BBC Local Radio - Printable Version

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RE: BBC Local Radio - Steve in Pudsey - 18-01-2023

Devon and Cornwall were two of the last stations to launch, I think there is just Radio York and a couple of others (plus the likes of Somerset that started out as a part time opt out) that haven't made it to 40 yet. The oldest stations in the network are 15 years or so older.

I don't know if Duncan Newmarch is working tonight but I think he mentioned the Devon and Cornwall anniversary while closing down BBC One a few years ago.

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RE: BBC Local Radio - London Lite - 18-01-2023

(18-01-2023, 12:28 AM)Steve in Pudsey Wrote:  Devon and Cornwall were two of the last stations to launch, I think there is just Radio York and a couple of others (plus the likes of Somerset that started out as a part time opt out) that haven't made it to 40 yet. The oldest stations in the network are 15 years or so older.

I don't know if Duncan Newmarch is working tonight but I think he mentioned the Devon and Cornwall anniversary while closing down BBC One a few years ago.

The current incarnation of BBC CWR launched in 2005 after previously being an opt-out of WM. Somerset launched in 1988 as an AM opt-out of Radio Bristol, but went full time in 2007 when it switched to FM replacing one of Bristol's FM frequencies.

Two opt-out services remain. BBC Radio Surrey which shares programming with BBC Radio Sussex and BBC Radio Solent for Dorset.

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RE: BBC Local Radio - London Lite - 18-01-2023

I've just remembered that Radio Sussex launched in 1983, but that was an expansion of BBC Radio Brighton which launched in 1968 when it launched in East Sussex.

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RE: BBC Local Radio - Steve in Pudsey - 18-01-2023

The whole Surrey/Sussex/Brighton thing was rebranded as a single station called Southern Counties for a while, still with split programming at times.

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RE: BBC Local Radio - Spencer - 18-01-2023

(18-01-2023, 12:28 AM)Steve in Pudsey Wrote:  Devon and Cornwall were two of the last stations to launch, I think there is just Radio York and a couple of others (plus the likes of Somerset that started out as a part time opt out) that haven't made it to 40 yet.  The oldest stations in the network are 15 years or so older.

There were a fair few others after Devon and Cornwall. Shropshire, Essex, Bedfordshire, Gloucestershire, Hereford & Worcester, Wiltshire and the original CWR spring to mind.

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RE: BBC Local Radio - Robert Williams - 18-01-2023

(18-01-2023, 12:28 AM)Steve in Pudsey Wrote:  Devon and Cornwall were two of the last stations to launch, I think there is just Radio York and a couple of others (plus the likes of Somerset that started out as a part time opt out) that haven't made it to 40 yet.  The oldest stations in the network are 15 years or so older.

There's a fair few stations that launched after 1983 - not counting relaunches and rebrands, there's Bedfordshire (1985 - became 3CR in 1993), Shropshire (1985), Essex (1986), Somerset (1988), Gloucestershire (1988), Hereford and Worcester (1989), Wiltshire (1989), CWR (1990), Suffolk (1990), Surrey (1991), Berkshire (1992) and Dorset (1993 - became part of Solent in 1996).

EDIT - apologies, hadn't seen the post above when I typed this!

(18-01-2023, 07:17 AM)Steve in Pudsey Wrote:  The whole Surrey/Sussex/Brighton thing was rebranded as a single station called Southern Counties for a while, still with split programming at times.

This is probably my specialist subject!  Radio Surrey launched in 1991 as an opt-out of Radio Sussex for seven hours a day as a cost-saving measure (likewise Berkshire launching shortly afterwards as an opt-out of Oxford), but barely two years later was merged with Sussex with split programming gradually reduced to nothing over a period of six months, leaving a fully merged station at the start of 1994 called Radio Sussex and Surrey - this was rebranded as Southern Counties Radio the following August.  The schedule was made-up entirely of programmes that were four hours long (sound familiar?), music was no longer played, and there was no split programming whatsoever.

It was on the next major relaunch on 1st Sep 1997 that music was reintroduced, and three separate breakfast shows for Surrey/Sussex/Brighton were introduced, along with split news bulletins.  And, other than the demise of the Brighton breakfast show in 2006, and despite the reintroduction of the separate Surrey/Sussex branding in 2009, that's pretty much where we still are today - although these days it seems pretty hit and miss as to whether any given news bulletin is actually split between the counties or not.

Berkshire, meanwhile, had different fortunes, gaining its own full schedule at the end of 1992, but then merging with Oxford in 1996 to form Thames Valley FM.  With this merger deemed unsuccessful, they regained their own identities in 2000 but still with some joint programming, eventually becoming standalone stations once more by 2004.

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RE: BBC Local Radio - TheJarv - 18-01-2023

Minor alterations to the plans have been announced

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2023/bbc-plans-modernise-local-services 

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RE: BBC Local Radio - Brekkie - 18-01-2023

Really wish the BBC would be honest with the licence fee payer and not pass off blatant cuts to services as "plans to modernise". Just be honest in these releases that services need to be cut due to the latest licence fee settlements.

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RE: BBC Local Radio - London Lite - 18-01-2023

One extra local station, Solent will keep their local afternoon show. The rest are some changes to the regional areas served.

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RE: BBC Local Radio - Blubatt - 18-01-2023

(18-01-2023, 03:23 PM)Brekkie Wrote:  Really wish the BBC would be honest with the licence fee payer and not pass off blatant cuts to services as "plans to modernise".  Just be honest in these releases that services need to be cut due to the latest licence fee settlements.

Well they were always going to put a positive spin on it. 'We're reducing our service because of funding cuts' is probably worse to say than 'plans to modernise' which itself isn't a great statement

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