View source for Spire FM

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}}
{{Infobox radio station
| name             = Spire FM
| logo             = Spire-FM.png
| logo_size        = 200px
| city             = Salisbury
| area             = [[Salisbury]]
| airdate          = {{start date|1992|9|20|df=yes}}
| last_airdate     = {{end date|2020|9|1|df=yes}}
| frequency        = [[FM broadcasting|FM]]: 102.0 MHz<br/>[[Digital Audio Broadcasting#DAB+|DAB+]]: 8A (Trial Salisbury)
| format           = Contemporary
| erp              =
| class            =
| owner            = [[Bauer Radio]]
| webcast          =
| website          = [http://www.spirefm.co.uk/ www.spirefm.co.uk]
| affiliations     = 
}}

'''Spire FM''' was an [[Independent Local Radio]] station based in [[Salisbury]], [[Wiltshire]]. It was awarded the licence to broadcast to Salisbury and the surrounding areas by the Radio Authority, now [[Ofcom]], in 1991. The station took its name from the spire of [[Salisbury Cathedral]].

After several changes of ownership, it was rolled up into [[Greatest Hits Radio]] in September 2020, ceasing local programming.

==History==
The station was fully launched on 20 September 1992 (the licence ran from the 5th, when test transmissions began to include programmes about the Salisbury Arts Festival). Spire FM broadcast from City Hall Studios in Malthouse Lane, Salisbury, part of the City Hall entertainment venue.

Originally independently owned, it was acquired by Radio Investments Limited in 1995, and from 1996 the station was owned by [[The Local Radio Company]], which was a joint venture with [[GWR Group]] until it was converted into an AIM-quoted company in 2004.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Welcome to The Local Radio Company Limited|url=http://www.thelocalradiocompany.com/?p=391|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717014115/http://www.thelocalradiocompany.com/?p=391|archive-date=17 July 2011|access-date=|website=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=31 March 2004 |title=Radio Investments Ltd: Report and Financial Statements |url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01038766/filing-history/MjUxMzc4MDJhZGlxemtjeA/document?format=pdf&download=0 |page=2}}</ref> TLRC was acquired by [[UKRD Group]] in 2009,<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=9 April 2009|title=Bidding war commences for TLRC|url=http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.4618.2|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090410145430/http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.4618.2|archive-date=10 April 2009|access-date=|website=Radio Today}}</ref> and [[Bauer Radio]] bought UKRD's ten stations in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-11-27|title=Managing Director Ceri Hurford-Jones to leave Spire FM|url=https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/11/managing-director-ceri-hurford-jones-to-leave-spire-fm/|access-date=2020-09-29|website=RadioToday|language=en-GB}}</ref>

Spire FM won a prestigious [[Sony Radio Academy Awards|Sony Radio Award]] for Station of the Year in 1994 and the runner-up award in 2003. Other awards included the KPMG Marketing Excellence Award, and Wiltshire Business of the Year finalists.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}}

[[Bauer Media]] rebranded the station as Greatest Hits Radio Salisbury in September 2020, as part of their national [[Greatest Hits Radio]] network.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Waterson|first=Jim|date=2020-08-31|title=Bauer closes dozens of regional radio stations in England and Wales|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/aug/31/merger-of-bauer-local-radio-stations-criticised-as-cultural-vandalism|access-date=2020-09-29|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> It now broadcasts national and regional music programmes with local news bulletins.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Paessler|first=Benjamin|date=27 August 2020|title=Presenters announced for Greatest Hits Radio in Salisbury|url=https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/18679709.presenters-announced-greatest-hits-radio-salisbury/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-09-29|website=Salisbury Journal|language=en}}</ref> 

In January 2024, Bauer dropped local news bulletins for Salisbury - determining these to sound "jarring and parochial" alongside networked programming - and instead transmitted bulletins shared with the (then digital-only, prior to the April flip of [[Wave 105]]) South Hampshire iteration of GHR. Salisbury-specific bulletins on weekdays were reinstated in March 2024. [[Ofcom]] considered that a complaint about the lack of local news material had been resolved by their reintroduction.<ref>[https://radiotoday.co.uk/2024/05/bauers-non-local-news-experiment-in-salisbury-results-in-ofcom-complaint/ Radio Today, May 2024]</ref>

==Programming==
All programming on the station was locally produced. Until 2018, Spire FM broadcast [[The Vodafone Big Top 40]] chart show (previously [[The Pepsi Chart]] and [[Hit40UK]]) which was produced from [[Capital (radio network)|Capital FM]] in London and syndicated across over 140 commercial radio stations in the UK. However, the show was withdrawn from syndication in 2018 and now broadcasts solely on [[Heart (radio network)|Heart]] and [[Capital (radio network)|Capital]] stations.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Bauer Media Group}}
{{Radio stations in South West England}}
{{coord missing|Wiltshire}}

[[Category:Bauer Radio]]
[[Category:Radio stations in Wiltshire]]
[[Category:Salisbury]]
[[Category:Radio stations established in 1992]]
[[Category:Radio stations disestablished in 2020]]
[[Category:Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom]]

{{UK-radio-station-stub}}