Banbury Sound was an

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...

station serving the

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire ...

and

Brackley Brackley is a market town and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, bordering Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, from Oxford and from Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the inters ...

areas of north

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. At the time of closure, it was owned and operated by Quidem and broadcast from studios at

Honiley Honiley is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Beausale, Haseley, Honiley and Wroxall, in the Warwick district, in the county of Warwickshire, England. It is from Kenilworth, and from Coventry on the A4177 road. The ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

History

Banbury Sound was launched as ''Touch FM'' on Saturday 25 February 2006 by then-breakfast presenter Dale Collins, with the first news bulletin read by then-group editor Daniel Bruce. It was previously owned by the

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

-based

CN Group CN Group Limited was formerly an independent local media business based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England, operating in print and radio. It is now owned by Newsquest and their newspapers are printed in Glasgow. The company was formerly known as t ...

and was their third station to adopt the Touch FM branding, alongside sister stations in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

and

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

. Programming was networked between the three stations outside of breakfast and drivetime. The station changed owners on 1 April 2009, making it part of ''Banbury Broadcasting Company Limited'' - with staff members John Crutch (Station Director), Anneka Naysmith (Sales Director) and Dale Collins (Director of Programming) as partners in the buyout. Two months later, the station relaunched as ''Banbury Sound'' and introduced a full schedule of local output from its studios in the Grimsbury area of Banbury After the station was sold again to Touch FM's new owners, Quidem, in October 2010, the station co-located to studios at Honiley in Warwickshire and re-introduced networked programming outside of breakfast. In September 2019, Quidem announced it had entered a brand licensing agreement with Global, citing financial losses. Two months later, following permission from regulator,

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

to change the station's format, it was confirmed Banbury Sound would merge with its Quidem-owned sister stations and launch as Capital Mid-Counties on 2 December 2019.Global confirms Capital FM to replace Quidem stations
Radio Today, 27 November 2019 Local output for the Mid-Counties region consists of a three-hour regional Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising for North Oxfordshire. Banbury Sound ceased broadcasting at 7pm on Friday 29 November 2019.

References

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External links

Official websiteBanbury Sound's listing on Media UK
Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations in Oxfordshire Radio stations established in 2006 Radio stations disestablished in 2019 Companies based in Banbury Banbury