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As the station returns this week, for 96 hours only, explains why and how the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ digital ‘pop-up’ comes about:  

You may have dropped into a pop-up shop or even eaten at a pop-up restaurant. But what exactly is a pop-up radio station?

At the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ we have been using digital pop-up stations to drive new ears to digital listening. It’s also given us the opportunity to give much greater air time to specialist music genres

Our biggest network is , with 15.5 million listeners a week. Of those, 37% are now listening digitally across the week, but that’s still only just over a third of the audience.

So we’ve created a number of Radio 2-branded pop-ups to reach audiences that might not be listening on digital just yet.

broadcast music and documentaries from the 1950s for four days in May, tied into a major ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ television season on the era. A month earlier, focused on country music and we have twice had live from the Song Contest with a range of programmes and history on the event - again over a four day period.

Now there’s another chance to indulge in . Jazz is a bit all over the place at the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ - on Radio 2, on Radio 3, a strong presence on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland - but this is the first time we have gathered it all in one place.

This 24/7 pop-up is also a unique collaboration, with the and with commercial digital station . You’ll be hearing Jazz FM presenters on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, and ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ programming on Jazz FM over the period (10-14 November, a total of 96 hours).

We are attempting to bring not just jazz together at the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ but right across UK radio - the pop-up promoting the genre and, of course, digital listening across the industry. 

But let’s go back for a second. Why launch a radio station for just four days?

Let’s have a look at Radio 2 Country (listen to a taster clip, above). We are looking to encourage digital listening on DAB, on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ iPlayer radio and on mobile. While we’re looking to provide more of Radio 2 in the multiplatform space, we couldn’t ordinarily clear the schedule for country music for four whole days.

We’re also keen to promote country music as a genre, along with new UK country acts. have become the first UK country act to score a number one album and  have recently had the fastest selling UK country album. We are very much part of that story.

The pop-up station is all about getting people to listen to DAB or listen online, perhaps for the first time, so everything points to the ‘listen live’ message.

We broadcast for three days in partnership with the (C2C) which takes places across multiple stages at London’s 02, bringing the biggest names in country to the UK. We air every set live, on digital platforms, and this year we had our own Radio 2 Country stage as part of the festival, giving us a significant physical presence at the event.

The schedule consists of many well-known Radio 2 presenters who, of course, promote the station on their own network shows. In fact it’s the only time of year that we offer a choice of listening at the top of each hour - to Radio 2 or Radio 2 Country. And we also have artists like and presenting their own hours.

Unsurprisingly, social media for this service is huge, and joined up with the C2C event. This spring we started our social media around Radio 2 Country two months before we were on air and maintained it daily, with lots of unique shareables that we used to promote the offering.

So what have we learned so far about the best way to mount a pop-up radio station? In summary:

1. It’s all about the mothership. Use familiar brands and dovetail the schedules
2. The more live shows the better for engagement
3. You can play shows more than once
4. Concentrate on the core product
5. Use people with great specialist knowledge to work on it
6. Use programme brands and presenters who can drive from their own shows and social
7. Think wide within your organisation and beyond. ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 5 live pushed to R2C. The Shires promoted it on TV. Find new places to promote what you are doing.

Listen to ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Music Jazz ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Music Jazz via a DAB digital radio, online at  or via the , It is also available as an ‘on demand’ service for up to 30 days after broadcast.