Time 106.6 was a local commercial radio station for Slough, Maidenhead and Windsor. Time played a variety of music from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and today, with a strapline of 'all time favourites'. The station was available on FM on 106.6 MHz and online.

History

The station launched as Star FM in 1993 (later one of six local stations owned by the

UKRD Group The UKRD Group Ltd was a British media company that owned 15 commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. The name originates from UK Radio Developments. Since its acquisition in March 2019, it has been run as a subsidiary of Bauer Radio. H ...

to be branded under the 'Star' name), managed by Valerie Handley. Originally it was known as Star 101.6 before becoming Star 106.6, broadcasting from Slough's Observatory Shopping Centre in studios located on the first floor above

Primark Primark Stores Limited (; trading as Penneys in the Republic of Ireland) is an Irish multinational fast fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. It has stores across Europe and in the United States. The Penneys brand is not u ...

which are now the home of Asian Star Radio. Star FM was sold to the London Media Company in May 2006, a subdivision of the

Sunrise Radio Group Sunrise Radio Group Limited was a UK radio broadcaster (chairman Avtar Lit), and ran Sunrise Radio. The company also used to own London Media Company Limited. In January 2014, Sunrise Radio Limited, owners of Sunrise Radio 1, Sunrise Radio 3, Tim ...

, owners of

Sunrise Radio Sunrise Radio is a 24-hour commercial radio station, focusing on entertainment, music and news from the Indian subcontinent. It broadcasts to the Greater London area on 963/972 AM, on DAB (SDL National), and via the internet. History Sunrise R ...

, who re-branded the station into Time 106.6, in line with three other Sunrise-owned stations in

Romford Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romford ...

Bexleyheath Bexleyheath is a town in south-east London, England. It had a population of 31,929 as at 2011. Bexleyheath is located south-east of Charing Cross, and forms part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...

and

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...

. It operated out of studios at Radio House in Southall during this time. In January 2014, Time 106.6 and its sister stations entered

Administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

, and were acquired for an estimated £2m on 4 February 2014 by Lyca Media II Ltd, a subdivision of

Lycamobile Lycamobile is a British mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) operating in 60 countries. The brand is active in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal ...

. The station has retained its branding as 'Time 106.6FM'.

Programming

Time 106.6FM broadcast live output 24 hours a day. Traffic & travel news was from

INRIX INRIX is a private company headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, US. It provides location-based data and software-as-a-service analytics — such as real-time and historical traffic conditions, road safety, and parking availability — to automa ...

read by Gary Scott on the Breakfast show & Nicola Richards at Drivetime. The news programming was sourced locally & read by James Brydges and Kirsty Manley. Some bulletins were from

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...

. Sport was from Sports Media. Kevin Hatchard read on the breakfast show with Steve Bell at Drivetime & Saturday Sportszone. Paul Owens was the Programme Controller and Morning Presenter, other Presenters at the time of closure were Steve Lee, Steve Dean, Bruce Montgomery, Richard Linton, Gary Elsden, Jason Reynolds, Mark Denholm, Andy Smith, Ben Shoveller, and Tony Fatania.

Performance

Audience data for period ending September 2015 TSA: This radio station broadcast to a survey area of 305,000 adults (aged 15+). Reach: It was listened to by 16,000 people (5.0%) each week. Hours: Each listener tuned in for 3.0 hours per week - a total of 50,000. Share: In its area, it had a 1.1% market share
Rajar

Closure

The station ceased live broadcasting at 8pm on 15 October 2015, citing "unforeseen circumstances with the transmitter and aerial". Time 106.6 was broadcasting from a temporary studio, at the Queensmere shopping centre in Slough with plans for permanent studios to be built in the centre. Other Lyca Media radio stations formerly known as

and

Kismat Radio Kismat Radio was a radio station broadcasting from the Crystal Palace Transmitter in south-east London. Background Kismat Radio was part of the Sunrise Radio Group, aimed at an audience of British Asians and South Asian expats aged 30+. Pr ...

, now known as Lyca Radio 1458 & Lyca Gold 1035 respectively are broadcasting from temporary studios in South London until they move to a permanent London home.

References

External links