Free Radio Birmingham

Free Radio (Birmingham)
Broadcast area Birmingham and the West Midlands
Slogan "Let The Music Set You Free"
Frequency
  • FM: 96.4 MHz, RDS: Free-Bhm
  • DAB: 11C (Birmingham)
  • Online
First air date 19 February 1974 (1974-02-19)
Format CHR
Audience share 5.3% (March 2014, )
Owner Bauer Media Group
Website freeradio.co.uk/birmingham

Free Radio Birmingham (formerly BRMB) is an Independent Local Radio station serving Birmingham and owned and operated by the Bauer Media Group. The station broadcasts on 96.4 FM, DAB Digital Radio in Birmingham and the surrounding areas, as well as online. The station is part of the Free Radio network, which broadcasts a mix of chart, contemporary and classic hits alongside local news and information.

History

Launched on 19 February 1974, on 261 metres medium wave, (1152kHz) and 94.8 MHz FM, BRMB was the fourth independent local commercial radio station to begin broadcasting in Britain after Capital Radio, LBC and Radio Clyde. Broadcasting a mix of popular music with local news, live football coverage, information and specialist output, the station became popular amongst residents in Birmingham and later changed its main FM frequency from 94.8 to 96.4 in 1986.

The original station name, BRMB, was not an acronym (contrary to popular belief - some believed it stood for Birmingham Radio, Midlands Broadcasting). Instead, the original company, Birmingham Broadcasting Ltd., wanted something that combined a US-style call-sign with the company name - e.g. Birmingham - (BRM) and broadcasting - (B); equalling BRMB.

Presenters such as Ed Doolan, Les Ross, Phil Upton and Tony Butler became regulars on the station - Les Ross was the UK's longest-serving breakfast presenter, presenting BRMB's flagship weekday breakfast show from March 1976 to March 1989, followed by a second stint between August 1993 and September 2002. Orion Media's head of sport Tom Ross also found fame on the station when it began broadcasting live commentary of West Midlands football matches every Saturday afternoon. Ian Crocker was also involved in the coverage early on.

In 1988, as a response to government disapproval of the simulcasting of programming on both FM and mediumwave, a sister station was launched on the 1152 kHz frequency. Xtra AM became BRMB's 'gold' service, playing classic hits, while BRMB itself began to cater for a younger audience. At this stage, BRMB was part of Midlands Radio plc, which was bought out along with Radio Trent, Leicester Sound and Mercia Sound by Capital Radio in 1993. However, they sold the other stations to the GWR Group whilst Capital kept hold of BRMB and Xtra AM. Xtra was on the air for nine years until the majority of its programming was switched to London, where it was simulcast with Capital Gold.

On 8 August 2008, it was confirmed that due to competition 'conflict of interests' in the West Midlands (and in other areas), BRMB would be sold by Global Radio, along with other West Midlands owned GCap/Global stations Mercia FM, Wyvern FM, Heart 106 and Beacon Radio. In July 2009, the station was sold officially to a company backed by Lloyds TSB Development Capital and Phil Riley[1] which was named Orion Media.

On 9 January 2012, Orion Media announced that BRMB would be rebranded as Free Radio Birmingham, along with its sister West Midlands stations Beacon, Mercia and Wyvern. The BRMB brand, together with neighbouring stations Mercia, Beacon and Wyvern, were phased out on Wednesday 21 March 2012 in preparation for the rebrand, which took place at 7pm on Monday 26 March 2012.[2] Live football commentaries on Aston Villa and Birmingham City matches continued to broadcast on Free Radio 80s on AM and DAB until the end of the 2014-15 season.[3]

On 6 May 2016, Orion Media was sold to the Bauer Media Group for £50m.

Station Information

BRMB was originally based in Aston Road North, in the Aston area of Birmingham, near the Spaghetti Junction. These were the former Alpha Television Studios, the home of ATV and ABC Weekend Television until 1970.

The current Free Radio headquarters are based in the Brindleyplace development, off Broad Street in Birmingham city centre. The Birmingham station is also the network hub for its sister Free Radio stations in the West Midlands. Since August 2011, local programming for the Coventry and Warwickshire station has been produced and broadcast from Birmingham.

The FM signal - 10kW ERP - is broadcast from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter, and can be received throughout a large part of the West Midlands.

Programming

The majority of programming is produced and broadcast from Free Radio's Birmingham studios, including local output from 6am-9am and 3-7pm on weekdays and 7-11am at weekends.The Vodafone Big Top 40 is produced by Global Radio at its Capital studios in London for broadcast on 145 commercial radio stations in the UK.

The station's main presenters include John Fox and Guiliano Casadei (Foxy and Guiliano - weekday breakfast) and Ben Burrell (weekday drivetime).

Events

Free Radio in Birmingham organises a number of annual public events including the Walkathon and the annual Live concerts at the LG Arena. The station also sponsors the Bupa Great Birmingham Run and the Acorns Midnight Walk.

Past presenters

See also

References

  1. ↑ Radio Today
  2. ↑ Feature: Orion's Phil Riley on Free Radio, RadioToday, 11 January 2012
  3. ↑ The new season on Free Radio 80s, Free Radio, 4 August 2015

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, May 07, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.