KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country is an

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 ...

station serving the districts of

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

and Folkestone and Hythe (previously known as Shepway) and the surrounding areas in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of england, ...

. It is the South Kent region of the KMFM radio network (owned by the

KM Group KM Media Group is a multimedia company in the county of Kent, England which originated as the publisher of the Kent Messenger. The Group now produces local newspapers, radio stations, TV and websites throughout the county. Iliffe Media acquire ...

), containing local advertisements and sponsorships for the area amongst a countywide schedule of programming. The station has been referred to by many names. Its official name is "KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country", however the website previously described it as "KMFM Dover and Folkestone", and on air it was referred to as "Shepway's KMFM".

History

KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country launched on 29 September 1997 as Neptune Radio, broadcasting on 96.4 and 106.8 FM after a month-long trial concluded earlier that same morning. The station's roots extend to the 1970s, where it began as

pirate radio Pirate radio is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license, whether an invalid license or no license at all. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are rec ...

station Channel Radio, which only broadcast in the Dover area. Run by Dover native Eddie Austin, who previously worked at

Radio Caroline Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Allan Crawford, initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopol ...

, the station was fined numerous times, but Austin maintained it until the town received its own radio licence. Aircheck UK: Kent
/ref> The station emerged as a combination of two stations broadcasting through the 1990s – "Shepway Sound" in Folkestone (broadcasting November–December 1993, and August 1994), and "White Cliffs Sound" in Dover (broadcasting May 1994 and August 1995). Austin and his group, South East Radio, applied for the licences for Shepway and White Cliffs Country in 1996 and were awarded the licence for both areas in January 1997. The new station was rebranded as Neptune Radio due to the station's proximity to the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

. The station won the UK Radio Station of the Year award twice, in 1999 and 2000, and reached approximately 30,000 listeners each week (a 24% share of the audience). After being bought by Radio Investments Ltd, its successful format was applied to its

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

s Arrow FM in

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

and

Sovereign Radio More Radio Eastbourne, formerly Sovereign FM, is an Independent Local Radio station serving Eastbourne, Hailsham, Polegate and surrounding areas. It is owned and operated by Total Sense Media and broadcasts from studios in Burgess Hill, as part ...

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

. A group, spearheaded by Neptune Radio

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

Mark Carter, also applied for the Ashford licence under the name Ashford FM, but they did not gain the licence. The station was purchased by the KM Group in 2001 and started programme sharing at weekends with other KM-owned stations in Kent. It was subsequently re-branded to KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country in 2003. The KM Group relocated the station from premises on Church Street in

to their

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a coastal town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour, shipping port, and fashionable coastal res ...

offices for the ''

Kentish Express The ''Kentish Express'' is a weekly newspaper serving southern Kent. It is published in four editions - Ashford, Folkestone, Hythe and Romney Marsh, and Tenterden. The title is owned by the KM Group and published on Thursdays. History The ...

'' in Sandgate Road. The company was reawarded the licence for the station in July 2008. In April 2009, KMFM were granted permission by

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

to move the studios to their building in Ashford, although the sales team remains in Folkestone. Following the arrival of the county-wide breakfast, all KMFM programming is now broadcast from Medway. In June 2010, the Breakfast Show was presented live from the Folkestone Multi-Cultural Festival with several guests and show crew. Like the rest of the KMFM network, the station was relaunched in September 2010 with new jingles, schedule changes and more emphasis on music. The KMFM network switched to a

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (CHR, also known as contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top ...

format in 2012 following the merging of KMFM Extra with KMFM. The music now focuses mainly on Top 40 hits, and contains a lot more dance and R&B than before.

Programming

All programming across the KMFM network is now shared across all seven stations following OFCOM approval in February 2012. The local breakfast show, by then the only local show on the station, was replaced by a county-wide show on 12 March 2012. Until 2007 KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country produced its own programmes during daytimes, before it joined up with KMFM Ashford to network all programmes other than breakfast. The stations joined with KMFM Canterbury and KMFM Thanet to create an East Kent network in April 2009, before all programmes apart from weekday/Saturday breakfast and Sunday afternoons were networked across all KMFM stations in September 2009.KMFM to share more programming
/ref> In July 2010, Saturday breakfast and Sunday afternoons became networked. News bulletins come from the KMFM News Centre in the Medway studios on the hour from 6am – 6pm on weekdays, and 8am – 1pm at weekends. National news bulletins come from

Sky News Radio Sky News Radio is the radio arm of Sky News, owned by Sky UK. It has been operating since June 1999, providing a news bulletin service for UK commercial radio stations operators across the UK and for a number of English-speaking radio stations aro ...

outside these times. Traffic and travel updates are broadcast just before the hour, and every 20 minutes between 7am – 9am and 4pm – 7pm.

References

External links

KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country

Dover Soul Community Website Includes Histories of Local Radio in Kent
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kmfm Shepway And White Cliffs Country Shepway and White Cliffs Country Radio stations established in 1997 Radio stations in Kent Folkestone and Hythe District Dover District Former pirate radio stations Contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom