Gaydar Radio strengthens brand

QSoft Consulting, Europe's leading gay media owner, has announced a £2 million investment in its Gaydar brand.

The award-winning radio network, GaydarRadio, which celebrates its fifth birthday today, will be fully incorporated into GaydarNation, QSoft's new social networking portal, which launches in March.

GaydarNation will incorporate the Rainbow Network lifestyle magazine portal, which QSoft acquired in 2003, making GaydarNation the world 's biggest lifestyle destination for gay and lesbian people.

The development plan, formulated by the late chairman Gary Frisch, together with the QSoft board, will also include the extension of GaydarRadio onto mobile. The station was voted Best Radio Station in the BT Digital Music Awards last year.

Further plans to develop the Gaydar brand beyond broadcast and online into publishing, events and real estate will be announced in the spring.

Henry Badenhorst, managing director of QSoft Consulting, said: "Gaydar is a brand which has been created for the gay and lesbian community which we are wholly dedicated to serve."

"The growth of our dating, radio and travel services over the past nine years has led to the development of a brand new range of products and services which are designed to extend the Gaydar footprint further in 2007 to the benefit of all our users."

Gaydar's new mobile dating service also launches in the UK this year, initially to Gaydar.co.uk's 1.1 million subscribers, with a view to rolling the service out across Australia and Continental Europe in 2007.

The company said the plans honoured the memory and celebrated the vision of its co-founder and chairman Gary Frisch, who died suddenly at the weekend.