BBC Local Radio on Medium Wave

I know this is slightly off topic but BBC Local Radio is a big part of the adjacent Midlands thread so there!

Do most BBC Local Radio stations across the country broadcast on both FM and MW?

The reason why I'm wondering is due to the amount of football that has been played over the last few days. BBC Radio Leeds would split the station with one match being aired on FM and another on MW, and if applicable there is now the facility for a third to be on DAB only.

Quite a useful facility, but if there was no MW they wouldn't be able to do this. Is this the same in your area?

Most do have both, WM's AM frequency went to the Asian Network, GMR lost its to a commercial station - I think it's now Capital Gold.

as stated above, wm and leicester use their mw for asian network

i'll bow to mr bbc midlands radio (aka westy)'s knowledge on this - but i think wm split off their blackcountry frequencies for certain programmes?

BBC Wiltshire and BBC Swindon both have medium wave transmitters, but with an interesting twist, just to confuse the idiot.

The Wiltshire transmitter transmits BBC Wiltshire and the Swindon transmitter transmits............................. BBC Wiltshire.

Isn't Radio Swindon an opt-out from Radio Wiltshire?

Virtually all of them have MW frequencies, though obviously certain ones have been lost over the years (at around the same time Radio 3's MW 1215 went to Virgin, Radio Kent lost 1035 to some foreign station, we still have 774 and 1602 however..)

Somerset Sound (always referred to as the "smallest" BBC local station, although I'm not sure by which criteria) is MW only.

BBC Oxford is one of the ones with FM only (95.2khz) - you can work the rest out from www.bbc.co.uk/reception

http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/radindex.shtml is a useful page to bookmark too.

Yes, but the opt outs aren't on the MF transmitter in Swindon; that puts out Wiltshire programmes.


But only for a little while longer. <wink>

Radio Scotland do the same thing - during midweek they use MW for football coverage. On Saturdays however they split three ways - Radio Scotland FM, MW, and use the Gaelic channel to broadcast another game.

Not sure what the situation is regarding DAB, however.

I thought GMR had an MW Frequency, I know it has 95something and 104something FM, I must be mistaken about the MW, though I think either Radio Lancashire or Radio Merseyside has one.

Didn't know Capital Gold took GMR's old frequency.

Most of the old style ILR's have 2 frequencies, I mean the ILR's that have been going for at least 25 years or so, as they originally had the old AM frequency then added a service to FM and in the late 1980's they had 2 different services, many stations having stations that played old Music, for instance in Manchester there used to be Piccadilly Radio and Piccadilly Gold but now it's Key 103 and Magic.

Interesting

I've been listening to a fair bit of their output online of late so will keep an eye out for news on that one. ..

No, Kent lost 1035 to a London commercial station called Country 1035.

The stations on 1035 were all total failures and have had about 7 owners since it lanuched 10 years ago. The original Country 1035 became RTL Country 1035, then Ritz 1035, then Mean Country 1035, then Easy 1035 and then recently they applied to drop the Country music remit and it is now an Asian speech/music station called Kismat .

GLR/BBC London lost its MW frequency (1458) many years ago to a Commercial station, Sunrise

Yes, the IBA ran a 'use it or lose it' policy at teh end of the 80's. ALl the ILRs had a MW and FM frequency which was deemed a waste and they all - with a few exceptions - split into 2 stations. Hence Capital Gold and Capital FM and the like. There were a few stations who didn't split - Devonair lost its license to Gemini and LBC (who did split, but only during the day) lost its to London News Radio