A NEW radio station has been introduced in Glasgow which has big plans to shake up Scotland's airwaves.

London Greek Radio (LGR) has been added to the DAB+ multiplex in the city, extending its coverage to a population of almost 600,000.

Scotland has an estimated Greek and Cypriot population of more than 50,000 and the new station's hopes are to garner many more listeners across Glasgow with a fusion of talk and Greek music.

LGR is believed to be the first ethnic London radio station to cross the border into Scotland.

Antonaki Jay, LGR's station manager, said: "We're really big on serving Scotland and will now include more features for the communities we serve outside of London to include local people, local issues and local news.

"We'll be covering a wide range of news, gossip and Greek music with different presenters tailored to the various diverse communities we broadcast to."

LGR has already attracted some top presenters after more than 35 years on the air. It will be led by veteran host Vasilis Panayi and will feature DJs including Andreas Michaelides, Kat Neocleous , DJ Sooty, Soulla Violaris and Tony Neophytou.

Inevitably, Antonaki says that Greek music will be their "main stay." Describing their brand as "the heartbeat of the Greek community”, he reveals hopes to begin a regular phone-in during the evenings to connect Greeks in Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and London.

LGR's chairman, John Kyriakides, said: "We are broadening our scope to reach out to the wider Greek and Mediterranean audiences. With digital radio, we can go further and will be looking at doing things differently at LGR.

"We'll be talking about everyone in the Greek communities in Glasgow, including small businesses and local people and aim to reach out to more than just Greek people in Scotland too. We feel the whole Greek culture may have been somewhat overlooked to some extent."

Antonaki hopes LGR's edgier playlist of more of today's biggest Greek and Cypriot tunes with some home-grown talent thrown in the mix will attract listeners who are fed up of chart-topping earworms on mainstream stations.

He said: "We'll play a wide range of music from Natasa Theodoridou and Konstantinos Argyros, through to Giannis Ploutarhos and Melina Aslanidou – an eclectic mix. Not too heavy, though.

"We'll also host unsigned Greek singers, bands and performers either via telephone or in the studio. We want to give these acts a chance to be heard and celebrate Scottish-Hellenic talent.

"We love our Greek music and we really hope to build our audience through that."