Bedfordshire-GLR GMR-Oldham Oxford-York The Nations

This is a list of all BBC Local Radio stations across England and the Channel Islands. Station names marked in red are those that are still running today. Those listed in upper case are full-time stations, those in lower case are 'opt-out' services that fall within another station's coverage area.

Click on underlined names to hear station jingles; as most of these are off-air recordings, the quality of these varies - hover over the Real Player symbol for more details. Click here for a map of the network as it was in 1986 (opens in new window).

Stations in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, which do not come under the BBC Local Radio banner, are listed separately.


BBC RADIO BEDFORDSHIRE 7 secs, 42kb. Recorded in 1993. FM mono
The original name of Three Counties Radio, from 24 June 1985 to 4 April 1993. Despite the name, it also covered Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire; indeed, in its final months it was known as 'Radio Bedfordshire with Herts and Bucks'. Blue Peter's Simon Groom presented on the station for a while.


BBC RADIO BERKSHIRE 33 secs, 185kb. Excerpts from two jingle packages, recorded in 1993 and 1995. FM mono
Opened 21 January 1992, originally as an opt-out from Radio Oxford with seven hours a day of its own programming from its Reading studio, but gaining its own full-time schedule in December of that year. On 9 April 1996 the station merged with Radio Oxford to form Thames Valley FM. It then relaunched on 14 February 2000, again sharing parts of its output with Radio Oxford. By 2004 it had virtually become a stand-alone station once more. Amongst the station's current line-up are former television presenters Maggie Philbin and Henry Kelly, and former Radio 1 DJ Phil Kennedy. Pop star Joe Brown also presented here for a while.


BBC RADIO BIRMINGHAM
The original name of Radio WM, from 7 November 1970 to 1982.


BBC RADIO BLACKBURN 31 secs, 136kb
The original name of Radio Lancashire, from 26 January 1971 until 3 July 1981.


BBC RADIO BRIGHTON 5 secs, 32kb
The first local radio station in the South of England, Radio Brighton opened on 14 February 1968, although it went on air unofficially in December 1967 to cover snowstorms, from a makeshift studio at the Brighton Dome. Des Lynam began his broadcasting career here. On 22 October 1983 the station expanded its coverage area and was renamed Radio Sussex.


BBC RADIO BRISTOL 24 secs, 134kb. Recorded in 1992. FM mono
Station covering the (now defunct) county of Avon, and Somerset, opened 4 September 1970. In April 1988 the 1323kHz service split to become Somerset Sound. The station boasted the UK's longest serving breakfast show presenter - Roger Bennett, who stepped down in 2002 after more than 25 years of early mornings. The first voice heard on air was Michael Buerk; Kate Adie and Tony Robinson also worked on the station in its early days. Other Radio Bristol presenters have included John Turner, Keith Warmington, Jenny Lacey, Keith Warmington, Susan Osman and Steve Yabsley. The station handed over the signal from its Mendip transmitter on 95.5 FM to BBC Somerset in December 2007. The existing 94.9 frequency therefore had its power boosted to cover Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset, with a new transmitter added to cover Weston-Super-Mare on 103.6.


BBC Radio Bury
This was one of a number of experimental opt-out stations run in turn by Radio Manchester, using the 1296kHz frequency. Radio Bury ran in late 1983/early 1984; the others were Radio Rochdale, Radio Oldham, Radio Trafford and Radio Wigan.


BBC RADIO CAMBRIDGESHIRE
Opened 1 May 1982. The station operates a separate breakfast show for the Peterborough area - at one time this went under the Radio Peterborough name. One of Radio Cambridgeshire's most popular presenters, Richard Spendlove, claims to have the longest running chat show in broadcasting; his Saturday night show has run since the late 1980s and is heard on several BBC local radio stations across the Eastern Counties. Spendlove, a former railway announcer, co-wrote the sitcom Oh Doctor Beeching! and was awarded an MBE in 2000.


BBC RADIO CARLISLE
The original name for Radio Cumbria, from 24 November 1973 to 1982.


BBC RADIO CLEVELAND
Station covering the former administrative county of Cleveland. The station was originally known as Radio Teesside, and was renamed on 1 April 1974. On 11 August 2007 it was renamed once again, to BBC Tees.




BBC RADIO CORNWALL 37 secs, 443kb. Excerpts from two very different packages, recorded in 1992 and 1995. FM mono and stereo
Opened alongside Radio Devon on 17 January 1983, covering Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Radio Cornwall is one of the BBC's most popular local radio stations, and broadcasts for five minutes a week in Cornish, in the programme Ad Newodhow. The first voice on the station, Chris Blount, was already known to South West listeners from Radio 4's regional breakfast show Morning Sou'West, which ended shortly before the start of Radios Cornwall and Devon.


