is the
BBC Local Radio service for the
English County of
Nottinghamshire . The station broadcasts from its studios on London Road in
Nottingham city centre on
FM ,
AM , and digital
DAB radio.
In the June 2006 release of the RAJAR radio listening figures, BBC Radio Nottingham recorded 168,000 listeners in a Total Survey Area of 737,000 adults, giving it an audience reach of 23%. It has a market share of 11.9%.
Radio Nottingham is broadcast on three
FM frequencies:
- 103.8 to Nottingham and south Nottinghamshire, from Mapperley Ridge in north Nottingham.
- 95.5 to Mansfield from Fishponds Hill
- 95.1 to Newark from Beacon Hill (since January 2004).
The Mansfield signal is strong enough to be heard as far north as
Scunthorpe , far outside Nottinghamshire. Almost as powerful, the Nottingham signal may be heard as far south as
Leicester .
The station broadcasts
AM signals on 1584 kHz Medium Wave, from
Clipstone , near Mansfield.
Since 30 April 2004, the station has been available on
DAB from the NDEM (NOW Digital East Midlands)
Nottingham 12C multiplex from
Waltham (main signal and in
Leicestershire ), Mapperley Ridge and Fishponds Hill (since July 2006).
In addition, the station is transmitted via its website, using
Real Player .
The station links up with other East Midlands BBC local radio stations between 5 and 6am (
Dylan Roys broadcasts from
Lincoln ) and after 7pm in the evening on weekdays.
On to replace
Simon Ford on the Breakfast Show from 6 - 9am. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2007/06/06/andy_whittaker_breakfast_show_feature.shtml].
Frances Finn presents the morning programme from 9am - 12pm, and occasionally reads the East Midlands news at the weekend on
BBC One . Pete Wardman currently presents the lunchtime show from 12-2pm, and John Holmes, a veteran of Radio Nottingham, presents the afternoon show from 2-4.30pm.
Alan Clifford is from 4.30 - 7pm. There are different programmes on each day between 7 and 9pm. On Monday Mick Pete presents the Country show and on Friday's Kavil Vasseer presents a programme featuring Asian music. These programmes go out on BBC local radio across the East Midlands The Late Show (from 9pm until 12am) which comes from Nottingham, is hosted by
Rob Underwood , and used to be presented by Frances Finn. Rob tied the knot on July 28th 2007.
Sarah Julian presents the weekend Breakfast shows. Dean Jackson and the team present
The Beat from 18.00 to 22.00 each Saturday.
Mike Young and
Karl Cooper also occasionally appear on the station.
On Saturday afternoons during the football seasons, Radio Nottingham broadcasts commentary on Nottinghamshire's
Football League teams,
Nottingham Forest ,
Notts County and
Mansfield Town . On 103.8 FM and 95.1 FM Colin Fray and Forest's
European Cup winning captain John McGovern commentate on Reds games. On 95.5 FM and DAB Digital Radio Colin Slater and Dean Yates commentate on the Magpies, and sometimes, on 1584 AM, David Jackson commemtates on the Stags. Otherwise, there are updates from him on Mansfield's match. The programme featuring the games on a Saturday, between 1 and 6pm, is called Matchday, and consequently, the programme for night matches is Matchnight. Every Monday evening from 6 until 7pm, David Jackson presents Matchtalk, the football phone in.
- Perhaps the station's most famous presenter is broadcasting legend Dennis McCarthy MBE , who continued broadcasting on the station—despite falling ill—right up until the afternoon he died.
- Simon Mayo began his radio career here where he worked for four years in the 1980s, moving to Radio 1 in March 1986.
- Matthew Bannister , former late night host on BBC Radio Five Live , worked as a reporter in 1978.
- Mansfield's Richard Bacon had his first taste of broadcasting on ''The Beat''.
- Comedian Boothby Graffoe had a weekly show in the late 1980s for a short time, before it was taken off because of its graphic and saucy humour.
- John Simons worked on the station in the late 1980s. He is now the award-winning Group Programme Director for GMG Radio .
The nearest BBC TV news is
East Midlands Today , who share the space-age studios on ''London Road'' (
A60 ) in Nottingham with the Radio Nottingham team. The studio used to be in a building near the
Victoria Centre on ''Mansfield Road'' before 1998.
Radio Nottingham faces local competition from the regional commercial stations
Heart 106 and
Saga 106.6 FM , which are broadcast from Nottingham based studios to the wider East Midlands.
Trent FM is Nottingham's heritage commercial radio station, broadcasting from Mapperley Ridge on 96.2FM and Fishponds Hill on 96.5FM.
Listeners in Nottinghamshire north of
Worksop , are catered for by
Radio Sheffield broadcasting on 104.1FM from the
Holme Moss transmitter and in the Mansfield area commercial station
Mansfield 103.2 exists, also transmitted from Fishponds Hill.
The station is credited for the first
Phone-in on
4 February 1968 , in a programme called "What Are They Up To Now?"
The text number for competitions is 07786 201038. The
RDS signal for the 103.8FM signal is
BBC Nottm, for the other FM signals is
BBC Notts.
Not to be confused with
University Radio Nottingham .
