BBC Local Radio


BBC Local Radio is the BBC's local and regional radio division for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of 39 stations.
As of December 2024, the network broadcasts to a combined audience of 7.1 million, with a listening share of 4.6%, according to RAJAR.

History

The popularity of pirate radio was to challenge a then very "stiff" and blinkered management at the BBC. The most prominent concession by the BBC was the creation of BBC Radio 1 to satisfy the ever-demanding new youth culture with their thirst for new, popular music. The other, however, was that these pirate radio stations were, in some cases, local. As a result, BBC Local Radio began as an experiment.
Initially, stations had to be co-funded by the BBC and local authorities, which only some Labour-controlled areas proved willing to do. Radio Leicester was the first to launch on 8 November 1967, followed by Leeds, Stoke, Durham, Sheffield, Merseyside, Brighton, and Nottingham. The local authority funding requirement was dropped by the early 1970s, and stations spread across the country; many city-based stations later expanded their remit to cover an entire county.
There were eight stations in the initial "experiment", which lasted for two years. When this ended, it was deemed so successful that all of the stations, except BBC Radio Durham, remained on air. More followed in 1970 and 1971: BBC Radio Birmingham, Bristol, Blackburn, Derby, Humberside, London, Manchester, Medway, Newcastle, Oxford, Solent, and Teesside.
Despite the success of this, the original stations were seen as flawed, as they originally only broadcast on the FM waveband, and not on the more widely available AM waveband. This was eventually rectified a few years after the creation of these new channels.
Independent Local Radio launched nationally in 1973, with nineteen stations; more followed in subsequent years. As a result, many of the BBC Local Radio stations found themselves in direct competition with commercial competitors that utilised many of the popular DJs from the pirate radio stations, and that gained, in most cases, large audiences. Despite this, BBC Local Radio continued to flourish, and the 1980s and early 1990s saw the network expanded with a combination of new launches and existing city-based services expanded to include whole counties. By the mid-1990s this expansion concluded and since then, the complement of stations has remained unchanged.
BBC Local stations were never intended to broadcast around the clock but from launch, rather than each station's frequency going silent, each station has carried another BBC station when not on air. Until the early 1990s BBC Radio 2 was carried due to it broadcasting a 24-hour service, although during the 1980s and early 1990s some stations carried output from BBC Radio 1 at various times, such as simulcasting Radio 1's Top 40 programme on Sunday afternoons. During the mid-1990s many stations switched to airing the BBC World Service and by the end of the 1990s all stations were carrying BBC Radio 5 Live during their downtime.
The 1980s also saw an expansion of programming hours but stations had still handed over to Radio 2 by early evening. This was seen as unacceptable by the BBC so the decision was taken to begin the roll-out of regional evening programming which saw the same programme networked on all the stations in that area. Consequently, by the end of the 1980s, stations were now providing local/regional programming on weeknights, and in many areas at the weekend as well, until midnight.

Current operation

The radio stations are operated from locations around the country that usually share with the BBC regional TV news services, and their news gathering bureaux. The stations are operated by the region in which the station is based and are the responsibility of the BBC English Regions department, a division of BBC News.
The remit for each Local Radio station is the same: to offer a primarily speech-based service; comprising news and information complemented by music. The target audience of BBC Local Radio is listeners aged over fifty, who are not served as well by BBC Radio as other age groups.
Each station produces local programmes on weekdays from 6am until 2pm. Depending on location and population, afternoon, evening and weekend schedules will vary from shared regional programmes to being fully local although all live sports coverage continues to remain local. Since October 2023, all stations have carried the all England Late Show which originates in London or Manchester, and since November 2023, the Sunday evening show is also carried on all stations.
All local BBC radio stations simulcast BBC Radio 5 Live from 0100 until 0600.

