EKR Gold
News Update - July 2025

In October 2024, the very successful Oldies Paradise and Easy Rock Paradise projects came to an end. The decision to close the stations was tough, but it had to be made. Firstly for financial reasons and secondly because the EKR Project was about to rapidly expand over the coming 18 months.

During 2024, EKR became aware that the bid they were involved with for a number of DAB Multiplexes across Kent had been successful. In the near future, that will mean that there will be EKR Stations available to hear across Kent and in parts of Essex on DAB.

All of this meant that, at the end of 2024, Oldies Paradise ceased broadcasting and then moved over its broadcasting output and was re-born as part of the EKR Group and it became EKR - Gold. The good news, if you were an Oldies Paradise fan, was that as the complete Oldies Paradise broadcasting team (headed by Oldies Paradise Station Manager Mark Stafford) moved across to EKR – Gold it was to be a new name but a familiar output and style.

We would like to say a very big thank you to Peter Leutner, the owner of EKR, for giving Oldies Paradise and Easy Rock Paradise to join the EKR Broadcasting Platform.
As the months have gone by in 2025, the initial teething problems have been solved.
We are aware that as this is being written, the 128k Mp3 streams for EKR Gold and EKR – East Kent Radio are being worked on. But, that will be sorted shortly.

On the other side of the coin, for the last couple of years or so, there have been no high quality 320k audio streams for Oldies Paradise and Easy Rock Paradise. That has now been solved as EKR Gold and EKR – East Kent Radio both now broadcast in superb quality due to the 320k streams.

Thank you for your patience over the past 9 months, that was much appreciated. The majority of Oldies Paradise listeners have now followed us to EKR – Gold. But, we need to get the message across to the remainder. The same is true of Easy Rock Paradise and its move to the East Kent Radio slot.

We would like to ask you to do your fellow radio listeners (and us!) a favour by passing on this information to them and then directing them to the EKR Website at ekr.net or to the Listen page on this site which has all the information necessary for them to tune in.

Thank you again for your continued support.
Mark Stafford
Head of Music and Programming
EKR Gold and East Kent Radio

You can still contact Oldies Paradise at…..    oldies@oldiesparadise.com . The Oldies Paradise Facebook page is still open at …https://www.facebook.com/oldiesparadise

Along with the closure of Oldies Paradise, Easy Rock Paradise its sister station also ceased broadcasting in October 2024. This time, there was a short gap, until it became re-born on the EKR Broadcasting Platform. This time as EKR - East Kent Radio.  

It has again kept its original format and it will get a big bonus later this year. It has got a confirmed DAB broadcasting slot on the new Kent DAB Multiplex.

You can get East Kent Radio at ekr.net
Full details of how to tune in are available by clicking the “Listen” button above.
More information here …
www.easyrockparadise.com

You can listen to EKR Gold and all the other EKR stations including Easy Rock Paradise  (which is now broadcasting as EKR - East Kent Radio) at:
      ekr.net
Alternatively, you can just say “Play Radio Station EKR Gold” or “Play Radio Station EKR Gold” to your Alexa or Google Smart