BBC Three Counties Radio is the BBC's local radio station serving the counties of Bedfordshire,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

and

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

. It broadcasts on FM,

DAB DAB, dab, dabs, or dabbing may refer to: Dictionaries * ''Dictionary of American Biography'', published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies * ''Dictionary of Australian Biography'', published since 1949 Places * Dąb, ...

, digital TV and via

BBC Sounds BBC Sounds is a Closed platform, walled garden streaming media and audio download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile pho ...

from studios at Grove Park in Dunstable. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 124,000 listeners and a 5.7% share as of May 2022.

History

BBC Radio Bedfordshire (1985–1993)

The station launched as "Radio Bedfordshire" on 24 June 1985, serving the whole of Bedfordshire plus (despite the name) North Bucks and the northern parts of Hertfordshire. Therefore, as well as Bedford, Luton, Dunstable,

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

, Knebworth, Berkhamsted, Tring,

Harpenden Harpenden () is a town and civil parish in the City and District of St Albans in the county of Hertfordshire, England. The population of the built-up area was 30,240 in the 2011 census, whilst the population of the civil parish was 29,448. Har ...

Leighton Buzzard Leighton Buzzard ( ) is a market town in Bedfordshire, England, in the southwest of the county and close to the Buckinghamshire border. It lies between Aylesbury, Tring, Luton/Dunstable and Milton Keynes, near the Chiltern Hills. It is northwes ...

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wy ...

, Hemel Hempstead,

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

, Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City, Letchworth Garden City,

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

and

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce peopl ...

were served by the new station. In 1992 the station became known as "BBC Radio Bedfordshire with Herts and Bucks".

BBC Three Counties Radio (1993–present)

The station changed to its present name on 5 April 1993. The new name was intended to reflect the wider reach across the three counties and to give equal service to all. The editorial area was not, at that point, expanded but enhanced studio facilities and staff were devoted to Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. New transmitters at Epping Green and Bedmond extended the coverage area to Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield and west Hertfordshire in late 2005. BBC Three Counties Radio became available on

radio on 14 February 2013. In June 2015, the station moved from its Luton base to new studios in Dunstable.

Transmitters

BBC Three Counties Radio broadcasts on DAB Digital radio on the Herts, Beds and Bucks digital radio multiplex, transmitted from Sandy Heath, Aylesbury TE, Epping Green, Hemel Hempstead, Chepping Wycombe, Letchworth, Zouches Farm and Bow Brickhill. On FM it broadcasts on 90.4FM (Epping Green, near

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, ne ...

), 92.1FM (Bedmond, near Hemel Hempstead), 94.7FM (Quainton Hill, near

), 95.5FM (

Sandy Heath Sandy Heath transmitting station is a television broadcast station located between Sandy, Bedfordshire and Potton near the B1042. It is owned by Arqiva, formerly NTL Broadcast. It was built in 1965, originally broadcasting Anglia Television on V ...

), 98.0FM ( High Wycombe), 103.8FM ( Zouches Farm, near Luton), 104.5FM (

Bow Brickhill Bow Brickhill is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is bounded to the north, west and east by the Milton Keynes urban area, approximately east of Fenny Stratford a ...

, near Milton Keynes). In addition, BBC Three Counties Radio also broadcasts on Freeview TV channel 720 in the Western half of the BBC East region and streams online via

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's Dunstable studios from 6am – 10pm on Sundays – Fridays and from 6am – 1am on Saturdays. Off-peak programming originates from BBC Radio Suffolk, BBC Radio Norfolk and BBC Radio Northampton. The Saturday late show, broadcast across the eastern counties between 10pm and 1pm, originates from Three Counties Radio and is presented by Justin Dealey. During the station's downtime, overnight programming is simulcast from

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

and

BBC Radio London BBC Radio London is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater London and its surrounding areas. The station broadcasts across the area and beyond, on the 94.9 FM broadcasting, FM frequency, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, ...

Presenters

Notable current presenters include: * Andy Collins (weekday breakfast) * Tony Hadley (Sunday mornings)

Notable past presenters

* Nana Akua *

Tony Blackburn Anthony Kenneth Blackburn (born 29 January 1943) is an English disc jockey, singer and TV presenter. He first achieved fame broadcasting on the pirate stations Radio Caroline and Radio London in the 1960s, before joining the BBC, on the BBC L ...

* Jon Gaunt * Simon Groom * John Radford * Dave Lee Travis (former Sunday morning presenter) * Stephen Rhodes (former breakfast / consumer show presenter) *

Nick Lawrence Nick Lawrence is the pen name of Nick Meir (born February 1966), a broadcast journalist, radio host, TV presenter, and producer from the United Kingdom. Between 2001 - 2012 he appeared on many BBC and radio current affairs programmes. He report ...

(former Breakfast Show presenter, ex- Chiltern FM) * Mo Dutta * Iain Lee (former breakfast presenter)