BBC Radio Devon is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

. It broadcasts on FM,

DAB DAB, dab, dabs, or dabbing may refer to: Dictionaries * '' Dictionary of American Biography'', published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies * ''Dictionary of Australian Biography'', published since 1949 Places * Dą ...

, digital TV and via

BBC Sounds BBC Sounds is a walled garden streaming media and audio download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tabl ...

from studios in the Mannamead area of

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to ...

. According to

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was call ...

, the station has a weekly audience of 142,000 listeners and a 7.1% share as of September 2022.

History

BBC Radio Devon started broadcasting on 17 January 1983, replacing the BBC Radio 4 regional breakfast show ''

Morning Sou'West ''Morning Sou’West'' was a regional programme broadcast in south west England as an opt-out from BBC Radio 4. It was broadcast on weekday mornings between 6:30am and 8:35am, rejoining Today for Yesterday in Parliament when Parliament was sittin ...

''. On the same day, BBC Radio Cornwall started broadcasting, as did

BBC Breakfast ''BBC Breakfast'' is the BBC television breakfast news programme. Produced by BBC News, the programme is broadcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel. The simulcast is presented live, originally from the BBC Television Centre, London before ...

television. When broadcasting started, the new studios in Exeter had not yet been finished, so BBC Radio Devon was broadcast from portable cabins for the first few weeks. The Exeter studios were officially opened by Alastair Milne, then

Director-General of the BBC The director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and (from 1994) editor-in-chief of the BBC. The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC (for the period of 1927 to 2007) and then t ...

, on 30 September 1983. BBC Radio Devon has reporters based in Exeter, Plymouth, Paignton and Barnstaple, allowing it to cover news stories throughout Devon. The Plymouth newsroom is shared with the BBC's regional TV news programme ''

Spotlight Spotlight or spot light may refer to: Lighting * Spot lights, automotive auxiliary lamps * Spotlight (theatre lighting) * Spotlight, a searchlight * Stage lighting instrument, stage lighting instruments, of several types Art, entertainment, an ...

'' and also provides online news services. The station has won several Sony Awards for its programming.

Frequencies

Radio Devon is broadcast on the following frequencies from BBC Broadcasting House in Plymouth and Pynes Hill in Exeter (transmitter location in brackets): * FM: ** 103.4 MHz main frequency ( North Hessary Tor) ** 94.8 MHz in

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...

( Huntshaw Cross) ** 95.7 MHz in

( Plympton) ** 95.8 MHz in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

(St. Thomas) ** 96.0 MHz in

Okehampton Okehampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and had a population of 5,922 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards are based in the town (east and w ...

** 104.3 MHz in

Torbay Torbay is a borough and unitary authority in Devon, south west England. It is governed by Torbay Council and consists of of land, including the resort towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, located on east-facing Tor Bay, part of Lyme ...

and

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...

and the South Hams (

Beacon Hill Beacon Hill may refer to: Places Canada * Beacon Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, a neighbourhood * Beacon Hill Park, a park in Victoria, British Columbia * Beacon Hill, Saskatchewan * Beacon Hill, Montreal, a neighbourhood in Beaconsfield, Quebec United ...

) *

In addition, BBC Radio Devon also broadcasts on

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

TV channel 720 in the

BBC South West BBC South West is the BBC English Regions, BBC English Region serving Cornwall, Devon, Isles of Scilly, West Somerset, West Dorset and Channel Islands. Services Television ''BBC South Wests television service (broadcast on BBC One South West) con ...

region and streams online via

. The station also broadcast on 1458 kHz in the

area until the transmitter closed on 15 January 2018. The station's other AM transmissions, 801 kHz in

North Devon North Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. North Devon Council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lyn ...

(

) and 990 kHz in

, were slated to cease in May/June 2021; however, this was postponed and the transmissions remained on air until after the 1100 BST news on 3 August 2021. Radio Devon previously broadcast on 855 AM in Plymouth; these transmissions ceased in 2007 and the frequency was used for a trial of

Digital Radio Mondiale Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM; ''mondiale'' being Italian and French for "worldwide") is a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for analogue radio broadcasting including AM broadcasting—pa ...

services, though these trials ultimately did not lead to DRM going into permanent service in the UK.BBC Research and Development
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Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's Plymouth studios from 6am - 1am on Sundays - Fridays and from 6am - 10pm on Saturdays. Some of the station's off-peak evening output is simulcast with sister stations in the

and

BBC West BBC West is one of BBC's English Regions serving Bristol, the majority of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire; northern and eastern Somerset and northeastern Dorset. Services Television BBC West's television service (broadcast on BBC One) consis ...

regions. During the station's downtime, BBC Radio Devon simulcasts overnight programming from

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadcasting of sports events, covering sport in ...

and

BBC Radio London BBC Radio London is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater London and its surrounding areas. The station broadcasts across the area and beyond, on the 94.9 FM broadcasting, FM frequency, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, ...

Presenters

Notable current presenters include: *

Toby Buckland Toby Neale Buckland (born 11 October 1969) is an English gardener, TV presenter and author, best known for being the main presenter from 2008-10 of BBC's long running flagship gardening programme ''Gardeners' World''. In 2008 Buckland won RHS ...

(Sunday mid-mornings)

References

External links

* {{coord, 50.3861, -4.1266, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title

Companies based in Devon Radio stations in Devon Radio stations established in 1983 1983 establishments in England