BBC COVENTRY & WARWICKSHIRE
The newest BBC local radio station, launched on 3 September 2005 from its studios in Coventry's Priory Place. Liz Kershaw is amongst the presenting line-up. The BBC Coventry & Warwickshire name was first used, however, for an opt-out service of Radio WM from May 1995, which replaced the area's first BBC radio station, CWR; this became known as 'BBC WM across Coventry and Warwickshire' around 2001.


BBC RADIO CUMBRIA 14 secs, 61kb. Recorded in 1996. AM mono
Formerly Radio Carlisle, the station expanded to cover the whole county in May 1982. At the same time an opt-out service called Radio Furness covering the south of the county was introduced - this ceased in the 1990s.




BBC CWR 11 secs, 134kb. Stereo
Station for Coventry and Warwickshire, opened 19 January 1990. Presenters included Jon Gaunt, Jim Lee, Maurice Dee and Bob Sinfield. Despite much local opposition, it was merged with Radio WM in May 1995, with a replacement opt-out service, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire. The region regained its full-time station in September 2005.





BBC RADIO DERBY 14 secs, 83kb. Recorded in 1993. AM mono
Opened 29 April 1971, although it unofficially went on air two months early to cover the collapse of Rolls-Royce.



BBC RADIO DEVON 27 secs, 332kb. Recorded in 1992. FM stereo
Opened alongside Radio Cornwall on 17 January 1983. Unfortunately the Exeter studios were not ready for the station's opening, and so for the first few weeks programmes came from two portakabins on a building site. Douglas Mounce is the only presenter to remain from the station's launch; he had previously been involved with the Radio 4 breakfast opt-out Morning Sou'West, which finished at the end of 1982. Other presenters associated with the station have included Ian Brass, Alan Dedicoat, Vic Morgan, Jill Dando, David Lowe, Monica Ellis and Judi Spiers, who currently presents the station's mid-morning show. Since 1989 Radio Devon has operated some separate programming for Plymouth on 855kHz and, more recently, DAB and FM.


BBC Dorset FM 11 secs, 134kb. Recorded in 1994. FM stereo. Radio Devon used the same jingle package at this point
Opt-out service from Radio Devon, which emerged after plans for a separate BBC Radio Dorset were scrapped in 1990, as part of a series of measures designed to save £3 million. Dorset FM opened on 26 April 1993, with three-and-a-half hours of programmes a day covering rural Dorset from its studio in Dorchester. In early 1996 the station closed and was replaced by a relay of Radio Solent, going under the name 'Solent for Dorset', which contains a very limited amount of opt-out material for the county. Dorset was one of the areas identified for a new local radio station in the mid-2000s - but as part of the BBC cutbacks announced in October 2007, plans for Radio Dorset were cancelled for a second time.


BBC RADIO DURHAM
The only BBC local radio station to have completely closed. It opened on 31 July 1968, but when the Heath government restricted the BBC to twenty local radio stations, the BBC responded by closing it on 25 August 1972, and moving the station lock, stock and barrel across to Carlisle in 1973. County Durham is now covered by Radio Newcastle and Radio Cleveland. Former BBC News correspondent Katie Adie worked at Radio Durham, before joining Radio Bristol in 1970.


BBC ESSEX 22 secs, 91kb. Recorded in 1992. AM mono
Opened 5 November 1986. It was not called BBC Radio Essex to avoid confusion with an already existing ILR station called Essex Radio. Long-serving presenters include Dave Monk, Steve Scruton and John Hayes; the cult broadcaster Timbo, aka Tim Lloyd, has also presented on BBC Essex at various times.


BBC Radio Furness
Opt-out service from Radio Cumbria from 25 May 1982, based in Barrow-in-Furness and covering the south of the county. Radio Furness in name disappeared around 1991, although opt-out programming for the area continued until about 1996.



BBC RADIO GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Gloucester-based station, opened 3 October 1988. The station's presenters over the years have included Vernon Harwood, Mark Cummings, Anna King and Graham Day. Radio Gloucestershire lost many of its listeners in 1992 when the Home Office reclaimed its AM frequency (FM reception is poor in some areas due to the hilly nature of the county); but after much government debate a new AM frequency of 1413kHz was eventually allocated to the station.



BBC GLR 42 secs, 509kb. Excerpts from two packages recorded in 1992 and 1996. FM stereo
Greater London Radio, which replaced Radio London on 25 October 1988. GLR was designed to be much edgier than its predecessor, and indeed started with a virtually all-new presenter line-up. However following the relaunch the station was threatened with closure unless it increased its audience - which by 1990 it had done, enough to save it from the axe, though not enough to worry its commercial rivals. Chris Evans and Chris Morris both presented at GLR at various times, as well as other nationally-known broadcasters including Johnnie Walker, Tommy Vance and Janice Long. Despite vociferous campaigning from its devoted listenership, GLR was replaced by BBC London Live on 28 March 2000.

Bedfordshire-GLR GMR-Oldham Oxford-York The Nations

 

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