Switch Scotland

Switch Scotland is a DAB digital radio multiplex broadcasting across Scotland's Central Belt, with its coverage area encompassing major population centres such as Edinburgh and Glasgow and the surrounding area. The service overlaps with local-level DAB multiplexes centred on particular cities and towns (such as Score Glasgow and Score Edinburgh), meaning that listeners in central Scotland are able to tune into three levels of coverage - national, regional and local services.

Switch Scotland

Licensed area	Glasgow, Edinburgh, Eastern Argyll & Bute, Lanarkshire, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, Dumbartonshire, Fife, Clackmannshire, Falkirk, The Lothians & South Eastern Strilingshire.
Frequency	11D (222.064 MHz)
Air date	5 July 2001
Owner	Switch Digital
Website	www.switchdigital.com

Stations carried on Switch Scotland include relays of local FM/MW services and also of stations only available in that area on DAB. Many of the DAB-only stations are relays of programmes from other areas: Gold, Xfm and Heart originate in London and Kerrang! Radio in Birmingham.

Prior to Smooth Radio parent GMG Radio taking over the former Saga 105.2, the regional multiplex carried a relay of 102.2 Smooth Radio from London, with Glasgow-based Saga on the Glasgow and Edinburgh local multiplexes (in Edinburgh, the Glasgow service was relayed in place of the defunct Saga Digital.) After the Saga-Smooth changeover, Smooth London on the regional multiplex gave way to a relay of Glasgow's Smooth, and the ex-Saga slot on the local multiplexes was used by the GMG-owned jazzfm.com; in Glasgow this later became the new Jazz FM (UK), but in Edinburgh this slot was then used to relay another GMG-owned Glasgow-based station, 96.3 Rock Radio, instead.

Two more recent changes to services on this multiplex had both been actioned by Global Radio: the removal of rock station The Arrow in favour of a relay of the London version of Gold, and the relaunch of Xfm Scotland as Galaxy (which resulted in a change to the DAB arrangement, which had been carrying Xfm Scotland and Yorkshire-based Galaxy Digital, and changed to carrying Xfm London and Galaxy Scotland). Following the merger of Galaxy into the Capital network in January 2011, Galaxy Scotland was rebranded as Capital Scotland.

Following the relocation of Jazz FM to the Digital One multiplex, and the relaunch of Manchester's Rock Radio as 106.1 Real Radio XS, GMG made changes to their station lineup on DAB in Scotland. Smooth Radio (Glasgow) was removed from the regional multiplex and rolled down to the Glasgow local multiplex, which also continues to carry 96.3 Real Radio XS. Programme sharing between the Manchester and Glasgow rock stations ceased as GMG were initially proposing to sell the Glasgow station (though this plan was later abandoned). The ex-Smooth slot on the Central Scotland multiplex was then taken up by the Manchester-based Real XS. The ultimate aim of these changes appears to be to continue carriage of the Glasgow-area local FM franchises of Real XS and Smooth to the Glasgow DAB multiplex, whilst providing listeners in Edinburgh and elsewhere with access to the network versions of the stations.

BBC Radio Scotland is not carried on this regional multiplex: it is instead carried on the local-level multiplexes around Scotland. However, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal is carried on the regional multiplex, meaning it is not carried on the local multiplexes for Edinburgh or Glasgow (in other areas not served by this multiplex, both BBC stations operate on local muxes).

Transmitter sites

Switch Scotland currently broadcasts using block 11D (222.064 MHz) on the following sites:

Transmitter	kW	Area
Kirk o'Shotts	1.88	Glasgow and M8 corridor
Sergeant Law	1	Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, West Dumbarton and Western parts of Glasgow
Craigkelly	0.78	Edinburgh and Southern Fife
Earl's Hill	0.74	Stirling and Falkirk
Darvel	0.5	(Signal is mainly radiated northwards)

Current line-up of services

The stations currently carried on Switch Scotland are:

Service	Service ID	Bit rate	Audio channels	Description	Analogue availability
BBC Radio nan Gaidheal	C336	128 kbit/s	Joint stereo	BBC regional service	103.5-105.0 MHz
GO Radio		112 kbit/s	Joint stereo	Scottish Music, News & Sport
Kingdom FM		112 kbit/s	Joint stereo	Local music radio for Fife	95.2, 96.1, 96.6, 105.4 MHz
Nation Radio Scotland		80 kbit/s	mono	Glasgow	96.3, 103, 106.9 MHz