Nation Radio Wales is a regional radio station, broadcasting to south and west Wales on FM and across

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

on DAB. It is owned and operated by

Nation Broadcasting Nation Broadcasting is a British media company headquartered in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It currently owns and operates twelve Independent Local Radio stations across the United Kingdom. History Originally known as Town and Country Broa ...

and broadcasts from studios near the St Hilary transmitter on the outskirts of

Cowbridge Cowbridge ( cy, Y Bont-faen) is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately west of the centre of Cardiff. The Cowbridge with Llanblethian community and civil parish elect a town council. A Cowbridge electoral ward exists for e ...

. The station's music playlist originally consisted of new and classic guitar-led music, reflecting the franchise won originally by XFM, but in 2015, the format was changed to a broader format including mainstream pop music. As of December 2022, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 173,000, according to RAJAR.

History

Nation Radio began broadcasting on 16 June 2008, taking over the regional

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 ...

broadcasting licence, which was held by XFM South Wales until

GCap Media GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. ...

sold the station to Town and Country (now Nation Broadcasting) on 30 May 2008. In 2013, Nation Radio increased its coverage area via

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, ...

- it began broadcasting to north-east Wales and parts of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

and

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

in March, via

MuxCo MuxCo is an operator of digital radio in the United Kingdom. It is, in joint ventures, the licensee for local DAB ensembles in various parts of England and Wales. The company is owned by Arqiva, Bauer Radio and Folder Media. (owners of Fun Ki ...

's Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool multiplex. In August, the station launched in

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...

and

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

via the Muxco Mid and West Wales multiplex. In December 2017, Nation began broadcasting on FM in Carmarthenshire (102.9 FM) and Pembrokeshire (107.1 FM) Since March 2018, the station has broadcast in stereo on DAB+ in North East Wales. In December 2018, OFCOM gave the station's owners permission to replace sister station

Radio Ceredigion ''Radio Ceredigion'' () was an Independent Local Radio station that was broadcast to Ceredigion. It was broadcast across the county on 96.6, 97.4 and 103.3 FM. On May 31, 2019, the station became a relay of Nation Radio Wales. History From its ...

with a relay of Nation. Five months later, it was reported Nation had decided to retain the local service and would request to reverse its decision on the station's format. In May 2019, Nation Broadcasting withdrew its request and Radio Ceredigion was replaced by a relay of Nation Radio Wales as originally planned.

Programming

Most of Nation Radio's programming is produced and broadcast from its St Hilary studios. Some off-peak programming - including the Russ Williams afternoon show and '' Fox's Jukebox'' on weekday evenings - is shared with other Nation-owned stations, including

Nation Radio Scotland Nation Radio Scotland (formerly ''XFM Scotland (2014), 96.3 Rock Radio'' ''Real XS,'' ''Q96'' and ''96.3QFM'') is a Scottish independent local radio station for Renfrewshire, Glasgow and West Central Scotland, owned by Nation Broadcasting. ...

News

Local news bulletins air hourly from 6am - 7pm on weekdays and 7am - 1pm at weekends with headlines on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime. National news bulletins from

Sky News Radio Sky News Radio is the radio arm of Sky News, owned by Sky UK. It has been operating since June 1999, providing a news bulletin service for UK commercial radio stations operators across the UK and for a number of English-speaking radio stations ar ...

air hourly at other times.Nation Radio public file
April 2022

Frequencies

Nation Radio's main transmitter is at the well-positioned Wenvoe site near Cardiff, broadcasting on 106.80 MHz, serving Cardiff, Newport, the Vale of Glamorgan, Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot, Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales Valleys, Monmouthshire, the Brecon Beacons and the Gower A.O.N.B. Unofficially, the 106.80 MHz frequency from Wenvoe also serves Bristol, Gloucestershire and parts of Somerset, Wiltshire and Herefordshire. Kilvey Hill serves the Swansea area on 107.30 MHz albeit with a very small coverage area, Carmel serves Carmarthenshire on 102.9 MHz, Preseli serves Pembrokeshire on 107.1 MHz and Blaenplwyf serves Cardigan on 103.30 MHz.

References

An application for the Ceredigion FM licence from Radio Ceredigion LtdReference Offer for the provision of Transmission Services in respect of Re-advertisement of FM local commercial radio licence for Ceredigion

External links

* {{Coord, 51.6585, N, 3.8323, W, display=title Radio stations in Cardiff Radio stations established in 2007 Nation Broadcasting