Radio Maria’s latest DAB+ Digital Radio antenna in England to be blessed

The Radio Maria England broadcasting service is now available on DAB+ Digital Radio in England’s Greater Manchester and Stockport areas.

To celebrate the development, and to pray for the success of the Catholic radio station’s mission to spread the Gospel, Radio Maria England has organised a blessing of the new antenna facilitating the new digital service, accompanied by praying the Rosary, on Saturday 20 July.

Fr Sean Davidson from St Joseph’s, Stockport, will be presiding over the blessing and leading the public Rosary, which will take place in Hyde, a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester. The saying of the Rosary will be broadcast live on the radio at 2 p.m.

Earlier this month, Radio Maria England established a DAB+ Digital Radio service in Norwich. Next month, it plans to start broadcasting digitally in Peterborough and King’s Lynn, a port and market town located 36 miles (58 km) north-east of Peterborough. Its DAB+ digital service is also available in parts of London, Cambridge, Bristol and South Birmingham.

“As we grow, and our community of supporters grows too, we are trying to expand further and further in England,” Helena Judd, Radio Maria England’s promotions, events and fundraising manager, tells the Catholic Herald.

She notes that Radio Maria England is available “everywhere” online and through its app, and highlights that, despite the English-centric nomenclature of the station, other parts of the UK are not excluded: Radio Maria England has a mobile radio station that operates in Aberdeen, Scotland.

The ongoing expansion is dependant on “funding” and securing “deals” with the radio companies who provide and run the necessary infrastructure, Judd explains.

Fortunately, she adds, the companies involved have often proved onside and willing to help. For example, when the Norwich antenna was set up it initially couldn’t reach the village of Poringland, next to Norwich, which, rather significantly, is where the local bishop resides.

After the radio company made some adjustments and tweaks to the antenna, the signal can now get through to the bishop, Judd says.

Radio Maria England is part of an international network of Catholic radio stations, which each day collectively reach an audience of more than 500 million people.

The number of daily listeners that Radio Maria England gets – typically in the thousands – make it, in the words of the station’s priest director, Fr Toby Lees OP, “the biggest daily parish in the country”.

In other countries around the world, though, Radio Maria’s success has met with resistance. Nicaragua’s Radio Maria broadcasting station faces closure after its legal status was revoked by the country’s dictatorial regime. 

Photo: Radio Maria England logo from Radio Maria England’s ‘X’ social media account @RadioMariaEng.

The blessing of the new antenna will occur at 2 p.m. at the Hyde Cricket & Squash Club on 20 July. Further details can be found here.