Free Radio is a regional group of local radio stations in the

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 ...

, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the

Hits Radio Hits Radio is a network of 25 contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. As of October 2022, the network has a combined reach of 6.6 million weekly listeners according to RAJAR. Overv ...

network.

Overview

Free Radio launched on Monday 26 March 2012 as a result of the rebranding of four FM stations –

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 ...

Beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879) Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era= Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ...

and

Wyvern A wyvern ( , sometimes spelled wivern) is a legendary winged dragon that has two legs. The wyvern in its various forms is important in heraldry, frequently appearing as a mascot of schools and athletic teams (chiefly in the United States, Un ...

. On Tuesday 4 September 2012, a secondary AM station broadcasting 1980s chart music, Free 80s, was launched. The four FM stations are now subsumed into the

network whilst the AM transmitters, which latterly carried Absolute Classic Rock, ceased broadcasting in April and June 2020.

History

Free Radio

began broadcasting to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

and the surrounding areas on 19 February 1974 – the fourth ILR station to launch in the UK and the first station of its kind outside London.

Beacon Radio Free Radio Black Country & Shropshire 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 Shropshire, Wolverhampton and the Black Country. As of Sep ...

(later Beacon) has served Wolverhampton and the Black Country since 12 April 1976 with its licence area expanded to cover Shropshire in 1987.

Mercia Sound la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ye ...

(later Mercia) was launched in Coventry and Warwickshire on 23 May 1980, followed by Radio Wyvern (later Wyvern) in Herefordshire and Worcestershire on 4 October 1982. These stations were initially run independently of each other, although by the late 1980s, BRMB and Mercia were under the ownership of

Midlands Radio plc Midlands Radio plc was an independent radio operator, which operated seven radio licences in Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham and surrounding areas in the United Kingdom. Stations owned FM *BRMB * Leicester Sound *Radio Trent *Merci ...

, alongside AM station

Xtra AM Xtra AM was a United Kingdom radio station which was on the air between 1989 and 1998. It was broadcast to much of Birmingham, Coventry and Warwickshire and was the 'oldies' station which took over the mediumwave frequencies of both BRMB (serv ...

, which broadcast on both stations' former AM frequencies. The group was bought for £18 million by Capital Radio plc in 1993, who sold Mercia to the

GWR Group GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. O ...

but retained BRMB. GWR went on to buy Beacon from its holding company BCCL in 1995 and Wyvern FM two years later. The four licences came under the same ownership in 2005 when GWR and Capital merged to form

GCap Media GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. O ...

. GCap was taken over in 2007 by

Global Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

but the Office of Fair Trading ruled in August 2008 that Global would need to sell off BRMB, Beacon, Mercia, Wyvern and

Heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

's East Midlands station due to concerns over competition interests. The stations were bought in May 2009 by a consortium led by former

Chrysalis Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrys ...

chief executive

Phil Riley Phil Riley was Chief Executive of Chrysalis Radio from June 1999 to July 2007, having played a major role in establishing Chrysalis Radio as one of the leading new entrants in the UK radio industry. Phil resigned his post after leading the successfu ...

, trading as

Orion Media Orion Media was a UK commercial radio group, founded in 2009 after a management buy-in, with backing from Lloyds Development Capital. It was created from the enforced sale of several radio stations in the English Midlands previously owned by Gl ...

. Heart East Midlands continued to operate under a franchise agreement with Global until January 2011, when the station was rebranded as

Gem 106 Gem is an Independent Local Radio station based in Nottingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to the East Midlands. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 318,000 liste ...

and replaced most networked output with local programming from Nottingham. On 9 January 2012, Orion announced that it would rebrand its four West Midlands local stations as Free Radio from March 2012 onwards. The former on-air station brands were phased out on Wednesday 21 March 2012 in preparation for the rebrand, which took place on Monday 26 March 2012 at 7pm. On 6 May 2016, the network's owners, Orion, announced they had been bought by Bauer for an undisclosed fee, reportedly between £40 and £50 million. As of August 2016, Free Radio is aligned with the

network, with the four local stations beginning to carry networked programming from Bauer’s Manchester studios in February 2017. In May 2019, following OFCOM's decision to relax local content obligations from commercial radio, Bauer announced it would cease local programming for two Free stations in Shropshire & the Black Country and in Herefordshire & Worcestershire.Free to reduce local breakfast and drive shows
Radio Today, 30 May 2019 The decision led to the closure of studios in Oldbury and Worcester. As of 8 July 2019, Free Radio carries two separate breakfast shows - one for the Birmingham, Black Country and Shropshire areas and a second for Coventry, Warwickshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The four local drivetime shows were replaced by a single regional programme for the West Midlands, presented by Andy Goulding. Local news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising for the four licence areas are retained. Local weekend afternoon programming were replaced with additional network programming from Manchester. From September 2019, the regional drivetime show was replaced with further networked programming from Manchester, including opt-outs for local news and traffic.Bauer to network drivetime across 11 licences in North and Midlands
Radio Today, 5 August 2019 On 23 November 2021, Bauer announced the two ''Hits at Breakfast'' shows would be merged into one regional show across all four Free Radio licences, following the departure of Birmingham & Black Country presenter Dan Morrissey. The merger was permitted under OFCOM's local content guidelines. The new ''Hits at Breakfast'' show for the West Midlands, presented by John Dalziel and Roisin McCourt, began on Monday 29 November 2021. All four Free Radio licences will retain opt-outs for local news, traffic updates and advertising. Bauer also announced it would move Free Radio from its

Brindleyplace Brindleyplace is a large mixed-use canalside development, in the Westside district of Birmingham, England. It was named after Brindley Place, the name of the street (in turn named after the 18th century canal engineer James Brindley) around whi ...

studios to a smaller facility at 54

Hagley Road Known as the Hagley Road in Birmingham, the A456 is a main road in England running between Central Birmingham and Woofferton, Shropshire, south of Ludlow. Some sections of the route, for example Edgbaston near Bearwood, are also the route of ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...

at the end of 2021.

Free Radio 80s

On 24 May 2012, Orion Media announced it would relaunch its Gold West Midlands stations on AM frequencies and DAB as Free Radio 80s. The station broadcast locally produced programming playing 1980s chart music alongside news & information and sports programming. The station launched on Tuesday 4 September 2012. On 7 January 2019, Free Radio 80s ceased broadcasting and replaced by Absolute Classic Rock on AM and DAB in Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Shropshire.

Greatest Hits Radio West Midlands Greatest Hits Radio Birmingham & The West Midlands is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to the West Midlands. The station form ...

launched as part of the

Greatest Hits Radio Greatest Hits Radio is a classic hits radio network in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer. Overview The network launched on 5 January 2015 as the "Bauer City 2 Network", and rebranded on 7 January 2019 due to the success of Rad ...

network on 105.2 FM in Birmingham and on 1359 kHz and DAB in Coventry, Herefordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Transmissions on 990 and 1017 kHz ceased on 30 April 2020, followed by the closure of the 1152 kHz frequency on 30 June 2020.

Programming

All networked programming originates from Bauer’s Manchester studios. Regional programming, under the ''Hits at Breakfast'' banner, is produced and broadcast from Bauer’s Birmingham studios weekdays from 6-10am, presented by John Dalziel and Roisin McCourt.Free - Public File
/ref> Bauer’s Birmingham newsroom broadcasts localised news bulletins on the hour from 6am to 7pm on weekdays and from 7am to 1pm on weekends with headlines on the half hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime.

References

External links

Free
{{Hits Radio Hits Radio Radio stations established in 2012 Mass media in the West Midlands (region) Radio stations in the West Midlands (region)