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

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. 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 ...

from studios in the Mannamead area of

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

. 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 140,000 listeners as of May 2025.

History

Until 1983, local radio services for

had amounted to a regional weekday breakfast show '' Morning Sou'West'', aired on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's frequencies in Devon and

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, plus five-minute regional bulletins on Saturday mornings and Mondays to Saturdays at lunchtime and teatime. There was no regional output of any kind on Sundays. The regional programming ended on 31 December 1982. BBC Radio Devon started broadcasting on 17 January 1983, replacing the

regional breakfast show '' Morning Sou'West''. On the same day, BBC Radio Cornwall started broadcasting, with whom it shared early afternoon programming, and the BBC began launched the UK's first regular breakfast television programme '' Breakfast Time''. When broadcasting started, the new studios in

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

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, on 30 September 1983. The then new Exeter studio centre at Walnut Gardens on St Davids Hill had the latest in BBC broadcasting technology. The studios were made up of Mark III desks, which were built in-house by BBC engineers and first designed in the 1970s. The studio complex in Exeter consisted of the traditional BBC Local Radio Mark III set up, which saw three studios in a row - two broadcast ‘cubicles’ as they were known, either side of a centre talk-show style studio, which was home to the news programmes Good Morning Devon and Good Evening Devon. The desks were in use from 1983 until August 2015, when the original Exeter studios were closed and relocated to smaller premises on the outskirts of the city at Pynes Hill. Since 2021, the Exeter studio and office is now located within the Exeter College building on Queen Street. BBC Radio Devon has reporters based in Exeter,

, Paignton and

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...

and the Plymouth newsroom is shared with the BBC's regional TV news programme '' Spotlight''. The station has won several Sony Awards for its programming.

Technical

Radio Devon is broadcast on the following radio frequencies (transmitter location in brackets): * FM: **94.8 MHz in

( Huntshaw Cross) **95.7 MHz in

( Plympton) **95.8 MHz in

( St. Thomas) **96.0 MHz in Okehampton **103.4 MHz in

( North Hessary Tor) **104.3 MHz in Torbay, Torquay and the South Hams ( Beacon Hill) * DAB: **10C in Central and

North Devon North Devon is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based just outside Barnstaple, the district's largest town. The district also includes the towns of Ilfracombe, Lynton and Lynmouth and Sout ...

**11C in East Devon, Exeter and Torbay **12D in Plymouth and South Devon The station also broadcasts on Freeview TV channel 712 in the BBC South West region and streams online via

. Radio Devon previously broadcast on 855 kHz in Plymouth; these transmissions ceased in 2007 and the frequency was used for a trial of Digital Radio Mondiale services, though these trials ultimately did not lead to DRM going into permanent service in the UK. The station was broadcast on 1458 kHz in the Torbay area until the transmitter closed on 15 January 2018. The station's other AM transmissions, 801 kHz in North Devon (Barnstaple) and 990 kHz in Exeter, ceased after the 11 am news bulletin on 3 August 2021. They were originally slated to cease in June 2021, but this was postponed.

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's

studios from 6am to 2pm on weekdays and from 6am to 6pm on Saturdays and 6am to 2pm on Sundays. At all other times until 10pm (6pm on Sundays), programming is simulcast with sister stations in the BBC South West and BBC West regions. Each night from 10pm, BBC Radio Devon broadcasts the England-wide late show and from 1am, BBC Radio Devon simulcasts BBC Radio 5 Live

Presenters

Notable presenters

Current

* Toby Buckland (Sunday mid-mornings)

Former

* Alan Dedicoat * Judi Spiers * Bill Buckley * Simon Bates

References

External links

* {{Radio stations in South West England

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