Lincs FM

Lincs FM

Broadcast area	Lincolnshire
Frequency	102.2 MHz, 96.7 MHz, 97.6 MHz
First air date	1 March 1992
Format	Classic Hits & Contemporary Hits
Owner	Lincs FM Group
Sister stations	Compass FM, Trax FM, Oak FM, Dearne FM, KCFM, Ridings FM, Rother FM, Rutland Radio
Webcast	64 kbit/s stereo
Website	www.lincsfm.co.uk

Lincs FM is an Independent Local Radio (ILR) station serving Lincolnshire and Newark, from the Humber to The Wash. It is the current holder of the licence which was advertised by the Radio Authority on 4 March 1991.

Background

The station has a 23.7% share of all radio listening within its TSA with average hours per listener of 10.9 per week (RAJAR June 2009). Lincs FM broadcasts from studios at Witham Park in Lincoln, next to the River Witham at the far end of Waterside South where the river is crossed by the Nottingham-Grimsby railway. The building used to be the Titanic Works owned by the Clayton & Shuttleworth engineering company. Captain Roy Brown's Sopwith Camel, which shot down Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) on 21 April 1918, was made in this building.

Budget cuts within the Lincs FM Group mean that Lincs FM, amongst others within the group, have restricted live programming. The station used to provide live radio 24/7, but now use automation (where the presenter's links between the records are all pre-recorded but made to sound live) between 2100-0600.

Award nominations

In 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007, the station was nominated for a Sony Radio Award for Station of the Year in the 300,000 to 1 m listeners category. Jane Hill (now a novelist and stand-up comedian) was nominated for Station Programmer of the Year in 2004. David Lloyd, who helped launch the station was one of the judges.

Transmitters

Stamp End lock next to the radio station

The main transmitter 102.2 FM signal comes from the Belmont transmitting station. It also has lower-powered frequencies in Grantham, south of the town near the bypass, on 96.7 FM and Trent View Flats (near the John Leggott College) in Scunthorpe on 97.6 FM. Lincs FM can be clearly heard in northern Nottinghamshire and eastern South Yorkshire. The Belmont transmitter has the Digital One and MXR Yorkshire 12A multiplexes but does not transmit Lincs FM on DAB. The Bauer Humberside 11B multiplex transmits Lincs FM across East Yorkshire, with a transmitter at Bevan Flats in north Grimsby. A further DAB transmitter at Trent View Flats was planned as a later possibility when the licence was awarded in December 2000. EMAP Digital Radio was the only bidder for the licence.

DAB Licence

The Lincolnshire DAB licence was advertised on 24 October 2007, with a likely bidder in place by late 2008. The far south of the county (South Holland, Bourne & Stamford) will not be covered (as it is covered by the Peterborough multiplex), yet all of North and North-East Lincolnshire will be. On 24 January 2008, Ofcom received one application for the Lincolnshire DAB licence - from MuxCo Lincolnshire, which is 51% owned by Lincs FM Group, and was awarded on 19 February 2008. It will also carry Compass FM and another new Lincs FM digital-only station called Lincs County, and use four transmitters at Belmont, High Hunsley (East Riding of Yorkshire), Grantham and Lincoln County Hospital. It should be available by 2011, being originally planned for July 2009.

Branding

The station uses the "Link-up" jingle package produced by S2blue. The strapline for the station is "hits and memories".

In 2010 they introduced a resing of the South London Radio 107.3 package, also from s2blue.

Former presenters

• David Lloyd, the original programme controller and mid morning host, left in 1995. He joined the Radio Authority and went on to be PD of Galaxy in Leeds, LBC 97.3 and Virgin Radio.
• Jeremy Buxton - went to BBC Radio Humberside, then Radio York (left in 1995).
• Veronica Capaldi - left in April 2001 to become Sunday presenter for Radio Lincolnshire, can now be heard on Radio Plymouth.
• Nick Jackson was the first presenter and original breakfast show presenter who left to join Virgin Radio.
• Simon Grundy, the second voice heard on the station now works on Sun FM in Sunderland.
• Andy Marsh, now reading the news on Lincs FM's sister station Compass FM and after years of presenting the late show, returned to Lincs FM on Valentines night 2010 to present a special Love Zone.
• Grimsby's Duncan Newmarch joined the station in 1994 and presented the drive and Saturday morning shows until 2002, after a stint on Invica FM in Kent and a year presenting the breakfast show on sister station Trax FM, he is now a network Continuity Announcer on BBC ONE, introducing everything from EastEnders, Doctor Who and Top Gear. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8430473.stm
• Maria Richmond presented the overnight programme for a number of years but can now be heard on BBC Radio Lincolnshire on Sundays and as a relief presenter and travel roundups.
• Matt Hutchinson, now presenter at sister stations KCFM and Compass FM.
• Dan Judson, host of Early Breakfast and Saturday Breakfast, was the youngest live presenter on Lincs FM (aged 18).

Trent View House transmitter site in west Scunthorpe, overlooks the Trent Valley, and was originally to be a site for the EMAP Digital Radio (now Bauer Humberside) multiplex

External links

• Lincs FM Homepage
• Lincs FM Group.
• History of local radio stations in Lincolnshire.
• OFCOM licence
• Review of the station at Ciao!
• DooYoo
• Belmont transmitting station.
• Grantham transmitting station.
• Trent View Flats transmitting station

Audio clips

• Jingles package
• Recording the jingles for Lincs FM Group stations at S2 Blue in Leek
• There's more to Cleethorpes than meets the eye in 2003
• How not to record jingles
• 1992 jingles
• 1995 jingles
• 1999 jingles
• S2Blue 2006 package
• YouTube

Video clips

• Lincs FM 102 YouTube channel
• 18th birthday bash
• Sally Elkington talks to Farmers Weekly in February 2011
• Former presenter Duncan Newmarch now as a BBC1 continuity announcer in December 2009