KMFM West Kent is 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, ...

serving the towns of

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the traditio ...

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

and

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks ...

plus the surrounding areas of the South East of England. It is the West Kent region of the KMFM radio network (owned by the KM Group), containing local advertisements and sponsorships for the area amongst a countywide schedule of programming.

History

KMFM West Kent launched on 8 July 1995 as KFM, broadcasting on 96.2 and 101.6 FM and owned by Kent and Sussex Radio. As well as West Kent, the station also included parts of East Sussex, such as

Crowborough Crowborough is a town and civil parish in East Sussex, England, in the Weald at the edge of Ashdown Forest in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, 7 miles (11 km) south-west of Royal Tunbridge Wells and 33 miles ( ...

, in its broadcast area. The station was later purchased by DMG Radio and subsequently re-branded to Mercury FM in December 1999. A year later DMG sold their radio assets to GWR who, in 2002, sold the station to the KM Group following a readvertising of the licence. The station was re-branded to KMFM West Kent in September that year. The station moved its studios and presenters, along with those of

KMFM Maidstone KMFM Maidstone is an Independent Local Radio serving the town of Maidstone and the surrounding areas in Kent, South East England. It is the Maidstone region of the KMFM radio network (owned by the KM Group), containing local advertisements a ...

, to the

KMFM Medway KMFM Medway is an Independent Local Radio serving the Medway Towns and the surrounding areas in Kent, South East England. It is the Medway region of the KMFM radio network (owned by the KM Group), containing local advertisements and sponsor ...

studios in 2008, following

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 ...

approval. The sales team are still based at the KM office in Tonbridge. The KM Group were awarded a four-year extension of the licence, to 7 July 2015, in March 2010. Like the rest of the KMFM network. the station was relaunched in September 2010 with new jingles, schedule changes and more emphasis on music. The KMFM network switched to a

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...

format in 2012 following the merging of KMFM Extra with KMFM. The music now focuses mainly on Top 40 hits, and contains a lot more dance and R&B than before.

Programming

All programming across the KMFM network is now shared across all seven stations following OFCOM approval in February 2012. The local breakfast show, by then the only local show on the station, was replaced by a county-wide show on 12 March 2012. Until 2007 KMFM West Kent produced its own programmes during daytimes, before it joined up with KMFM Maidstone to network all programmes other than breakfast. The stations joined with

to create a West Kent network in April 2009, before all programmes apart from weekday/Saturday breakfast and Sunday afternoons were networked across all KMFM stations in September 2009. In July 2010, Saturday breakfast and Sunday afternoons became networked. The breakfast show for Maidstone was merged with that of West Kent in January 2011.KMFM merge two breakfasts
News bulletins come from the KMFM News Centre in the Medway studios. National news bulletins come 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 aro ...

at times. Traffic and travel updates are broadcast.

Presenters

Former presenters

Tony Blackburn Anthony Kenneth Blackburn (born 29 January 1943) is an English disc jockey, singer and TV presenter. He first achieved fame broadcasting on the pirate stations Radio Caroline and Radio London in the 1960s, before joining the BBC, on the BBC ...

Johnny Lewis Jonathan Kendrick Lewis (October 29, 1983 – September 26, 2012), also credited as Johnny K. Lewis, was an American film and television actor. He played Kip "Half-Sack" Epps in the first two seasons of the FX series ''Sons of Anarchy'', and o ...

* Dave Pearce * Myma Seldon * Benedict Smith *

Melanie Sykes Melanie Ann Sykes (born 7 August 1970) is an English television and radio presenter. She is best known for co-hosting '' Today with Des and Mel'' with Des O'Connor and '' Let's Do Lunch'' with Gino D'Acampo. She also co-hosted ''Going Out with A ...

References

External links

KMFM West Kent
{{coord missing, Kent West Kent Radio stations established in 1995 Radio stations in Kent Sevenoaks Tonbridge and Malling Borough of Tunbridge Wells Contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom