BBC Radio Nottingham

BBC Radio Nottingham is a BBC Local Radio station serving the English county of Nottinghamshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB radio and Freeview from studios located on London Road in Nottingham city centre.

BBC Radio Nottingham
CityNottingham
Broadcast areaNottinghamshire
FrequencyRDS: BBCNottm, 95.1 MHz, 95.5 MHz, 103.8 MHz, DAB (NOW Nottingham) Freeview channel 720
SloganThe sound of Nottinghamshire, And all the music you love
Programming
Language(s)English
FormatLocal news, talk and music
Ownership
OwnerBBC Local Radio,
BBC East Midlands
History
First air date
31 January 1968
Links
WebsiteBBC Radio Nottingham

According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 151,000 listeners and a 8.6% share as of December 2018.[1]

Transmission frequencies

Radio Nottingham is broadcast on three FM frequencies:

  • 103.8 to Nottingham and south Nottinghamshire, from Mapperley Ridge in north Nottingham
  • 95.5 to Mansfield from Fishponds Hill
  • 95.1 to Newark from Beacon Hill (since January 2004)

The Mansfield signal is strong enough to be heard as far north as Scunthorpe, far outside Nottinghamshire. The Nottingham signal may be heard as far south as Leicester.

Since 30 April 2004, the station has been available on DAB from the NDEM (NOW Digital East Midlands) Nottingham 12C multiplex from Waltham (main signal and in Leicestershire), Mapperley Ridge and Fishponds Hill (since July 2006).

It is also available through television (from the Waltham transmitter) on Freeview Channel 720. In addition, the station is transmitted via its website, using RealPlayer.

The station used to broadcast AM signals on 1584 kHz Medium Wave, from Clipstone, near Mansfield, until 25 January 2018 when the transmitter was turned off. This followed a trial, to determine if listeners would miss or complain about the loss of services on medium wave, from 17 August to 24 September 2012 when BBC Radio Nottingham stopped broadcasting its normal programmes on medium wave, instead directing listeners to FM or DAB.[2]

North Nottinghamshire, covering the district of Bassetlaw including the towns of Retford and Worksop, is officially covered by the FM, DAB and Freeview signals carrying BBC Radio Sheffield although editorially, it is BBC Radio Nottingham which covers news for this area via its radio and Internet news and social media channels despite the area being outside the official transmission coverage area for BBC Radio Nottingham, though FM and to a lesser extent, DAB and Freeview reception is possible in this area.

Programming

Most of BBC Radio Nottingham's programming is produced and broadcast from its Nottingham studios from 6am - 10pm on Sundays - Fridays and from 6am-6pm and 8-9pm on Saturdays.

During off-peak hours, BBC Radio Nottingham also carries regional programming for the Midlands and East Midlands regions, including its own specialist music programming at weekends and the Midlands' late show from BBC WM. During the station's downtime, BBC Radio Nottingham simulcasts BBC Radio 5 Live overnight.

Former notable presenters
  • Dennis McCarthy, who continued broadcasting on the station — despite falling ill — until the afternoon he died.
  • Simon Mayo began his radio career here where he worked for four years in 1982, moving to Radio 1 in May 1986
  • Matthew Bannister, former late night host on Radio 5 Live, worked as a reporter in 1978
  • Mansfield's Richard Bacon began his broadcasting career at BBC Radio Nottingham
  • Comedian Boothby Graffoe had a weekly show in the late 1980s for a short time
  • John Simons worked on the station in the late 1980s. He is now the Group Programme Director for GMG Radio

Surrounding areas

The nearest BBC TV news is East Midlands Today, who share the studios on London Road (A60) in Nottingham with the BBC Radio Nottingham team. The studio used to be in a building (York House) near the Victoria Centre on Mansfield Road before 1998. That building was then used by Nottingham Trent University as the Centre for Broadcast Journalism as the base for the Nottingham Trent International College. York House was demolished in May 2015 to make way for proposed future extensions to the Victoria (shopping) Centre.

BBC Radio Nottingham faces local competition from the regional commercial stations Gem 106 and 106.6 Smooth Radio, which are broadcast from Nottingham-based studios to the wider East Midlands. Trent FM, Nottingham's heritage commercial radio station, was merged with Leicester Sound and Ram FM in January 2011 to form a regional station Capital FM East Midlands, which carries a mix of local and networked output. In the Mansfield area commercial station Mansfield 103.2 exists, also transmitted from Fishponds Hill.

Listeners north of Worksop and Retford, are catered for by BBC Radio Sheffield broadcasting on 104.1FM from the Holme Moss transmitter.

References
  1. "RAJAR". RAJAR. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  2. "BBC confirms local radio medium wave closures".

Audio clips

Video clips

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