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

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via

BBC Sounds BBC Sounds is an Over-the-top media service, over-the-top audio streaming media, streaming and download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, Streaming media, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide ...

. 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 c ...

, the station has a weekly audience of 48,00 listeners as of May 2025. It has studios at

Thames Valley Park Thames Valley Park (also known as TVP) is a high-tech business park adjacent to the River Thames on the eastern outskirts of Earley in Berkshire, England. Companies based at the park include BBC Radio Berkshire, Steria, SGI, Regus, Webse ...

near

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

History

BBC Radio Berkshire was launched on 21 January 1992 as a part-time station, broadcasting for part of the weekday and weekend mornings with

BBC Radio Oxford BBC Radio Oxford is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving the county of Oxfordshire. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Summertown, Oxfo ...

carried at all other times. Due to financial cutbacks, BBC Director-General

John Birt John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) is a British television executive and businessman. He is a former Director-General (1992–2000) of the BBC. After a successful career in commercial television, initially at Granada Television and ...

announced that the station was to fully merge with BBC Radio Oxford on 9 April 1996 to become BBC Thames Valley FM. On 14 February 2000, the two stations became separate once again. In November 2018, BBC Radio Berkshire moved from

Caversham Park Caversham Park is a Victorian-era stately home with parkland in the suburb of Caversham on the outskirts of Reading, England. Historically located in Oxfordshire, it became part of Berkshire with boundary changes in 1977. Caversham Park was h ...

House – which the station shared with

BBC Monitoring BBC Monitoring (BBCM) is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation which monitors, and reports on, mass media worldwide using open-source intelligence. Based at New Broadcasting House, the BBC's headquarters in central London, it has o ...

– to new purpose-built studios at

on the outskirts of

Awards

BBC Radio Berkshire was named Station of the Year in the 2012 Frank Gillard Awards, also winning in the Sports Coverage category for its coverage of Olympic rowing at

Eton Dorney Dorney Lake (also known as Eton College Rowing Centre, and as Eton Dorney as a 2012 Summer Olympics venue) is a purpose-built Rowing (sport), rowing lake and Meetings & Events Venue in England. It is near the village of Dorney, Buckinghamshire, ...

Andrew Peach Andrew Peach is a radio presenter and event host in the United Kingdom. He presents programmes on BBC Radio 4 such as '' Pick of the Week (radio)'' ''Business Matters'' and the ''Six O'Clock News''. On BBC World Service he hosts news program ...

won silver in both the Programme Presenter and The Ultimate Hot Seat categories. In the 2013

Sony Radio Academy Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

, the Andrew Peach programme won bronze in the category Breakfast Show of the Year (under 10 million). The Andrew Peach Show was named Best Local Radio Show in the UK at the 2021 Radio Academy ARIA Awards.

Technical

The Hannington transmitter for BBC Radio Berkshire's 104.1 FM frequency is located on Cottington Hill (close to

Watership Down ''Watership Down'' is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in Hampshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natur ...

). The 104.1 FM signal can be heard over most of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, certainly more than BBC Radio Solent. The 104.4 FM signal comes from the Fountain House transmitter in

. The 94.6 FM signal comes from the

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Thames, in the South Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, Berkshire, Reading, west of M ...

transmitter. The 95.4 FM signal comes from the Windsor transmitter. Since 31 July 2004, DAB broadcasts have come from the NOW Digitalbr>Berkshire & North Hampshire 12D multiplex
from Coppid Beech (at the junction of the B3408 and A329(M) in west

Bracknell Bracknell () is a town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Re ...

), Hannington and Hemdean (just north of Caversham). The

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United King ...

DAB transmitter (between Cliddesden and Winslade near the A339 in Hampshire) was added on 3 October 2005. Since June 2016, the station has been available 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 711 in the

BBC South BBC South is the BBC English Region serving Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Dorset, West Sussex, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and parts of Gloucestershire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Surrey, and Wiltshire, with geographic coverage varying between ...

and

BBC London BBC London is the BBC English Region producing local radio, television, teletext and online services in London, Surrey and parts of the surrounding areas of the Home Counties. Its output includes the daily '' BBC London'' news bulletin and w ...

regions. It also streams online via

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's

studios from 6 am to 10 pm on Sundays to Fridays and from 6 am to 6 pm and 8 pm to 10 pm on Saturdays. Some off-peak programming originates from BBC Radio Solent in

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

. The station usually broadcasts the whole of the Late Night programme, a programme carried by all BBC local radio stations (except in the case of sports coverage), which is broadcast between 10pm and 1am. During the station's downtime, BBC Radio Berkshire simulcasts overnight programming from

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

Presenters

Kirsten O'Brien Kirsten Lindsey O'Brien (born 23 February 1972) is an English television, radio presenter and actress. She is best known for her work presenting for the BBC, including the popular CBBC art programme ''SMart'' from 1999 to 2009, the CBeebies pr ...

References

External links

* {{BBC Local Radio

Organisations based in Reading, Berkshire Culture in Reading, Berkshire Radio stations in Berkshire Radio stations established in 1992 1992 establishments in England