Radio station in Plymouth
BBC Radio Devon
is the
BBC's local radio station
serving the county of
Devon
.
It broadcasts on
FM
,
DAB
, digital TV and via
BBC Sounds
from studios in the
Mannamead
area of
Plymouth
.
According to
RAJAR
, the station has a weekly audience of 136,000 listeners and a 4.8% share as of December 2023.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
Until 1983, local radio services for
Devon
had amounted to a regional weekday breakfast show
Morning Sou'West
, aired on
BBC Radio 4
's frequencies in Devon and
Cornwall
, plus five-minute regional bulletins on Saturday mornings and Mondays to Saturdays at lunchtime and teatime. There was no regional output of any kind on Sundays. The regional programming ended on 31 December 1982.
BBC Radio Devon started broadcasting on 17 January 1983, replacing the
BBC Radio 4
regional breakfast show
Morning Sou'West
. On the same day,
BBC Radio Cornwall
started broadcasting, with whom it shared early afternoon programming, and the BBC began launched the UK's first regular breakfast television programme
Breakfast Time
.
When broadcasting started, the new studios in
Exeter
had not yet been finished, so BBC Radio Devon was broadcast from
portable cabins
for the first few weeks. The Exeter studios were officially opened by
Alastair Milne
, then
Director-General of the BBC
, on 30 September 1983.
[2]
The then new Exeter studio centre at Walnut Gardens on St Davids Hill had the latest in BBC broadcasting technology. The studios were made up of Mark III desks, which were built in-house by BBC engineers and first designed in the 1970s.
The studio complex in Exeter consisted of the traditional BBC Local Radio Mark III set up, which saw three studios in a row - two broadcast ‘cubicles’ as they were known, either side of a centre talk-show style studio, which was home to the news programmes Good Morning Devon and Good Evening Devon. The desks were in use from 1983 until August 2015, when the original Exeter studios were closed and relocated to smaller premises on the outskirts of the city at Pynes Hill.
[3]
Since 2021, the Exeter studio and office is now located within the Exeter College building on Queen Street.
[4]
BBC Radio Devon has reporters based in Exeter,
Plymouth
,
Paignton
and
Barnstaple
and the Plymouth newsroom is shared with the BBC's regional TV news programme
Spotlight
. The station has won several
Sony Awards
for its programming.
[2]
Technical
[
edit
]
Radio Devon is broadcast on the following radio frequencies (transmitter location in brackets):
The station also broadcasts on
Freeview
TV channel 720 in the
BBC South West
region and streams online via
BBC Sounds
.
Radio Devon previously broadcast on 855 kHz in Plymouth; these transmissions ceased in 2007 and the frequency was used for a trial of
Digital Radio Mondiale
services, though these trials ultimately did not lead to DRM going into permanent service in the UK.
[5]
[6]
The station was broadcast on 1458 kHz in the Torbay area until the transmitter closed on 15 January 2018.
[7]
The station's other
AM
transmissions, 801 kHz in North Devon (Barnstaple) and 990 kHz in Exeter, ceased after the 11 am news bulletin on 3 August 2021.
[8]
[9]
They were originally slated to cease in June 2021, but this was postponed.
[10]
[11]
Programming
[
edit
]
Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's
Plymouth
studios from 6am to 2pm on weekdays and from 6am to 6pm on Saturdays and 6am to 2pm on Sundays. At all other times until 10pm (6pm on Sundays), programming is simulcast with sister stations in the
BBC South West
and
BBC West
regions. Each night from 10pm, BBC Radio Devon broadcasts the England-wide late show and from 1am, BBC Radio Devon simulcasts
BBC Radio 5 Live
Presenters
[
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]
Notable presenters
[
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]
Current
[
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]
Former
[
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]
References
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]
External links
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]
50°23′10″N
4°07′36″W
/
50.3861°N 4.1266°W
/
50.3861; -4.1266
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