BBC Radio WM is the BBC's local radio station serving the West Midlands. 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 * Dąb, ...

, 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 tablets, ...

from studios at The Mailbox in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

. 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 236,000 listeners and a 4.5% share as of September 2022.

History

Until 2004, BBC WM broadcast from the Pebble Mill studios, in

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 ...

. On 4 July of that year, the station moved to the new BBC Birmingham city centre offices in The Mailbox. Its facilities include two broadcast studios, a talk studio, an operations and production area, and a studio shared with the BBC Asian Network. On 23 November 1981, the station changed its name to BBC WM and had a studio in the back of a shop in New Street. The shop sold trinkets branded with the Radio WM identity. A short-lived service called WM Heartlands ran between early 1989 and 1991 serving the 'Heartlands' area of East Birmingham using the 1458MW frequency. It ran as an experiment, opting out from 0800 until 1200, with the Asian Network using the same frequency in the evenings. As a 1990s economy measure, BBC WM took over BBC CWR in Coventry and Warwickshire. On 3 September 2005, CWR resumed the production of separate programming between 5am and 10pm each weekday (6am-6pm at weekends).

BBC Radio Wolverhampton

On 15 January 2021, BBC Radio Wolverhampton launched as a temporary sister station. The service provided eight hours of opt-out programming for listeners in Wolverhampton and the surrounding area each weekday until 31 March 2021.

Audience

When it launched, the station had a monopoly of local radio in the Birmingham area. The station's low audience since the advent of independent local radio has led to reports of threatened closure on various occasions. In the mid-1980s, a new manager, Tony Inchley, brought in extensive format changes with a view to stabilising the audience, although the station remained small in listenership numbers.

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's Birmingham studios from 6am - 1am each day. Off-peak programming, including the late show from 10pm - 1am, is simulcast with sister stations in the

BBC Midlands BBC Midlands may refer to: *BBC East Midlands, the BBC English Region covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland, headquartered in Nottingham *BBC West Midlands BBC Midlands (known as the Midland Region from 1927 until c. 1 ...

and BBC East Midlands regions. During the station's downtime, BBC Radio WM simulcasts overnight programming from BBC Radio 5 Live and

BBC Radio London BBC Radio London is the 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 frequency, DAB, Virgin Media channel 937, Sky channel 0152 (in the London ...

Notable presenters

Notable presenters include: * Gordon Astley *

Malcolm Boyden Malcolm George Boyden (born 5 August 1964) is a double Sony Award-winning BBC local radio presenter, who currently presents the Mid-morning show as well as a Sunday show on BBC Hereford and Worcester. He won a Sony gold award in 1997 for 'Radi ...

* Tony Butler * Tim Smith *

Carl Chinn Carl Steven Alfred Chinn, MBE (born 6 September 1956) is an English historian, writer and broadcaster whose working life has been devoted to the study and popularisation of the city of Birmingham. He broadcast a programme on the BBC from the ...

(1994–2012) * Alan Dedicoat (1979–1985) * Ed Doolan (1982–2011, died in 2018) * Adrian Goldberg (2003–2006, 2010–2017, 2018–2020) *

Alex Lester Alexander Norman Charles Lester (born 11 May 1956) is a British broadcaster. He presented the weekday overnight/early-morning programme on BBC Radio 2 from 1992 until 2014. From October 2014 until January 2017, he presented the midnight to 3am pr ...

(2017–2020) * Stuart Linnell * Tony Wadsworth and Julie Mayer *

Janice Long Janice Berry ( Chegwin; 5 April 1955 – 25 December 2021), known professionally by her first married name Janice Long, was an English broadcaster who was best known for her work in British music radio. In a career that spanned five decades, s ...

(2000–2010, died in 2021) * Andrew Peach * Peter Powell (1970–1975) * Les Ross (1970–2009) *

Sunny and Shay Sunny and Shay are a British Radio presenting husband and wife duo consisting of Mandeep "Sunny" and Gursharonjit "Shay" Grewal, both from London. Career Sunny and Shay present a number of shows including the BBC WM afternoon slot for which t ...

(2014–2020) * Graham Torrington (2012–2020)

References

External links

BBC WM website''BBC WM: The first 40 years''
– 58-minute radio documentary by BBC WM (streaming audio) * {{Coord, 52.4759, -1.9050, display=title Radio stations established in 1970 WM Radio stations in Birmingham, West Midlands 1970 establishments in England