio applied for, and won, a community radio licence for Brighton, launching their FM service there in October of that year. With studios initially at the former Juice FM studios on North Street, before a move to The Ledward Centre on Jubilee Street. The station operates a number of audio splits, used for targeted localised advertising and content. It also broadcast bespoke programming, mainly in Brighton and Manchester where they have FM community radio services. In recent years the station has aims to broaden its appeal, with subtle changes to the music format which has seen pop music increasingly played and a more diverse lineup of presenters. From 2023, Gaydio now uses the slogan 'The UK's LGBTQ+ station'.

Academy

Alongside the broadcast service, Gaydio run
The Gaydio Academy
a training and skills development service for LGBTQ+ people. To date, they have offered courses in cities across the UK including Manchester, Birmingham, London, Brighton & Edinburgh and work with over 200 people per year.

Events

Gaydio runs a number of events across the UK in addition to their radio output. This includes club-based events under the brand 'Gaydio Take-Over' and LGBTQ+ focused business networking events under the name 'Gaydio Presents: Networking'. In 2023, Gaydio hosted the inaugural large-scale awards ceremony,
The Gaydio Pride Awards
at the Hilton Hotel, Manchester, headlined by artists including

Raye Rachel Agatha Keen (born 24 October 1997), known professionally as Raye ( ), is a British singer-songwriter. She first rose to prominence after signing with Polydor Records and subsequently releasing Dance music, dance singles and extended pla ...

and

Sigala Bruce Fielder (born 1 November 1992), known professionally as Sigala, is an English DJ and record producer. He has had eight songs peak within the top ten of the UK Singles Chart, including his 2015 debut single "Easy Love (Sigala song), Easy ...

. The event celebrated LGBTQ+ life across the UK and awarded a lifetime achievement award to the gay rights campaigner Peter Tachell. The event continues in 2024 with Jazzy (singer), Caity Baser,

Tia Kofi Lawrence John Bolton, better known by the stage name Tia Kofi, is a British drag queen and singer from Clapham, South London. They are best known for competing on the second series of '' RuPaul's Drag Race UK'' (2021), and winning the second se ...

& Ginger Johnson (drag queen) with Lady Phill from UK Black Pride winning the lifetime achievement award.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Gaydio official site
{{Manchester Radio Community radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations in Manchester LGBTQ-related radio stations LGBTQ-related mass media in the United Kingdom LGBTQ culture in Manchester 2000s LGBTQ-related mass media 2006 establishments in the United Kingdom Radio stations established in 2006