Woofferton transmitting station

Woofferton
	Woofferton transmitting station (Shropshire)
Location	Woofferton, Ludlow, Shropshire
Coordinates	52°18′35″N 2°43′14″W / 52.309778°N 2.720444°W
Grid reference	SO5088868250

The Woofferton transmitting station is owned and operated by Encompass Digital Media, as one of the BBC's assets which were handed over as part of the privatization of World Service distribution and transmission in 1997. It is the last remaining UK

shortwave broadcasting site, located at Woofferton, south of Ludlow, Shropshire, England. The large site spreads across into neighbouring Herefordshire

.

The station was originally built by the

lend-lease. The site has been modernised many times over the years and is now DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) capable providing daily digital radio programmes. Woofferton is used to broadcast shortwave radio programmes on HF 4 MHz – 26 MHz to Europe, Russia, North/Central Africa, Middle East and South America for BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America, and Voice of Vietnam

, among other international broadcasters. The site is also used for satellite communications and monitoring.

Construction

The site was built by J. L. Eve Construction during the Second World War, for short-wave transmissions across Europe.

Cold War era

During the Cold War, the station was equipped with six Marconi BD272 250 kW shortwave transmitters. Much of the capacity was leased by the BBC to the Voice of America (VoA) in order to enhance the latter's coverage in the Eastern Bloc. It provided a stronger shortwave broadcast signal into the Eastern Bloc than any other western shortwave broadcast transmitter during the years of Soviet jamming.

Privatisation

All the BBC's transmitting facilities were privatised in the 1990s. The shortwave sites were sold to Merlin Communications, which was acquired by

Babcock International Group in March 2010. Subsequently, Babcock's Media Services was acquired by global technology services company Encompass Digital Media^[1]

in September 2018.