BBC Radio Wiltshire is the BBC's local radio station serving the English county of

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. 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 Prospect Place in

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

. According to RAJAR, the station had a weekly audience of 64,000 and a 1.6% share as of September 2022.

History

BBC Wiltshire Sound (1989–2002)

The station was launched as BBC Wiltshire Sound on 4 April 1989, with its main studios and headquarters in Prospect Place,

. The station was not initially titled 'BBC Radio Wiltshire' because at that time its competitor GWR owned the trademark of 'Wiltshire' and 'Radio' in whatever combination.BBC – Wiltshire – History – A history of the BBC in Wiltshire
/ref> The first presenter heard on air was Paul Chantler. The early logo of the station featured the White Horse at Westbury. BBC Wiltshire Sound had a reputation for solid local programming focusing on news and information. From 1991 to 1994, the station's Programme Editor was Mike Gray, who left to found the successful Kiss 102 and Kiss 105 radio stations in Manchester and Yorkshire. Amongst Gray's innovations was giving 17-year-old Swindon student Mark Franklin his own programmes, which led to him being spotted and hired as a presenter on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...

''. Other specialist music presenters at the time included jazz singer

Rosemary Squires Rosemary Squires MBE (born Joan Rosemary Yarrow, 7 December 1928) is an English jazz, big band, cabaret and concert singer and recording artist. Her career started in 1940 with an appearance on the BBC Home Service's ''Children's Hour'', and h ...

. One of BBC Wiltshire Sound's best-known features was the long-running soap opera ''Acrebury'', in which all the characters were voiced by presenter and actor Gerry Hughes, for which he was awarded a

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

. The city of

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

was given its own breakfast show for a time, due to its distance from Swindon. Both the Salisbury breakfast show and ''Acrebury'' were discontinued as part of a virtual relaunch of the station in 2000. Along with a number of presenter departures, the changes led to listener protests at the station's headquarters and unflattering headlines in the local newspaper. The 2000 relaunch gave listeners in Swindon separate programmes from the rest of the county, introduced in response to the rapid growth of the town and its new

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

status. New presenters brought in for the Swindon programmes included Dan Chisholm and

Peter Heaton-Jones Peter Heaton-Jones (born 1963) is a British Conservative Party politician, journalist and broadcaster. He was first elected as the Member of Parliament for North Devon at the 2015 general election. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary ...

BBC Radio Wiltshire and BBC Radio Swindon (2002–2008)

On 11 November 2002, the separation was enhanced when the station was effectively split into two services: BBC Radio Swindon, covering the town and surrounding areas, and BBC Radio Wiltshire for the rest of the county. Originally the two stations had their own programmes for most of the day, but by 2007, following a number of schedule changes and presenter departures, only the breakfast shows remained separate, with all other programmes simulcast on both stations.

BBC Wiltshire (2008–2020)

On 21 April 2008, exactly 19 years after the original launch, the two stations effectively merged again and became a single entity branded as BBC Wiltshire. This became the umbrella name for the radio station and online service, in common with branding policy across most of the BBC local radio network. Swindon initially retained its own breakfast show, for which the branding ''Swindon's BBC Wiltshire'' was used. Currently all programmes across the week are broadcast on all BBC Wiltshire frequencies with no separate opt-outs.

BBC Radio Wiltshire (2020-present)

On 9 March 2020 the station reverted to BBC Radio Wiltshire again, in order to fit the station name in to the new jingle package.

Transmission

BBC Radio Wiltshire broadcasts from its studios in

on FM frequencies 103.5 (Newton Barrow, near A360, 5 miles northwest of

), 103.6 ( Blunsdon, next to the

A419 The A419 road is a primary route between Chiseldon near Swindon at junction 15 of the M4 with the A346 road, and Whitminster in Gloucestershire, England near the M5 motorway. The A419 is managed and maintained by a private company, Road Manag ...

, north of Swindon), 104.3 (Naish Hill, near A342 4 miles west of Calne, for west Wiltshire), 104.9 (

Marlborough Marlborough may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Marlborough, Wiltshire, England ** Marlborough College, public school * Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England * The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England Austral ...

for east Wiltshire); on

;

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

(channel 721); and via

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's Swindon studios from 6am – 10pm on Sundays – Fridays and from 6am – 6pm on Saturdays. Off-peak programming, including the late show from 10pm – 1am, originates from

BBC Radio Gloucestershire BBC Radio Gloucestershire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Gloucestershire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, AM, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Portland Court in Gloucester. According to RAJAR, the station has ...

and BBC Radio Devon. BBC Introducing in the West is presented from BBC Radio Wiltshire's Swindon studios. Sunday afternoon programming is shared between

and BBC Radio Wiltshire. During the station's downtime, BBC Radio Wiltshire simulcasts overnight programming 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, ...

References

External links

*
A history of the BBC in Wiltshire
– BBC, 2014
BBC Radio Wiltshire
– media.info

– geocities.com, archived in 2004 {{Coord, 51.5539, -1.7776, region:GB-WIL_type:landmark, display=title

Organisations based in Swindon Radio stations established in 1989 Radio stations in Wiltshire