Beacon Radio
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| Beacon | |
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| Broadcast area | Wolverhampton, Black Country and Shropshire |
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| Frequency | 97.2 MHz, 103.1 MHz |
| Format | Contemporary |
| Audience share | 6.4% (June 2009, [1]) |
| ERP | 2.00 kW, 2.70 kW |
| Owner | Orion Media |
| Website | www.beaconradiowestmids.co.uk www.beaconshropshire.co.uk |
Beacon is the name of two radio stations in the West Midlands region of England, previously known as Beacon FM, and before that Beacon Radio 303.
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[edit] History
The station began broadcasting to Wolverhampton and the Black Country from studios at 267 Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton on mediumwave 303 metres, and 97.2 MHz (from Turner's Hill) at 6 a.m. on April 12, 1976.
The first presenter was Mike Baker and the first song to be played was Eric Carmen's "Sunrise". The station originally set out to broadcast Beautiful Music including soul and country rock with a heavy bias towards American chart music with artists like Linda Ronstadt and The Eagles.
The station's original Managing Director was Jay Oliver, an American who, with his Programme Controller Allen McKenzie (a Scot/Canadian), was responsible for the Mid-Atlantic sound that flooded the West Midlands for three years (including a US-style jingle package).
As with other UK commercial stations at the time, the station's commitment to news and speech broadcasting under news editor Mike Stewart in its opening year, particularly in the evenings, was extensive; and its late-evening music programmes appeared to offer the presenters a freedom to enlighten, with a wide choice of recordings, as well as to entertain.
The station became successful, although facing competition from the already established commercial station, BRMB in nearby Birmingham. However, the station came in for criticism from the UK licensing authority (then, the Independent Broadcasting Authority) for being too American sounding and not wide ranging enough in its programming. Due to this, the senior management and output changed in mid-1979.
Its licence was later expanded in 1987 to cover Shropshire, ostensibly broadcasting from its offices in Shrewsbury on 103.1 MHz. Actually, only local news was produced in Shrewsbury, with programmes emanating from the Wolverhampton studios - although entirely separate programming for the two areas was provided during daytime hours (this was from time to time slimmed down or expanded as finances allowed).
Since January 1989, the station has been FM-only, with Beacon's former AM frequencies of 990 and 1017 kHz becoming branded as a separate service "Nice 'n' Easy Radio WABC" (WABC stood for Wolverhampton And Black Country). This was shortened to "Radio WABC" in 1992.
In 1997 the local service essentially closed, and the service was networked (bar afternoon drivetime and News bulletins) under the banner of "WABC Classic Gold". This service is currently owned and operated by Orion Media as Gold 990 & 1017.
The company had been reorganised in the late 1990s into "Beacon Broadcasting and Communications Ltd" (BBCL) - a holding company for the company's various activities. In 1995 GWR Group plc bought Beacon Broadcasting Ltd from BBCL (leaving BBCL as a dormant company). The FM licenses tranferred to GCap Media following the GWR Group's Merger with Capital Radio. GCap re-branded the FM service as Beacon FM in 1997, before reverting to Beacon Radio in May 2005. The thinking behind this reversion to the 'radio' title had been floating around for a number of years within the company - new digital radios do not promote a frequency on 'FM' therefore as a 'radio' station it should be branded as such.
On 8 August 2008, it was confirmed that due to competition 'conflict of interests' in the West Midlands (and in other areas), both Beacon Radio stations would be sold by Global Radio, along with other West Midlands owned GCap/Global stations - BRMB, Mercia FM, Wyvern FM and Heart 106. In July 2009, the stations were sold officially to a company backed by Lloyds TSB Development Capital and Phil Riley[1] called Orion Media.
[edit] Presenters
[edit] Local presenters
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[edit] Networked/simulcast presenters
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All networked programming is produced from BRMB's Birmingham studios, with the exception of the Tom Newitt show on weekday mornings in Shropshire, which is produced and simulcast from Wyvern's Worcester studios. Networked programming from Birmingham is also carried on Wyvern and Mercia.
[edit] News staff
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Head of News |
Head of Sport |
Broadcast Journalists |
[edit] Past presenters
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[edit] Sports coverage
97.2 Beacon Radio currently owns the commercial rights to broadcast live commentary on all of Wolverhampton Wanderers' and West Bromwich Albion's live matches, home and away throughout the 2009/2010 season. All games are broadcast either on 97.2 Beacon Radio or on its sister station Gold. Both of these stations are also available on DAB Digital Radio.
The Goalzone airs every Saturday afternoon and on midweek match nights. In the Black Country, the programme is presented by head of sport Tom Ross with commentators Mike Burrows, Nathan Alleyane, Joe Holt, Robbie Dennison, Tony 'Bomber' Brown and Aaron Thurstance.
Following the Saturday afternoon coverage, a networked phone-in programme on the day's games covered by the Beacon stations, BRMB and Mercia is presented by Tom Ross.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Beacon West Midlands Website
- Beacon Shropshre Website
- Alan Nicklin's History of Beacon Radio
- Beacon Radio 303 Nostalgia Website
- Beacon Radio Jingles
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