THE new owners of a radio station that was saved from going off air permanently have announced an expansion in its output by moving to a digital radio frequency.

Star Radio, in Darlington, was threatened with closure in March after failing to remain profitable before it was bought by View TV Group at the eleventh hour.

Eight weeks on from the takeover and Star’s owners are expanding the North-East station’s coverage with a new channel on a digital audio broadcasting (DAB) channel.

Last month, View TV Group chief executive, Jamie Branson, said that more than £50,000 had already been invested in Star Radio and his company last week assumed ownership of York Radio Station and Vale Radio, serving North Yorkshire.

The two studios, based in York, are set be relaunched and rebranded as Star stations to join the Star Network.

Mr Branson said: “One of the prominent points our listeners and advertisers were asking was, ‘when is Star going to be joining DAB?’

“It was one of the first objectives that we committed to doing and in typical View TV Group style, we are doing it big.

“Not only are we launching Star Digital, we are also launching two new additional DAB channels in July.

“We want to expand our offering to both advertisers and the listener alike and our chosen DAB multiplex has a great footprint and allows us to deliver our objectives quickly and efficiently.”

The group have also revealed their ambitions to move the Star Network operation to a purpose-built facility in Durham this summer.

Star Radio will also move into the realm of television by launching more than eight music channels in high-definition from the same Durham base.

Mr Branson added: “View TV Group also intends to launch one of the new DAB channels in July as Star Extra, which will play nothing but hits from the best years of our lives and deliver proper, grown-up radio that we all hope will become part of the region’s daily lifestyle.”

View TV Group’s head of radio, Darren Shortt, added that the expansion will initially see the new Star channels launched in standard DAB for listeners, before being converted to a DAB+ platform.

Mr Shortt said: “The new expansion allows us to offer a huge variety of programming across the region.”