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BBC Lincolnshire
City of license	Lincoln
Broadcast area	Lincolnshire
Frequency	94.9 MHz (Belmont), 104.7 MHz (Grantham), 1368 kHz (Swanpool)
First air date	11 November 1980
Format	Local news, talk and music
Language	English
Audience share	10.3% (December 2009, [1])
Owner	BBC Local Radio, BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
Website	Official Website

BBC Lincolnshire is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Lincolnshire — apart from the northern parts, which are covered by BBC Radio Humberside. It broadcasts from studios near Newport Arch in Lincoln on 94.9 (whole of the county) and 104.7 (Grantham) FM, 1368 (Swanpool, west Lincoln) AM and online through its website.

The slogan for the station is Live, Local, and Loving Lincolnshire.

History

Launched on 11 November 1980 at 07:00 with a commissioned peal of bells from Lincoln Cathedral. The first words spoken on BBC Radio Lincolnshire came from Nick Brunger: "And it's a warm welcome for the first time to the programmes of BBC Radio Lincolnshire."

Manx Radio was concerned by the choice of medium wave frequencies given to the station.

Building

The station is located next to a dry cleaners and a hair salon on Newport.

Management

Under its first manager, Roy Corlett, the station achieved record audience figures as its programming of news, music and chat became very popular. Corlett left to found BBC Radio Devon and was replaced briefly by Laurie Bloomfield, who also left to launch a new BBC local station, BBC Radio Shropshire.

After Bloomfield's brief stay, the station was managed for 14 years by David Wilkinson, one of the founding team, and a local radio pioneer from his days at BBC Radio Nottingham in 1968. Upon Wilkinson's retirement in 1999, the station was taken over by BBC Radio Leicester managing editor, Charlie Partridge. In 2004, the station recorded record audience figures - according to Rajar, listeners were tuned in to BBC Radio Lincolnshire for longer ("hours") than any other radio station in the country.

Lincolnshire Flag

In October 2005, it presided over the creation of a new flag for Lincolnshire.

Name change

To reflect the many forms of media the station now produces, not just audio, the station changed its name from BBC Radio Lincolnshire to BBC Lincolnshire on 30 November 2009. The jingles changed accordingly, and now share the same package as 9 other BBC Local Radio stations, produced by Mcasso Music Production. Radio Gloucestershire retains the former suite of jingles, produced by Maximum Production of Shepton Mallet, which they have used since 2005.

Transmitters and coverage

The main signal on 94.9FM comes from the Belmont transmitting station near Donington on Bain in the north of the county, which, until the height reduction carried out in September/October 2009, was the tallest mast in Europe, although the MW signal comes from Lincoln. The FM signal is patchy along the southern edge of the county e.g. in Stamford, Market Deeping and Spalding, and MW is also weak in the south of the county. South Lincolnshire listeners will often find stronger reception of Peterborough local stations. North of Lincoln the FM frequency is clear. The Grantham signal, from just south of the town, is a filler transmitter with low power. Radio Lincolnshire was the only local radio station in Lincolnshire until 1992, when Lincs FM began, also broadcast from Belmont.

With the station's transmitter being one of the highest in Europe, coverage spans nearby counties as well, and the station can be heard on the M1 from Trowell (Nottingham) up to Barnsley, where it interferes with BBC Tees, formerly Radio Cleveland.

Monks' Dyke Technology College in Louth is used for the East Lindsey reports. District outposts are important due to the time taken on Lincolnshire's ill-equipped roads.

DAB

The Belmont transmitter broadcasts BBC National DAB, Digital One and MXR Yorkshire. For Lincolnshire, a DAB multiplex could only be realistically established by financial investment from the Lincs FM Group, and other transmitter positions could theoretically be used. The DAB licence, was advertised in October 2007, which will not cover Stamford or South Holland, but will cover North Lincolnshire (Scunthorpe) and North East Lincolnshire (Grimsby). On January 24, the company MuxCo Lincolnshire was the only company to bid for the Lincolnshire DAB licence. It is 51% owned by the Lincs FM Group, and will have transmitters at Belmont, High Hunsley (in East Yorkshire), Grantham and Lincoln County Hospital. They were awarded the DAB licence on February 19 2008. Transmissions were expected to begin by July 2009, but funding for the project has delayed the roll-out to at least mid-2010.

Programming

BBC Radio Lincolnshire broadcasts each weekday from 5am until midnight, Saturdays between 6am and midnight and Sundays between 6am and 1am.

Radio Lincolnshire broadcasts full commentary on all Lincoln City with additional commentary of Boston United and Gainsborough Trinity matches online.

A weekly news bulletin in Portuguese was broadcast for migrant workers until July 2008. It was read by Rui Silva, who worked for Boston Borough Council. The station also simulcasts some programming with counterpart BBC Local Radio stations, including Pirate Radio Skues on Sunday nights (from BBC East) and the weekday Late Show with Rob Underwood (from BBC Midlands). With Leicester and Nottingham, the early morning show comes from Radio Humberside.

During downtime, Radio Lincolnshire simulcasts BBC Radio 5 Live output including the nightly overnight show Up All Night, the early morning news programme Morning Reports at weekends and the third hour of the late show with Tony Livesey (Monday - Thursday nights) or Stephen Nolan (Friday - Sunday nights).

Events

Since the early 1980s, a race had been held at the Market Rasen Racecourse, the BBC Radio Lincolnshire Novice's Hurdle. In recent years, this has become the Mike Molloy Memorial Handicap Chase, named after a former sports presenter who died of Myeloma.

In 1983 it formed a charity trust, thought to be the first in the UK for a radio station.

Staff

Presenters

News staff

Alumni

• Boothby Graffoe, comedian who presented a two-hour programme on Friday evenings on the station, and briefly on Radio Nottingham, in the late 1980s.
• John Inverdale, presenter of national sports programmes on BBC Television and BBC Radio Five Live, started his radio career as a morning presenter from 1982-85, having worked for two years at the Lincolnshire Echo. He has claimed it is the most enjoyable job he has ever had, despite the early mornings. He was replaced by Dave Bussey.
• Sky News weather forecaster Jo Wheeler worked for a number of years as a Saturday afternoon programme presenter at BBC Radio Lincolnshire.
• BBC Director of Sport, Roger Mosey, began his career at the station.
• Zara Healy, a former newsreader who now works as a radio lecturer at the University of Lincoln
• Mike Curtis, now Network Manager, BBC Asian Network, was news editor and deputy manager for several years up to 1998.
• Sky News's Washington correspondent Emma Hurd, who also presented on East Midlands Today.
• BBC News Washington correspondent, and former Newsround presenter, Matthew Price, was a reporter with BBC Radio Lincolnshire in the mid 1990s.
• BBC Radio News correspondent Jane Peel had her first radio job at Radio Lincolnshire, being recruited from Lincolnshire Echo.
• Former news editor John Lilley retired from the BBC as Head of the BBC's South West region based in Plymouth.

External links

• BBC Radio Lincolnshire, includes presenter profiles
• History of local radio in Lincolnshire.
• MDS975's Transmitter Map.
• Belmont transmitter.
• Grantham transmitter.
• Royton.

Audio clips

• Former 1980s jingle

News items

• Station launches Sunday programme for Portuguese migrant workers.