The number of German-language radio services on the Astra satellite system (19.2 degrees East) continues to grow. Last Friday at 1300 CET BIG FM, the new commercial youth radio station for regional state Baden-Wurttemberg, went on air, occupying the ADR subcarrier (Astra Digital Radio) 6.48 MHz on ZDF’s transponder 33 (10.964 GHz H). This used to be the home of Sunshine Live, another youth channel which targets a younger audience. As the broadcaster itself is a minority shareholder in BIG FM, it has agreed to hand over its ADR capacity to the newcomer for feeding its FM transmitters and cable headends. However, Sunshine Live intends to return to Astra soon. This was confirmed by programme director Jurgen Wiesbeck to Interspace.

However, no exact date has been fixed so far. Munich-based local radio Relax FM 92.4 also intends to become available to Germany’s DTH household base. On April 6, regional media authority Bayerische Landeszentrale fur neue Medien will decide whether to extend the channel’s licence to include the satellite transmission. According to Natascha Grobe, assistant to Relax FM’s management, the channel, which could best be described as a radio version of cable TV broadcaster Landscape Channel, will use MPEG-2/DVB capacity on the Astra satellite system.