New DAB multiplex operator MuxCo Herefordshire and Worcestershire will launch the local digital radio multiplex for Hereford and Worcester in September 2008.

For the first time, MuxCo has won the opportunity to operate a local digital radio multiplex in the UK. The company has also today been successful in winning the local DAB licence for West Chester and Northeast Wales.

MuxCo will bring three existing stations to digital radio, including BBC Hereford and Worcester, but has lined up a further six services to complete its proposals.

A new easy listening music station Easy Radio, playing tracks from the last forty years, will be launched alongside a brand new local rock station Smithy Rock, which takes its name from the Old Smithy Studios in Kempsey, Worcestershire. The station will combine current and classic rock music, including output sourced from the studios from the last 30 years.

Local Live aims to entertain and inform with local and national news and will offer a forum to publicise local events and organisations. The mutiplex would also be launched with Christian station UBC UK, Traffic Radio travel service and Shuffle, a station covering dance, rock and chart tracks.

Wyvern FM and Sunshine Radio are also in the pipeline to launch on DAB.

MuxCo Herefordshire and Worcestershire Limited is owned equally by Murfin Media Limited, Town and Country Broadcasting Limited and MuxCo Limited. It is the first time competing applicant Now Digital have been unsuccessful in their attempts to win a local multiplex licence.

MuxCo Herefordshire and Worcestershire

• BBC Hereford and Worcester : news, information and music

• Wyvern FM : pop and contemporary music

• Sunshine Radio : classic and contemporary hits

• Shuffle : chart, dance and rock tracks with listener-generated content

• Smithy Rock : current and classic rock music

• Easy Radio : easy listening music including rock, blues and folk

• Local Live : local and national news, weather and entertainment updates, talk and speech

• UCB UK : music and religious programmes

• Traffic Radio : continually updated traffic and travel service

MuxCo are proposing a start date of September 2008 for its DAB services, with three transmitters at Bromsgrove, Ridge Hill and Malvern.