BBC Radio Lincolnshire

Coordinates: 53°14′17″N 0°32′17″W / 53.23816°N 0.53797°W / 53.23816; -0.53797
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

BBC Radio Lincolnshire
Broadcast areaLincolnshire except North and North East Lincolnshire.
FrequencyFM: 94.9 MHz (Belmont)
FM: 104.7 MHz (Grantham)
DAB: 10D
Freeview: 722
RDSBBCLINCS
Programming
Language(s)English
FormatLocal news, talk and music
Ownership
OwnerBBC Local Radio,
BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire,
BBC East Midlands
History
First air date
11 November 1980
Former names
BBC Lincolnshire (2009–2012)
Former frequencies
1368 MW
Technical information
Licensing authority
Ofcom
Links
WebsiteOfficial Website

BBC Radio Lincolnshire is the

BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lincolnshire
.

It broadcasts on

Lincoln
.

According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 66,000 listeners and a 3.1% share as of December 2023.[1]

History

A BBC national broadcasting site covering the area had opened at the Corporation's Stamp End Depot on Thursday 8 March 1951.[2] and carried an opt-out programme 'News from the North'.[3]

BBC Radio Lincolnshire radio car from the 1980s, preserved at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life in Lincoln.

Almost three decades later, on 11 November 1980 at 7 am, the county got its own station when BBC Radio Lincolnshire opened with a commissioned peal of bells from Lincoln Cathedral with the first words spoken coming from Nick Brunger: "And it's a warm welcome for the first time to the programmes of BBC Radio Lincolnshire."

In 1988, the station commissioned UK jingle producer Alfasound to compose a jingle package based on the traditional English folk song The Lincolnshire Poacher, continuing on this theme until 2006.

For most of its first decade on air, BBC Radio Lincolnshire did not broadcast during the evening and simulcast BBC Radio 2 from around 7 pm on weekdays and 5 pm at the weekend. However, the end of the 1980s saw BBC Local Radio beginning weeknight programmes with stations broadcasting a mostly regional, rather than local, service, networked on all the stations in that area. BBC Radio Lincolnshire broadcast its own programmes until 9 pm before joining with the other East Midlands stations to air a late show which broadcast from 9 pm until midnight. However evening programming at the weekend didn't begin until many years later and the station still handed over to BBC Radio 5 Live mid-evening at the weekend until well into the 2000s.

In 2006, BBC Radio Lincolnshire conducted a six-month trial of XDA pocket-PCs for the BBC, using Technica Del Arte's Luci mobile (on the hoof) interviewing application.[4]

The station used to have a BBC Bus,[5][6] until cutbacks in early 2008 forced budget priorities to be streamlined.

On 15 January 2018, BBC Radio Lincolnshire stopped broadcasting on medium wave.[7]

Management

Under its first manager, Roy Corlett, the station achieved record audience figures as its programming of news, music and chat became very popular. Corlett left to found BBC Radio Devon and was replaced briefly by Laurie Bloomfield, who also left to launch a new BBC local station, BBC Radio Shropshire.

After Bloomfield's brief stay, the station was managed for 14 years by David Wilkinson, one of the founding team, and a local radio pioneer from his days at BBC Radio Nottingham in 1968. Upon Wilkinson's retirement in 1999, the station was taken over by BBC Radio Leicester managing editor, Charlie Partridge. In 2004, the station recorded record audience figures – according to RAJAR, listeners were tuned into BBC Radio Lincolnshire for longer ("hours") than any other radio station in the country.

The Lincolnshire flag was chosen by listeners in 2005

Lincolnshire flag

In October 2005, it presided over the creation of a new flag for Lincolnshire.

Name change

The station changed its name from BBC Radio Lincolnshire to BBC Lincolnshire on 30 November 2009. The name reverted to BBC Radio Lincolnshire in May 2012.

Technical

The main signal on 94.9 FM comes from the Belmont transmitting station near Donington on Bain in the north of the county, which, until the height reduction carried out in September / October 2009, was the tallest mast in Europe.