Transmission

All of the BBC Local Radio stations broadcast on FM, digital radio, Freeview and BBC Sounds in their respective areas across England, but BBC Radio London is also available on Sky UK, Freesat and Virgin Media.
Also, until the start of the 1990s, all BBC stations were broadcast on medium wave although initially, the BBC's local stations were broadcast only on VHF. The start of the 1990s saw new stations, once again, launching only on FM and in 1992 and 1993, six MW transmitters - BBC Radio Cleveland, BBC Radio Northampton, BBC Radio Oxford, BBC GLR, BBC GMR and one of BBC Radio Nottingham and BBC Radio WM's transmitters - were switched off and three, including BBC GLR's MW frequency, were re-allocated for use by commercial radio. In 1996, the MW frequencies of BBC Radio Leicester and BBC WM were handed over to the BBC Asian Network.
MW transmitter closures began again in 2012, initially as a five-week trial to find out if listeners would miss or complain about the lack of AM services. Two of the four transmitters partaking in the trial - BBC Radio Nottingham's MW transmitter and BBC Radio Kent's relay at Rusthall near Tunbridge Wells - remained off-air after the BBC said that the trial switch-off attracted very few complaints from listeners. In 2018, the MW transmissions of BBC Radios Sussex, Surrey, Humberside, Wiltshire, Nottingham, Kent and Lincolnshire ended and MW coverage for Radios Devon, Lancashire and Essex was reduced. Altogether, thirteen MW transmitters were switched off. In 2020, the MW transmissions of BBC Radio Cornwall, BBC Radio Newcastle, BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Radio Solent, BBC Three Counties Radio and BBC Radio York ended, BBC Radio Cumbria stopped broadcasting on MW in Whitehaven and BBC Radio Norfolk's Norwich MW transmitter went silent. In 2021, a further eight BBC Local Radio stations - BBC Essex, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, BBC Radio Devon, BBC Radio Leeds, BBC Radio Sheffield, BBC Hereford & Worcester, BBC Radio Stoke and BBC Radio Lancashire - stopped broadcasting on MW. As of May 2024, only BBC Radio Cumbria, BBC Radio Derby, BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Guernsey, BBC Radio Jersey, BBC Radio Norfolk and BBC Radio Somerset, still broadcast on MW.
Due to sports rights broadcasting restrictions, some commentaries are not available on BBC Sounds. In this instance, an alternative national programme will usually be broadcast on Saturday afternoons. Overnight events are replaced by a looping message explaining this is broadcast.

Stations

A list of the forty local radio stations by region. In addition to these stations, BBC Radio Solent operates an opt-out service covering Dorset. There were also opt-out services covering Milton Keynes, Peterborough and the Fens, Plymouth, and Swindon ; but these ceased in 2012 due to cutbacks as part of the BBC's "Delivering Quality First" programme.
BBC East
  • *BBC Essex
  • *BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
  • *BBC Radio Norfolk
  • *BBC Radio Northampton
  • *BBC Radio Suffolk
  • *BBC Three Counties Radio
BBC East Midlands
  • *BBC Radio Derby
  • *BBC Radio Leicester
  • *BBC Radio Nottingham
BBC London
File:London Bus Company Routemaster coach RMA48, Watney Market, 17 June 2011.jpg|thumb|A Routemaster double-decker bus, being used as a mobile radio broadcasting facility by BBC Radio London in 2011, under its then current name of BBC London 94.9.
  • *BBC Radio London
BBC North East and Cumbria
  • *BBC Radio Cumbria
  • *BBC Radio Newcastle
  • *BBC Radio Tees
BBC North West
  • *BBC Radio Lancashire
  • *BBC Radio Manchester
  • *BBC Radio Merseyside
BBC South
  • *BBC Radio Berkshire
  • *BBC Radio Oxford
  • *BBC Radio Solent
BBC South East
  • *BBC Radio Kent
  • *BBC Radio Surrey
  • *BBC Radio Sussex
BBC South West
  • *BBC Radio Cornwall Broadcasts to Cornwall)
  • *BBC Radio Devon
  • *BBC Radio Guernsey
  • *BBC Radio Jersey
BBC West
  • *BBC Radio Bristol
  • *BBC Radio Gloucestershire
  • *BBC Radio Somerset
  • *BBC Radio Wiltshire
BBC Midlands
BBC Yorkshire
File:BBC Radio in Leeds Blue Plaque.jpg|thumb|Blue plaque placed by Leeds Civic Society outlining radio in Leeds
  • *BBC Radio Leeds
  • *BBC Radio Sheffield
  • *BBC Radio York.
BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
  • *BBC Radio Humberside
  • *BBC Radio Lincolnshire
Former stations
The stations were launched progressively; starting with BBC Radio Leicester on 8 November 1967, with the last station to launch being the short-lived BBC Dorset FM on 26 April 1993. Since then, many stations have been merged and renamed but no new stations have been created where no service previously existed, as plans to launch stations in unserved areas, most notably in Cheshire, have not materialised.

Imaging

Between October 2009 and April 2012, a three note jingle package produced by Mcasso Music Production was gradually rolled out across the network, and was in use by all BBC Local Radio stations. Mcasso also updated the imaging in October 2015 which was launched by BBC Radio London replacing the three-note package with a six-note package.
In January 2020, BBC Radio Leicester launched a brand new custom-made jingle package by Reelworld, based in MediaCity UK, Salford. The new jingle package was rolled out to all BBC Local Radio stations over the course of the year, alongside a refreshed "on air" sound to help encourage younger listeners to the station. The new station branding also incorporates a new tag line, "The Sound of *area of coverage*, and all the music you love". The new jingle package marked the first time in ten years that "sung jingles" were used in the stations' on air branding.