What the eligibility test really asks of you
Most restricted extensions check a registry entry or an address. .radio checks what you do. The registration policy requires a nexus to the radio community, defines it by example rather than by a closed list, and hands the registry an explicit case-by-case validation power — pre-registration or post-registration, at its discretion. Alongside the ordinary contact data, registrars must collect and pass on a statement of your intended use for the name.
That makes the honest answer on timing a range rather than a number. If you run a station, hold an amateur licence or sell radio equipment, the nexus is easy to evidence and the application is unremarkable. If your connection to radio is aspirational, the policy is unusually direct about the consequences: a false statement of intended use is an indication of bad faith and grounds for suspension, and there is a dedicated appeal route, the .radio Eligibility and Reconsideration Dispute Resolution Procedure, precisely because eligibility decisions get made and contested.
The registry changed hands in 2026 — what that means
The European Broadcasting Union won .radio in 2016 and ran it as a community namespace for the radio sector. In early 2026 the registry contract passed to Digity, LLC, and IANA's root database now names Digity as the sponsoring organisation, with CORE Association in Geneva as technical contact. The change of operator does not, by itself, change the rules: .radio is a Specification 12 community gTLD, so the community eligibility and use restrictions sit in the ICANN registry agreement rather than in the operator's goodwill, and the registration policy as published still sets out the nexus test above.
We will not pretend to know what the new operator does next; industry observers have publicly questioned whether the community model survives, and that is an open question rather than a fact. What we can commit to is not selling you a name on a promise we cannot keep. We are a reseller: we submit the application and the intended-use statement, we cannot pre-approve a nexus and we will not tell you a .radio name is instant. Registration, renewal, transfer and restore prices are shown live above before you commit.