BBC Radio Lincolnshire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BBC Radio Lincolnshire

Broadcast area	Lincolnshire
First air date	11 November 1980
Frequency	FM: 94.9 MHz 104.7 MHz MW: 1368 kHz
Format	Mixed Format
Owner	BBC Local Radio

BBC Radio Lincolnshire is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Lincolnshire—apart from the northern parts of the county, which are covered by BBC Radio Humberside. It broadcasts from its studios near Newport Arch in Lincoln on 94.9 (whole of the county) and 104.7 (Grantham) FM, 1368 (Swan Pool, west Lincoln) AM and online through its website.

1 Transmitters and coverage
2 Presenters
3 History
4 Schedule
5 Alumni
6 Trivia
7 External links
8 News Items

The main signal on 94.9 FM comes from the Belmont transmitting station near Donington on Bain in the north of the county, which is the tallest mast in Europe, although the MW signal comes from Lincoln. The FM signal is not very clear towards the south of the county, leaving only the MW frequency. North of Lincoln the FM frequency is clear. The Grantham signal, from a site just south of the town, is a filler transmitter with low power. It was the only local radio station in Lincolnshire until 1992, when Lincs FM began (it has since expanded its company), which is also broadcast from Belmont.

With the station's transmitter being the highest in Europe, coverage of the station spans nearby counties as well, and the station can be heard on the M1 from Trowell (Nottingham) all the way up to Barnsley, where it interferes with Radio Cleveland. The south-west of the county can also receive Radio Leicester on 104.9FM, and also on DAB. The Belmont transmitter broadcasts BBC DAB National, Digital One and MXR Yorkshire but there is not a digital broadcast company for Lincolnshire as yet and the broadcast licence has not been sold to anyone - this is usually to companies such as EMAP or NOW Digital. For Lincolnshire, a DAB multiplex could only be realistically established by financial investment from the Lincs FM Group, and other transmitter positions could theoretically be used.

Dave Bussey
Veronica Capaldi
Martin Daniels
Michael Hortin
Melvyn Prior
Maria Richmond
Dylan Roys
Les Sheehan
Alan Stennett
Rob Underwood
Rod Whiting
Nick Wilmshurst
William Wright

Launched on 11 November 1980 at 07.00 with a specially commissioned peal of bells from Lincoln Cathedral, BBC Radio Lincolnshire now broadcasts at least 11 hours each day of local programming. The first words spoken on BBC Radio Lincolnshire came from Nick Brunger: "And it's a warm welcome for the first time to the programmes of BBC Radio Lincolnshire."

From 5 - 6am and evenings from 7pm - 1am it shares programmes with other BBC local radio stations in the East Midlands (BBC Radios Derby, Nottingham and Leicester).

Rod Whiting presents the Breakfast Show from 7am (Dylan Roys is only heard until 6am in the other East Midlands counties). William Wright hosts the Drivetime programme from 4 - 7pm. His show has a feature for classical music on Tuesdays at 6.30pm.

Late night weekday programmes are networked across the East Midlands and theWest Midlands, presented from Nottingham by Rob Underwood, who broadcasts from 9pm until midnight. Radios Hereford & Worcester, Shropshire, BBC Radio Derby, BBC Radio Leicester & Stoke also broadcast this programme.

Dean Jackson and the team present The Beat on Saturday night from 6pm til 10pm and then hands over to BBC Five Live.

Agricultural news has a half hour specialist show, Lincolnshire Farming hosted by Alan Stennett, from 5.30pm on Fridays and 7am on Sundays. On Friday nights, a youth magazine show, the Friday Night Mix is presented by Nick Wilmshurst and the youth team.

On Sundays from 9pm-1am the station takes The Keith Skues programme from BBC East as there is no network programming supplied by BBC East Midlands.

Amongst its claims to fame are that it helped launch the careers of:

The comedian Boothby Graffoe who presented a two hour programme on Friday evenings on the station, and briefly on Radio Nottingham, in the late 1980s.

John Inverdale, now presenter of national sports programmes on BBC Television and BBC Radio Five Live, started his radio career as a morning presenter from 1982-5, having worked briefly at the Lincolnshire Echo.

Sky News weather forecaster Jo Wheeler worked for a number of years as a Saturday afternoon programme presenter at BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

BBC Head of Sport, Roger Mosey, began his career at BBC Radio Lincolnshire as did Sky News's Washington Correspondent Emma Hurd, who also presented on East Midlands Today.

In 2004, the station recorded record audience figures. People listened to BBC Radio Lincolnshire for longer ("hours") than any other radio station in the country (Q2 2004 RAJAR). Consistently, BBC Radio Lincolnshire is one of the BBC's most successful local radio stations.

The strapline for the station is Live, Local, and Loving Lincolnshire.

BBC Radio Lincolnshire broadcasts a weekly news bulletin in Portuguese.

In October 2005, it presided over the creation of a new flag for Lincolnshire.