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Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire

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Free Radio Shropshire & Black Country
File:Free Radio.png
Broadcast areaShropshire, Wolverhampton and Black Country
Frequency97.2 & 103.1 MHz
RDS: free__
DAB
Online
Programming
FormatContemporary
Ownership
OwnerOrion Media
History
First air date
12 April 1976
Technical information
ERP2.00 kW, 2.70 kW
Links
Websitefreeradio.co.uk/shropshire
freeradio.co.uk/blackcountry

Free Radio Shropshire & Black Country (previously known as Beacon Radio), is an independent local radio station serving the Black Country and Shropshire in the West Midlands region of England. The station, owned and operated by Orion Media, broadcasts from studios in Wolverhampton as part of the Free Radio network.

History

Beacon Radio 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 12 April 1976.

The first presenter was Mike Baker and the first song to be played was Eric Carmen's "Sunrise".[citation needed] 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, and presumably was not meant to be confused with, or identified with, New York City's WABC (AM), former radio flagship of the American Broadcasting Company, or its one-time sister station, current Disney/ABC Television Network flagship station and New York City production center, WABC-TV Channel 7. The British station was shortened to "Radio WABC" in 1992.

In 1997 the local service essentially closed, and the service was networked (bar afternoon drive time 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 transferred to GCap Media following the GWR Group's Merger with Capital Radio Group. 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.

Beacon's last station logo

From Monday 5 July 2010, the two Beacon stations merged to form one station with the loss of separate programming for Shropshire and The Black Country. Breakfast and drivetime shows are now broadcast to both service areas with the majority of other output being shared with Orion's network of West Midlands stations.[2] Separate travel bulletins for Shropshire and the Black Country have been retained at peak times alongside advertising.[3]

On 9 January 2012, Orion Media announced that Beacon would be rebranded as Free Radio Shropshire & Black Country, along with its sister West Midlands stations BRMB, Mercia and Wyvern.

Local programming is retained at breakfast and weekday drivetime[4] while live football commentaries on West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers matches are now broadcast on Gold West Midlands on AM and DAB.[5]

The Beacon Radio brand was phased out on Wednesday 21 March 2012 in preparation for the rebrand, which took place at 7pm on Monday 26 March 2012.

Controversy

In 2003, two presenters, Mark Peters and Lisa Freame, left the station after discussing the testimony of the subsequently-convicted murderer, Ian Huntley, during his trial, despite the matter being sub judice[6].

Programming

News and Sport staff

Past presenters

References

  1. ^ Radio Today
  2. ^ Beacon Radio becomes one, RadioToday, 1 July 2010
  3. ^ Beacon Radio public file
  4. ^ [http://radiotoday.co.uk/2012/01/bmrb-mercia-beacon-wyvern- to-be-free/ BRMB, Mercia, Beacon, Wyvern to be Free], Radio Today, 9 January 2012
  5. ^ Feature: Orion's Phil Riley on Free Radio, RadioToday, 11 January 2012
  6. ^ "DJs leave after Soham comments". BBC Online. 24 December 2003. Retrieved 30 December 2010.

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