Big City Radio (formerly Aston FM) is a British

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popula ...

station based in Aston, Birmingham. The station, owned and operated by Murfin Music International, broadcasts on 89.1FM in Aston and surrounding areas, on DAB and online via the station's website and mobile apps. The station launched on 1 November 2005 as Aston FM, before rebranding as ''Big City'' four years later. In November 2017 Big City Radio changed its mainstream output from classic contemporary music to 'Urban' and 'Specialised' programming. In September 2022, the station began to tease a relaunch of the former Birmingham ILR brand

BRMB Free Radio Birmingham is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Birmingham and the West Midlands. As of September 2022, the station has ...

on its website and social media. On 17 August 2023, it was announced that the UK's media regulator, Ofcom, had given Big City Radio approval to rebrand as

. The station, which will relaunch on 4 September 2023 at 11.52am, will broadcast on Big City Radio's 89.1FM frequency, as well as on DAB in Birmingham, while Big City Radio will continue as an online station.

Andy Street Andrew John Street (born 11 June 1963) is a British businessman and Conservative Party politician who was the managing director of John Lewis from 2007 to 2016, when he resigned to run for Mayor of the West Midlands. Street won the May 2017 ma ...

, the

Mayor of the West Midlands The Mayor of the West Midlands is a directly elected political post who chairs the West Midlands Combined Authority, covering the Birmingham metropolitan area and Coventry. The first election took place on Thursday 4 May 2017. Andy Street, ...

, is scheduled to take part in BRMB's first show following its relaunch.

Notable presenters

Notable past presenters at the station include long-established

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

radio personality

Les Ross Les Ross MBE is a British disc jockey in the West Midlands. He was born as Leslie Meakin; 7 February 1949, in Birmingham. Early life and career Ross always wanted to become a DJ and, at the age of 11, wrote to the general manager of Radio Lu ...

who hosted Big City's breakfast show for four months from December 2009. He later returned to present a Sunday afternoon show for the station.

References

External links

89.1 Big City Radio websiteBig City Radio at Media UK
Community radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations in Birmingham, West Midlands Radio stations established in 2005 {{UK-radio-station-stub