BBC Radio Berkshire


BBC Radio Berkshire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Berkshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds.
According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 48,000 listeners as of May 2025.
It has studios at Thames Valley Park near Reading.
WWW Official Site𝕏 BBCBerkshire

History

BBC Radio Berkshire was launched on 21 January 1992 as a part-time station, broadcasting for part of the weekday and weekend mornings with BBC Radio Oxford carried at all other times. Due to financial cutbacks, BBC Director-General John Birt announced that the station was to fully merge with BBC Radio Oxford on 9 April 1996 to become BBC Thames Valley FM. On 14 February 2000, the two stations became separate once again.
In November 2018, BBC Radio Berkshire moved from Caversham Park House – which the station shared with BBC Monitoring – to new purpose-built studios at Thames Valley Park on the outskirts of Reading.

Awards

BBC Radio Berkshire was named Station of the Year in the 2012 Frank Gillard Awards, also winning in the Sports Coverage category for its coverage of Olympic rowing at Eton Dorney. Andrew Peach won silver in both the Programme Presenter and The Ultimate Hot Seat categories.
In the 2013 Sony Radio Academy Awards, the Andrew Peach programme won bronze in the category Breakfast Show of the Year.
The Andrew Peach Show was named Best Local Radio Show in the UK at the 2021 Radio Academy ARIA Awards.

Technical

The Hannington transmitter for BBC Radio Berkshire's 104.1 FM frequency is located on Cottington Hill. The 104.1 FM signal can be heard over most of Hampshire, certainly more than BBC Radio Solent. The 104.4 FM signal comes from the Fountain House transmitter in Reading. The 94.6 FM signal comes from the Henley-on-Thames transmitter. The 95.4 FM signal comes from the Windsor transmitter.
Since 31 July 2004, DAB broadcasts have come from the NOW Digital from Coppid Beech, Hannington and Hemdean. The Basingstoke DAB transmitter was added on 3 October 2005.
Since June 2016, the station has been available on Freeview TV channel 711 in the BBC South and BBC London regions. It also streams online via BBC Sounds.

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's Reading studios from 6 am to 10 pm on Sundays to Fridays and from 6 am to 6 pm and 8 pm to 10 pm on Saturdays.
Some off-peak programming originates from BBC Radio Solent in Southampton. The station usually broadcasts the whole of the Late Night programme, a programme carried by all BBC local radio stations, which is broadcast between 10pm and 1am.
During the station's downtime, BBC Radio Berkshire simulcasts overnight programming from BBC Radio 5 Live

Presenters