BBC Radio WM is the BBC's local radio station serving the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, 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

The Mailbox Mailbox Birmingham (also known as The Mailbox) is a mixed-use development located within the city centre of Birmingham, England. It houses British luxury department store chain Harvey Nichols, and the BBC Birmingham studios. The scheme compr ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. According to

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was calle ...

, the station has a weekly audience of 236,000 listeners and a 4.5% share as of September 2022.

History

Until 2004, BBC WM broadcast from the

Pebble Mill Pebble Mill Studios was the BBC's television studio complex located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom, which served as the headquarters for BBC Birmingham from 1971 until 2004. The nine-acre site was opened by Princess Anne on ...

studios, in

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...

. On 4 July of that year, the station moved to the new BBC Birmingham city centre offices in

. Its facilities include two broadcast studios, a talk studio, an operations and production area, and a studio shared with the BBC Asian Network. On 23 November 1981, the station changed its name to BBC WM and had a studio in the back of a shop in New Street. The shop sold trinkets branded with the Radio WM identity. A short-lived service called WM Heartlands ran between early 1989 and 1991 serving the 'Heartlands' area of East Birmingham using the 1458MW frequency. It ran as an experiment, opting out from 0800 until 1200, with the Asian Network using the same frequency in the evenings. As a 1990s economy measure, BBC WM took over BBC CWR in Coventry and Warwickshire. On 3 September 2005, CWR resumed the production of separate programming between 5am and 10pm each weekday (6am-6pm at weekends).

BBC Radio Wolverhampton

On 15 January 2021, BBC Radio Wolverhampton launched as a temporary sister station. The service provided eight hours of opt-out programming for listeners in Wolverhampton and the surrounding area each weekday until 31 March 2021.

Audience

When it launched, the station had a monopoly of local radio in the Birmingham area. The station's low audience since the advent of independent local radio has led to reports of threatened closure on various occasions. In the mid-1980s, a new manager, Tony Inchley, brought in extensive format changes with a view to stabilising the audience, although the station remained small in listenership numbers.

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's Birmingham studios from 6am - 1am each day. Off-peak programming, including the late show from 10pm - 1am, is simulcast with sister stations in the BBC Midlands and

BBC East Midlands BBC East Midlands is the BBC English Region covering Derbyshire (except High Peak, North East Derbyshire and the northern areas of the Derbyshire Dales), Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire (except Bassetlaw), Rutland, southern parts of South Kes ...

regions. During the station's downtime, BBC Radio WM 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, ...

Notable presenters

Notable presenters include: *

Gordon Astley Gordon Astley (born 1 December 1948, Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire) is a British radio presenter. He is best known for his role a presenter on BBC Southern Counties Radio, which he left in February 2009 after almost 15 years. He was also presente ...

Malcolm Boyden Malcolm George Boyden (born 5 August 1964) is a double Sony Award-winning BBC local radio presenter, who currently presents the Mid-morning show as well as a Sunday show on BBC Hereford and Worcester. He won a Sony gold award in 1997 for 'Radio P ...

* Tony Butler *

Tim Smith Tim, Timothy or Timmy Smith may refer to: Musicians * T. V. Smith (born 1956), British singer and songwriter *Tim Smith (Cardiacs) (1961–2020), English singer-songwriter and frontman of Cardiacs *Timmy Trumpet (born 1982), Australian DJ and prod ...

Carl Chinn Carl Steven Alfred Chinn, MBE (born 6 September 1956) is an English historian, writer and broadcaster whose working life has been devoted to the study and popularisation of the city of Birmingham. He broadcast a programme on the BBC from the mid ...

(1994–2012) *

Alan Dedicoat Alan Dedicoat (born 1 December 1954) is an English announcer for programmes on BBC One. He is known as the "Voice of the Balls" on the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lottery The National Lottery Draws, programmes, providing a voice ...

(1979–1985) *

Ed Doolan Edwin Myer Doolan MBE (20 July 1941 – 16 January 2018) was an Australian born naturalised British radio presenter who was a veteran of Birmingham's first commercial radio station BRMB, and subsequently the BBC. At the BBC he presented a we ...

(1982–2011, died in 2018) *

Adrian Goldberg Adrian Goldberg (born in Harborne, Birmingham) is an English journalist, radio and television presenter. He currently hosts the ''Byline Times Podcast'' and ''The Liquidator Podcast,'' a West Bromwich Albion fan podcast. Family background Adr ...

(2003–2006, 2010–2017, 2018–2020) *

Alex Lester Alexander Norman Charles Lester (born 11 May 1956) is a British broadcaster. He presented the weekday overnight/early-morning programme on BBC Radio 2 from 1992 until 2014. From October 2014 until January 2017, he presented the midnight to 3am p ...

(2017–2020) *

Stuart Linnell Stuart Linnell MBE BAHons HonMA is a semi-retired UK radio and television broadcaster, particularly well known in Coventry and Warwickshire, and in Northamptonshire. He is Chair of Healthwatch Coventry, and Chair of Coventry Community Digital Ra ...

* Tony Wadsworth and Julie Mayer *

Janice Long Janice Berry ( Chegwin; 5 April 1955 – 25 December 2021), known professionally by her first married name Janice Long, was an English broadcaster who was best known for her work in British music radio. In a career that spanned five decades, s ...

(2000–2010, died in 2021) *

Andrew Peach Andrew Peach is a radio presenter in the United Kingdom. He presents a daily news and phone-in show on BBC Radio Berkshire which was named 'Best Local Radio Show in the UK' at the 2021 Radio Academy ARIA Awards. He also presents network programme ...

* Peter Powell (1970–1975) *

Les Ross Les Ross MBE is a British disc jockey in the West Midlands. He was born as Leslie Meakin; 7 February 1949, in Birmingham. Early life and career Ross always wanted to become a DJ and, at the age of 11, wrote to the general manager of Radio Lu ...

(1970–2009) * Sunny and Shay (2014–2020) *

Graham Torrington Graham Torrington (born 1960) is a British radio presenter and broadcaster. Radio work Romantica After starting out as a hospital radio presenter, Torrington joined Birmingham's BRMB in the 1980s to cover an overnight programme for Steve Denn ...

(2012–2020)

References

External links

BBC WM website''BBC WM: The first 40 years''
– 58-minute radio documentary by BBC WM (streaming audio) * {{Coord, 52.4759, -1.9050, display=title Radio stations established in 1970 WM Radio stations in Birmingham, West Midlands 1970 establishments in England