A 24-HOUR Christian music channel available on digital cable radio will commence in Britain and be available to the whole of Europe from 1st March. The station, MC Europe, is launching a huge list of 63 new music channels in a multi-million pound enterprise with entertainment multinationals like Sony and Warner investing heavily in the hi-tech project. Digital cable radio is an audio service whereby CD-quality sound is transmitted digitally to the home via the cable television network and accessed by a home receiver linked to domestic hi-fi equipment.

The Gospel channel on MC Europe will play the whole gamut of Christian music from traditional gospel to the latest CCM. Appointed as programming consultant "to ensure that MC Europe exposes only the finest Christian music" is producer and Kingsway Music head of A&R Les Moir. Les told Cross Rhythms, "The launch of MC Europe Gospel is thrilling news for all supporters of Christian music throughout Europe. For a long, long time I've believed there was a big potential audience for Christian music radio and now it's here. I'm sure many people will want to subscribe to the system."

Moir, who will still continue his role with Kingsway, is currently setting up an advisory panel of Christian music experts to ensure that the station features "the broadest possible sweep of the best of gospel music."

Among the technological developments of the new radio system is a new "remote commander" which will display details of the tracks being played, scrolling full details with catalogue numbers electronically so that listeners can identify tracks for subsequent purchase.