The Voice is a local radio station serving North

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, and based at studios in

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...

. As of June 2023, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 12,000, 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 ...

History

The station began broadcasting online in July 2010 as ''Network North Devon'', part of a group of internet radio stations owned by former

Lantern FM Heart North Devon (formerly Lantern FM and previously Lantern Radio) was an Independent Local Radio station in North Devon. Technical The station broadcast from two locations: its main transmitter at Huntshaw Cross on 96.2FM, and a relay stati ...

presenter Ian Starling. The station was set up in response to

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysa ...

's decision to merge five of its Heart radio stations (in

North Devon North Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. North Devon Council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lynmouth ...

, Plymouth & the surrounding areas, the Exeter & Torbay areas and the

South Hams South Hams is a local government district on the south coast of Devon, England. Services divide between those provided by its own Council headquartered in Totnes, and those provided by Devon County Council headquartered in the city of Exete ...

) into one county-wide station based in Exeter. By this time, local programming on the Heart stations had been restricted to breakfast and drivetime slots. The Voice was granted its first licence to broadcast on FM for 28 days from 9 November 2010 to 6 December 2010 under a

Restricted Service Licence A UK Restricted Service Licence (often called an RSL), is typically granted to radio stations and television stations broadcasting within the UK to serve a local community or a special event. Licences are granted by the broadcasting authority Ofc ...

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 ...

, serving the Barnstaple area on 106 FM and online via the station's website. Further RSL broadcasts have since been made on FM for the

and

Bideford Bideford ( ) is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is the main town of the Torridge local government district. Toponymy In ancient records Bideford is recorded as ''Bedeford'', ''By ...

areas. While the station was off air between its various FM broadcasts, it continued to provide live programming daily from the Barnstaple studios via its website and iPhone app. In January 2012, The Voice moved from its location on The Square to new temporary studios above 21 High Street, Barnstaple sharing space with The Olden Group. The Voice planned to apply for the North Devon commercial FM licence in 2011, but shortly before the renewal date Now Digital submitted a proposal to Ofcom to extend DAB coverage in to North Devon, which would allow

Heart Devon Heart South West was a regional radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcast to Devon and Cornwall from studios in Exeter. The station launched on Friday 27 August 2010 under the name 'Heart Devo ...

to automatically retain the licence. Despite the vast majority of responses to the consultation being 'No', Ofcom approved the request, effectively blocking The Voice from applying for the commercial licence.

DAB Launch

On 20 March 2012, during a 28-day RSL from 16 March 2012 to 12 April 2012, The Voice announced it had won a full-time licence to broadcast across most of North Devon on the local DAB digital radio multiplex, broadcast from the Huntshaw Cross transmitter. The station began DAB broadcasts on Monday 2 April 2012 at 6am, following a weekend of testing. Its launch song was John Farnham's You're The Voice, which it adopted as its theme tune over the various broadcasts.

FM Launch

After being unsuccessful in its plans to win the North Devon commercial FM licence, the station applied for a full-time five year community radio licence, which was awarded in April 2012. The FM service was launched on Saturday 18 January 2014. The first record played was John Farnham, You're The Voice, followed by a new version of Eternal Flame (which was the first record played on North Devon's first commercial station in 1992) by local band Zamba. The song was specially commissioned for the launch of The Voice on FM. The FM service is broadcast on two frequencies; 106.1 for Barnstaple and surrounding areas and 107.8 for Bideford and Ilfracombe.

New studios

In July 2017, the station moved to new studios in Barnstaple in the former Citizens Advice building. Paul Crockett, managing director of The Voice said: "the new facilities are the envy of many a commercial station up and down the land". In the same week that the new studios opened, the station was contacted by Channel Four, which informed the station it was the most-listened-to radio station in North Devon.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Voice Companies based in Devon Radio stations in Devon North Devon Radio stations established in 2014 2014 establishments in England