BBC Radio Stoke

BBC Radio Stoke
City Stoke-on-Trent
Broadcast area North & Mid Staffordshire, north east Shropshire & south Cheshire
Frequency RDS: BBCStoke, 94.6MHz, 104.1MHz, 1503kHz, DAB Digital Radio, Online
First air date 14 March 1968
Format Local news, talk and music
Language(s) English
Audience share 8.8% (June 2015, )
Owner BBC Local Radio,
BBC Midlands
BBC North West
Website BBC Radio Stoke

BBC Radio Stoke is a BBC Local Radio station in England, for the area of Mid and North Staffordshire, north east Shropshire and South Cheshire. The station began broadcasting programmes on 14 March 1968 as BBC Radio Stoke-on-Trent.

Both of the English counties the station covers have no BBC local radio station for their whole area. In Staffordshire, the south is covered by BBC WM, east by BBC Radio Derby and the west by BBC Radio Shropshire. In Cheshire, north-western areas are served by BBC Radio Merseyside and the north-east by BBC Radio Manchester.

The station broadcasts from its studios on Cheapside in Hanley, the biggest of the six towns the make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent. There are also studios and offices in Crewe, Leek and Stafford. The station used the frequencies of 94.6 MHz and 104.1 MHz FM, 1503 kHz medium wave, and is also available on the UTV-Bauer DAB Digital Radio Multiplex, and online.

The Managing Editor since 2012 is Gary Andrews. He joined from BBC Radio Derby in Derby where he was Assistant Editor.

Tuning Details

FM

Transmitter Frequency (MHz) Polarization Power (Kilowatts)
Alsagers Bank94.6Mixed6.100
Stafford104.1Vertical0.075

MW

Transmitter Frequency (kHz) Power (Kilowatts)
Sideway15031.000

Transmitters

The 140 ft Alsagers Bank transmitter is two miles west of Newcastle-under-Lyme, close to the M6. Stations broadcast from it can be clearly heard in most parts of northern Birmingham, and along the M6 from the M54 junction to Skelmersdale. The transmitter also carries Signal 1 (a commercial station owned by UTV), BBC National DAB and Digital One.

The 104.1 frequency is heard in Stafford and the transmitter is on the roof of the County Education building in the town.

DAB signals come from the Stoke & Stafford 12D multiplex from Alsagers Bank, Pye Green (near Hednesford), Sutton Common (between Congleton and Macclesfield in Cheshire), and Tick Hill (strongest power, south-east of the junction of the A520 and A52 near the Foxfield Steam Railway between Cookshill and Godleybrook). The Sideway transmitter is right next to the A500 D Road, just south of the A50 junction.

Signal 1 (102.6) and Radio Stoke (94.6) are clear in most of the area except in some parts of the Staffordshire Moorlands (Cheadle in particular) and Stafford (which has its own relays). The Stoke Digital multiplex has half the number of stations compared to other areas (BBC Radio Stoke, Signal 1, Signal 2 and Kiss). UTV Media own 70% of the multiplex.

The station can also be heard on the Internet via streaming audio.

Programming

The majority of the station's programming is produced and broadcast from Stoke. On weekday nights and weekend evenings, BBC Radio Stoke also carries some regional programming for the Midlands, produced from sister stations BBC WM and BBC Radio Shropshire. As with all BBC Local Radio stations, it also airs the networked weekday evening shows, originating from BBC Radio Leeds and produced independently by Wire Free Productions. During the station's downtime, BBC Radio Stoke simulcasts BBC Radio 5 Live overnight.

External links

Audio clips

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/9/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.