BBC Hereford & Worcester
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BBC Hereford & Worcester is the BBC's local radio station serving the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, which were one county from 1974 to 1998.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and online via BBC Sounds from studios on Hylton Road in Worcester.
According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 70,000 listeners as of June 2025.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
History
The concept for siting a local BBC Radio station within the, soon to be combined county of Hereford and Worcester, emerged as early as 1973 as part of the BBC's evidence to the Crawford Committee on Broadcasting Coverage<ref name="Linfoot 203">Template:Cite web</ref> and reinforced in the BBC's response to the Annan Report of 1977.<ref name="Linfoot 230">Template:Cite web</ref> However due to concerns about competition, and in particular a smaller than expected rise in the BBC's license fee following the report, further local radio station ambitions were halted.<ref name="Linfoot 258">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The station began broadcasting on 14 February 1989 (Valentine's Day), and to mark the unusual, two-centre set-up for the radio station, the first record played was the song "Two Hearts" by Phil Collins.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> The original team of presenters included Graham Day (mid-morning), Gill Capewell (afternoons) and Allan Lee (drive). Other staff included Robert Piggott (now BBC Religious Affairs correspondent), TV journalist Liz MacKean and former LBC presenter Jeremy Dry.
When the station first began, Jane Garvey (of BBC Radio 5 Live) was one of the team of journalists. A few months later, she took over the Breakfast Show<ref name="BBC100 5 Live">Template:Cite web</ref> and went on to win a Sony Award with it.
It serves the rural communities across Herefordshire as well as the more populous Worcestershire with a range of programmes from news, sport, consumer, arts, religion, gardening, jazz, funk, northern soul and local music. Notable guests on the station have included the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in October 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The station's original studio based in Hereford (which supplemented the primary Worcester base) was used from the station's launch in 1989, until the studio closed in December 2016, with the station occupying a temporary location in the city as they sought a more permanent home.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This studio had been used for key programmes within the schedule, including the breakfast show during the early 2000s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The solution emerged in December 2020 when the station entered a collaboration with the Hereford College of Arts to base their Hereford studio within their College Road campus.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
As a result of license fee freezes and associated budget cuts arising from the Delivering Quality First plan in 2011,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> programmes on BBC Local Radio stations began to be shared across regions in periods of lower demand such as evenings<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and medium wave transmitters began to be closed down where coverage matched FM and DAB transmissions.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Following a further freeze in the license fee by the government in January 2022, the BBC announced further cuts to BBC Local Radio in October that same year, which will see weekday afternoon programmes shared with a neighbouring station and programming in the evenings, Saturdays and on Sunday mornings shared regionally with several stations.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Technical
Template:Original research BBC Hereford and Worcester transmits on FM. The original, and two strongest FM transmitters are on 104 FM (Great Malvern, serving Worcestershire)<ref name="malvern dns">Template:Cite web</ref> and 94.7 FM (Ridge Hill, between Ross On Wye and Ledbury near Much Marcle, serving Herefordshire).<ref name="ridge hill dns">Template:Cite web</ref> These signals are not particularly powerful, and have limited coverage outside the two counties, unlike stations such as BBC Radio WM. An additional FM transmitter on 104.6 FM improved coverage in the Kidderminster area<ref name="kidderminster dns">Template:Cite web</ref> and in February 2006, a new transmitter was turned on for Redditch (Headless Cross) on 104.4FM,<ref name="headless cross dns">Template:Cite web</ref> as reception in the town had been unreliable.
From launch until 13 May 2021,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> BBC Hereford and Worcester broadcast on medium wave with the main AM transmitter on 738 kHz on the western edge of Worcester and covered most of the two counties. Originally, there was another AM transmitter for Hereford on 819 kHz; that frequency was given up to accommodate a new commercial station for south Shropshire. In 2003, a small transmitter on 1584 kHz at Woofferton, just south of Ludlow, was added to the station transferring from BBC Radio Shropshire.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The station started broadcasting on DAB in December 2013 with the new MuxCo Herefordshire and Worcestershire multiplex at the Bromsgrove, Ridge Hill and Malvern transmitter sites.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This was extended in August 2016 with a further transmitter at Hereford and in September with another at Kidderminster.
On Freeview, the station is carried by the main transmitters at Ridge Hill, Sutton Coldfield and The Wrekin, and by their associated relays, covering a much larger area than FM or DAB. The station also streams online via BBC Sounds.
Programming
Until 2023, local programming was produced and broadcast from the BBC's Worcester studios from 6 am to 10 pm each day, comprising a 6 am to 10 am breakfast show, 10 am to 2 pm morning show, 2 pm to 6 pm afternoon show and 6 pm to 10 pm evening show. The station's programming which is exclusive to the station is now mainly broadcast between 6am and 2pm on weekdays. Programming outside of these times is mainly shared with some other stations or with one other station. These shows must contain at least 60% speech content within the core broadcast hours of 6 am to 7 pm, with full speech content during the breakfast peak of 7 am to 8:30 am.<ref name="Operating License p31">Template:Cite web</ref> The station must also contain at least 95 hours of locally made programming per week, that provides news, information and content relevant to the areas and communities it serves.<ref name="Operating License p29">Template:Cite web</ref>
The station's Saturday afternoon show is occupied by sports coverage under the BBC Hereford and Worcester Sport banner with The Sunday Gardening Show occupying the Sunday afternoon slot. On both weekend days, the evening slot is occupied by the BBC Music Introducing programme<ref name="H&W schedule"/> which features music from new and up and coming artists from the local area.<ref name="Hay BBC introducing H&W">Template:Cite web</ref> The show helped discover and launch the careers of Ellie Goulding (whose first air-play was on the station),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Becky Hill and 220 Kid.<ref name="Hay BBC introducing H&W"/>
The station's late shows, airing from 10 pm to 1 am, originates from BBC Radio WM in Birmingham and is broadcast additionally to other BBC Local Radio stations in the West Midlands (BBC CWR, BBC Radio Stoke, BBC Radio Shropshire) and some nights of the week to stations in the East Midlands (BBC Radio Derby, BBC Radio Leicester and BBC Radio Nottingham).<ref name="H&W schedule">Template:Cite web</ref>
During the station's downtime, BBC Hereford & Worcester simulcasts overnight programming from BBC Radio 5 Live between 1 am and 5 am and an early morning breakfast programme broadcast across the Local Radio network from BBC Radio London.<ref name="H&W schedule"/>
Presenters
Notable current presenters
- Tammy Gooding (Weekday Breakfast)
- Elliott Webb (Weekday Mid-Morning)
- Toni McDonald (Weekday Afternoons)
- Malcolm Boyden ("The Bench Warmers" Local Football)
Notable former presenters
References
External links
- BBC Hereford and Worcester
- History of local radio in Herefordshire
- History of local radio in Worcestershire
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