Free Radio was a regional group of

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2 ...

stations in the West Midlands, owned and operated by

Bauer Media Audio UK Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of Bauer Media Group owning brands; Absolute Radio, Greatest Hits Radio, Jazz FM, Hits Radio, KISS, Planet Rock, Magic, Kerrang! Radio and Heat Radio. History In early 2008, German ma ...

as part of the

Hits Radio Hits Radio is a network of 26 contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. The network launched in 2018 with the rebranding of Bauer's Manchester station Key 103 and its merger with The Hi ...

network. The Free Radio brand name was replaced by localised versions of Hits Radio on 17 April 2024.

Overview

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

BRMB BRMB is a British radio station based in Aston, Birmingham, which is owned and operated by Murfin Music International. It broadcasts on 89.1FM in Aston and surrounding areas, on DAB throughout Birmingham, and online via the station's website a ...

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 Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

and

Wyvern The wyvern ( ), sometimes spelled wivern ( ), is a type of mythical dragon with bipedalism, two legs, two wings, and often a pointed tail. The wyvern in its various forms is important in heraldry, frequently appearing as a mascot of schools an ...

. On Tuesday 4 September 2012, a secondary AM station broadcasting 1980s chart music,

Free Radio 80s Greatest Hits Radio Birmingham & The West Midlands is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer Radio, Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to the West Midlands (regio ...

, 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, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

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 Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire, formerly 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 Shropshir ...

(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 Hits Radio Coventry & Warwickshire, formerly Free Radio Coventry & Warwickshire, is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer Radio, Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Co ...

(later Mercia) was launched in Coventry and Warwickshire on 23 May 1980, followed by

Radio Wyvern Radio Wyvern, formerly 106.7 Youthcomm Radio, is a community radio station, licensed by Ofcom, broadcasting to Worcester, England, on 106.7FM, DAB Digital Radio in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and online. Youthcomm Radio was establish ...

(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 * Mer ...

, alongside AM station

Xtra AM Xtra AM was an Independent Local 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 ...

, which broadcast on both stations' former AM frequencies. The group was bought for £18 million by

Capital Radio plc GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed on 9 May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index ...

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 on 9 May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Inde ...

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 on 9 May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index ...

. GCap was taken over in 2007 by

Global Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

but the

Office of Fair Trading The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economi ...

ruled in August 2008 that Global would need to sell off BRMB, Beacon, Mercia, Wyvern and

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

'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 Chrysal ...

chief executive Phil Riley, 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 Hits Radio East Midlands is an Independent Local Radio, Independent Regional Radio station based in Nottingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to the East Midlands. As of Septe ...

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. Dan Morrisey can still be heard on sister station Magic Radio on weekends he openly announced on his final link. 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 studios to a smaller facility at 54 Hagley Road in

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...

at the end of 2021.

Hits Radio rebrand

On 10 January 2024, station owners Bauer announced the four Free Radio stations would be rebranded as

from April 2024, as part of a network-wide relaunch involving 17 local radio stations in England and Wales. The station's local news and regional output will not be affected as a result of the relaunch.

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. The breakfast show was hosted by Dave Sherwood (and then by Phil Ray from 2015) and the sports commentary was presented by Tom Ross with a show called "The Goalzone". 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 launched as part of the

Greatest Hits Radio Greatest Hits Radio (GHR) is a classic hits radio network in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. It currently includes 18 local and regional radio stations operating over 50 FM and DAB licences in England, Scotl ...

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 originated from Bauer's Manchester studios. Regional programming, under the ''Hits at Breakfast'' banner, was 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 broadcast 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 BirminghamFree Black CountryFree ShropshireFree Coventry & WarwickshireFree Herefordshire and Worcestershire
{{Hits Radio Hits Radio Radio stations established in 2012 Mass media in the West Midlands (region) Radio stations in the West Midlands (region) Contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom