Radio station in Birmingham
BBC Radio WM
is the
BBC's local
radio station
serving the
West Midlands
.
It broadcasts on
FM
,
DAB
, digital TV and via
BBC Sounds
from studios at
The Mailbox
in
Birmingham
.
According to
RAJAR
, the station has a weekly audience of 193,000 listeners and a 2.2% share as of December 2023.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
The station launched as BBC Radio Birmingham on 9 November 1970 and on 23 November 1981, the station changed its name to BBC WM to reflect that the station broadcasts to a wider area than just
Birmingham
.
[2]
A short-lived service called WM Heartlands ran between early 1989 and 1991 serving the 'Heartlands' area of East Birmingham using the 1458
medium wave
frequency. It ran as an experiment, opting out from 8 am until 12 am.
[3]
On 30 October 1989, the
BBC Asian Network
launched as a part time service on BBC WM's MW frequencies (828 and 1458 kHz). In 1996, the Asian Network became a full time service, resulting in BBC WM no longer broadcasting on MW.
In the 1990s, as an economic measure, BBC WM took over
BBC Coventry & Warwickshire
in
Coventry
and
Warwickshire
. On 3 September 2005, CWR resumed the production of separate programming between 5 am and 10 pm each weekday (6 am to 6 pm at weekends).
Until 2004, BBC WM was broadcast from the
Pebble Mill
studios, in
Edgbaston
.
[4]
On July 4 of that year, the station moved to the new BBC Birmingham city centre offices in
The Mailbox
.
[4]
Its facilities include two broadcast studios, a talk studio, an operations and production area, and a studio shared with the BBC Asian Network.
[
citation needed
]
BBC Radio Wolverhampton
[
edit
]
On 15 January 2021, BBC Radio Wolverhampton launched as a temporary sister station. The service provided eight hours of opt-out programming for listeners in
Wolverhampton
and the surrounding area each weekday until 31 March 2021.
[5]
Technical
[
edit
]
The service is broadcast across the
West Midlands
on 95.6 FM and
DAB
from the
Sutton Coldfield transmitting station
situated north of
Birmingham
.
It also broadcasts on
Freeview
TV channel 722 in the
BBC West Midlands
region and streams online via
BBC Sounds
.
Audience
[
edit
]
When it launched, the station had a monopoly of local radio in the
Birmingham
area. The station's low audience since the advent of
Independent Local Radio
has led to reports of threatened closure on various occasions. In the mid-1980s, a new manager, Tony Inchley, brought in extensive format changes with a view to stabilising the audience, although the station remained small in listenership numbers.
Programming
[
edit
]
Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's
Birmingham
studios from 6 am to 10 pm on Mondays to Saturdays and from 6 am to 6 pm on Sundays.
Off-peak programming, including the late show from 10 pm to 1 am, is simulcast across all BBC Local Radio stations across
England
.
During the station's downtime, BBC Radio WM simulcasts overnight programming from
BBC Radio 5 Live
Notable presenters
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
52°28′33″N
1°54′18″W
/
52.4759°N 1.9050°W
/
52.4759; -1.9050
|
---|
|
UK stations
| |
---|
International stations
| |
---|
Defunct stations
and services
| Local services
| |
---|
Relays
| |
---|
National services
| |
---|
|
---|
Related topics
| |
---|
|