Radio Lincolnshire covers most, but not all of, Lincolnshire on FM as the signal does not fully cover the southern edge of the county, including

Barton upon Humber and Immingham, cannot receive the station.[8] Instead, North Lincolnshire is served by BBC Radio Humberside. DAB provides wider, but not complete, coverage but BBC Radio Lincolnshire is available across all of the county via Freeview
TV as below.

Until early 1992, Radio Lincolnshire was the only local radio station in Lincolnshire. This changed when

Lincs FM
began broadcasting.

Monks' Dyke Technology College in Louth is used for the East Lindsey
reports. District outposts are important due to the time taken on Lincolnshire's ill-equipped roads.

The station broadcasts on DAB from the Belmont transmitter. For Lincolnshire, a DAB multiplex could have only been realistically established by financial investment from the

East Yorkshire), Grantham and Lincoln County Hospital. They were awarded
the DAB licence on 19 February 2008. Transmissions were expected to begin by July 2009, but funding for the project delayed the roll-out and the multiplex went on air in September 2015.

The station also broadcasts on Freeview TV channel 722 in the

BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and BBC East Midlands regions and streams online via BBC Sounds
.

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's Lincoln 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 originates from BBC Radio Leeds (weekdays), BBC Radio WM (Saturdays), BBC Radio York (Sunday evenings) and BBC Radio Norfolk (Sunday nights).

During the station's downtime, BBC Radio Lincolnshire simulcasts overnight programming from BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio London.

Specialist programming

BBC local radio
station to have a dedicated farming programme.

The station's sports strand, Hope and Glory, broadcasts full commentary on all Lincoln City football matches with additional commentary of Boston United and Gainsborough Trinity matches online.

Radio Lincolnshire also has a dedicated farming programme on Sundays at 7 am, which the station has broadcast since it began broadcasting.

Former programming

A weekly news bulletin in

Boston Borough Council
.

Events

Since the early 1980s, a race had been held at the Market Rasen Racecourse, the BBC Radio Lincolnshire Novice's Hurdle. In recent years, this has become the Mike Molloy Memorial Handicap Chase, named after a former sports presenter who died of Myeloma.

In 1983, it formed a charity trust, thought to be the first in the UK for a radio station. This became known as Going for Gold. Originally GOLD stood for Give Our Lincolnshire Defibrillators. Since then, money has been raised for a number of other local causes.

It holds an annual folk song competition called "Song For Lincolnshire".

Notable former staff

  • Radio Nottingham, in the late 1980s.[9]
  • John Inverdale, presenter of national sports programmes on BBC Television and BBC Radio 5 Live, started his radio career as a morning presenter from 1982 until 1985, having worked for two years at the Lincolnshire Echo. He has claimed it is the most enjoyable job he has ever had, despite the early mornings.
  • Dave Bussey who replaced Inverdale as morning presenter, who, in the 1980s, also presented weekend shows for BBC Radio 2.
  • Sky News weather forecaster Jo Wheeler worked for a number of years as a Saturday afternoon programme presenter at BBC Radio Lincolnshire.
  • BBC Director of Sport, Roger Mosey, began his career at the station.
  • Sky News's
    East Midlands Today
    .
  • Newsround presenter, Matthew Price, was a reporter with BBC Radio Lincolnshire in the mid-1990s.[10]

References

  1. ^ "RAJAR". RAJAR. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  2. ^ Nottingham Evening Post Monday 12 March 1951, page 5
  3. ^ Lincolnshire Echo Friday 9 March 1951, page 7
  4. ^ Pocket PDAs
  5. ^ BBC Bus seen outside BBC White City
  6. ^ BBC Bus in Spalding
  7. ^ Clifton, Keiran, 'About the BBC', 2017-08-10
  8. ^ "Mb21 – Transmitter Information – Radio Lincolnshire".
  9. ISBN 9780750951722
    . Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  10. ^ Matthew Price

External links

Audio clips

News items

53°14′17″N 0°32′17″W / 53.23816°N 0.53797°W / 53.23816; -0.53797

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=BBC_Radio_Lincolnshire&oldid=1210611913"