Ministry of Sound Radio is No More

Ministry mysteriously closes radio service

By Matt Auckland (@mattauckland) on Tuesday 1st March 2016 at 11:44pm | News

Clubbing and global entertainment brand Ministry of Sound, has shut down its live radio station.

Interesting update to his story, see below.

In a sudden and unexpected move, Ministry of Sound has shuttered its live radio service, as well their globally syndicated radio shows.

Ministry of Sound Radio which launched in 1999, began life as a one hour syndicated radio show called the “Ministry of Sound Dance Party” in 1996.

Produced by Robert Sharp in a tiny studio at the MoS offices, the show grew to appear on over 50 radio stations, in 38 countries at its peak.

Ministry of Sound Radio had a brief spell on DAB in 2000, covering London and Scotland, which came to an end in 2002.

Even though Ministry of Sound achieved the accolade of “world’s biggest dance music internet radio station” in 2002, according to Akamai, and amassing a staggering 482,800 followers on TuneIn, the group as decided to move ahead with the closer of its radio operations.

In a statement on their website, the Ministry said “Ministry of Sound LIVE will be taking some time off the air while we work on exciting new projects. We have a big year ahead of us and we can’t wait to show you all the amazing things we have coming up. We look forward to sharing with you the next stage of Ministry of Sound and want to thank you for listening.”

With the radio feed still live, playing a loop consisting of “Ministry of sound live is no-longer broadcasting”, and sources confirming the end of the syndicated radio shows, including Hed Kandi, we can only wonder if this move also includes “Clubbers Guide with Ministry of Sound” on Capital Xtra, and “Ministry of Sound Radio with Timmy Trumpet” on Hit 105 Australia.

Only time will tell if the Ministry returns to radio, or if this is perhaps a sign of bigger changes at the brand. All I do know is without a firm public statement from MoS, we can only but speculate.

Update - In an interesting twist to this story, Ministry of Sound have inked a deal with DAB radio station Capital Xtra, to run an exclusive 8 hour show on Friday and Saturday nights.

The 10pm till 6am show called "The Capital Weekender with Ministry of Sound", is a non-stop ad free music show host by DJ's including Coco Cole, Mike Wooller, and Goldierocks.

The partnership between Capital and Ministry of Sound would certainly explain why all other syndicated shows, and podcast where pulled back at the beginning of March. No doubt an exclusivity requirement from Capital's parent company Global.

Is this a good move by the Ministry? Even though it does bring The Ministry of Sound to a national DAB service, it also locks them into one broadcasting partner. And if Capital Xtra is not available outside the U.K via the internet, it will ultimately reduce there audience. Especially as the up take in DAB radio in the U.K by consumers, is not at the scale the industry has hope for.