The Wrotham transmitting station is located on the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Areas of Outstanding Natural Be ...

, close to the village of

Wrotham Wrotham ( ) is a village on the Pilgrims' Way in Kent, England, at the foot of the North Downs. It is north of Borough Green and approximately east of Sevenoaks. It is between the M20 motorway, M20 and M26 motorway, M26 motorways. History T ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and just north of the

M20 motorway The M20 is a Controlled-access highway, motorway in Kent, England. It follows on from the A20 road (England), A20 at Swanley, meeting the M25 motorway, M25, and continuing on to Folkestone, providing a link to the Channel Tunnel and the ports a ...

. Its National Grid Reference is . The current mast on the site was constructed in 1981, is tall, and was built to replace the original mast of equal height that was constructed in 1951. It is the main VHF FM transmitter for the national

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

radio networks in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of england, ...

. It currently transmits

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

, 2, 3 & 4 and the independent national network Classic FM (125 kW ERP),

BBC Radio Kent BBC Radio Kent is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Kent. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at The Great Hall in Royal Tunbridge Wells. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audie ...

on 96.7

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

(4.4 kW ERP) and KMFM West Kent on 101.6 MHz (0.2 kW ERP). (There are two prominent towers in the south of

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

and

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

, which provide a medium power (4 kW ERP) relay of the national radio channels, in addition to local stations). Wrotham was the first station in the UK to broadcast on VHF/ FM, with three services beginning officially on 2 May 1955. It broadcast the

Home Service Home Service is a British folk rock group, formed in late 1980 from a nucleus of musicians who had been playing in Ashley Hutchings' Albion Band. Their career is generally agreed to have peaked with the album ''Alright Jack'', and has had a ...

(now Radio 4), the

Third Programme The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces ...

(now Radio 3) and the Light Programme (now Radio 2). The frequencies it used for these programmes on FM in 1955 are still in use today. On 17 April 1966, it became the first BBC transmitter to broadcast in

stereo Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

, with regular stereo broadcasts on the Third Programme from July 1966. On 18 December 1970, it began broadcasting Radio Medway (now Radio Kent) on 97.0 MHz. Wrotham was one of two VHF transmitters identified as BBC network centres in the event of a nuclear strike on the UK. A Cabinet Office paper from 1975 provides details of construction work outstanding at Wrotham, including protected accommodation for engineering staff at a cost of about thirty thousand pounds. Wrotham was part of the

Wartime Broadcasting Service The Wartime Broadcasting Service is a service of the BBC that is intended to broadcast in the United Kingdom either after a nuclear attack or if conventional bombing destroyed regular BBC facilities in a conventional war. It is unclear if the ...

, designed to allow transmission of pre and post strike messages to the estimated 22 million battery-powered radios in the UK. On 3 December 2010, Wrotham began transmitting DAB:

CE London CE Digital is an operator of three digital radio ensembles in England. CE Digital is a joint venture between Bauer Media Group and Global Media & Entertainment, and was originally a joint venture between Capital Radio and Emap Radio Bauer ...

(London 1),

Switch London Switch London is a DAB ensemble operated by Switchdigital; it broadcasts from a variety of sites in and around London (Alexandra Palace transmitting station, Alexandra Palace, Arkley, Bluebell Hill transmitting station, Bluebell Hill, BT Tower, ...

(London 2),

DRG London DRG London is a Digital Audio Broadcasting multiplex available in the London area that has been broadcasting since January 2002. It is also referred to as the Greater London 3 multiplex. The station operates from ten transmitters: Croydon, Alexan ...

(London 3),

Digital One Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. , the multiplex covered more than 90% of the population from 137 transmitters. Coverage was extended to Northern Ireland in July 2013. It conta ...

and the

BBC National DAB BBC National DAB is a digital audio broadcasting multiplex in the UK, for a number of radio stations which have UK wide coverage. The multiplex is owned and operated by the BBC and is transmitted from a number of transmitter sites across the coun ...

multiplex. The

multiplex is on the network's standard SFN, improving DAB coverage in North Kent and South London. It is owned and operated by

Arqiva Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquart ...

History

In the early 1950s, a microwave television link was constructed to London, from

Harvel Harvel is a village in the civil parish of Meopham in the west of the county of Kent, England. It is sited on the southern edge of the North Downs. The village's name may derive from the names ''Halifield'' (Holy Field) or ''Heorot Field'' (H ...

, near Wrotham, Warren St at

Lenham Lenham is a market village and civil parish in the Maidstone district, in Kent, England, situated on the southern edge of the North Downs, east of Maidstone. The picturesque square in the village has two public houses (one of which is a hot ...

and going east to Swingate, then over the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

to Alembon and

Cassel, Nord Cassel (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department in northern France. Built on a prominent hill overlooking French Flanders, the town has existed since Roman Empire, Roman times. ...

where the 405-lines was converted to 819 lines. The microwave network run by EMI and the GPO. In August 1950, TV had been broadcast via microwave from France, on to

, then to Bloomsbury in London,

Senate House, London Senate House is the administrative centre of the University of London, situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, London, immediately to the north of the British Museum. The Art Deco building was constructed between 1932 and 1937 as the first phase ...

. The areas was a possible site for the London TV transmitter.

FM

An experimental FM service had been broadcasting since 1950, broadcasting the Third Programme. Contracts were placed by the BBC in January 1948. FM stations would cost £20,000 to £50,000. Construction began in March 1948. It would be 25kW, with a 18kW MW transmitter. The 470ft mast would be built by BICC. In March 1954 the BBC ordered 24 FM radio transmitters from Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd.

Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr Herbrand Edward Dundonald Brassey Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr, (20 June 1900 – 28 January 1976), styled Lord Buckhurst until 1915 (and sometimes nicknamed "Buck De La Warr" after that), was a British politician. He was the first hereditar ...

was responsible for the siting of new radio services.''The Scotsman'' Tuesday 2 March 1954, page 7

Channels listed by frequency

Analogue radio (FM VHF)

Digital radio (DAB)

References

External links

*
The Transmission Gallery: Wrotham Mast photographs and information

The Transmission Gallery: FM coverage map

The Transmission Gallery: History of Wrotham

Location map (Multimap)
{{Television transmitters in the UK Buildings and structures in Kent Transmitter sites in England Tonbridge and Malling