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

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

. 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

Bootham Bootham is a street in the city of York, England, leading north out of the city centre. It is also the name of the small district surrounding the street. History The street runs along a ridge of slightly higher ground east of the River Ouse, Yo ...

area of

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

. 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 60,000 listeners and a 4.6% share as of December 2023.

History

In May 1982, just over a year before the station was due to launch, a temporary service was provided to cover

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

's visit to

. The service, which ran for just over 24 hours, operated on what was to be the station's primary

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytim ...

frequency and was also broadcast on the other local stations in the

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

region. The station launched at 6:30 am on 4 July 1983, and featured on the cover of the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

''. John Jefferson was the first station manager with the late Tony Fish as Programme Organiser. The original team included David Farwig, Derm Tanner, Andy Joynson, David Thomas, Will Hanrahan, Graham Pass, Nik Wood (Scarborough Producer), Diane Myers (Harrogate Producer), Andy Hitchcock, Chris Loveder, Chris Choi, Charlotte Counsel, Shirley Lewis and Sandy Barton. Initially, the station was only on air for a few hours a day (6:30 am to 1 pm and 4 pm to 6 pm during the week with weekend programming restricted to 8 am until 2 pm) and carried

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

the rest of the time although during the football and rugby league seasons, the station simulcasted

BBC Radio Leeds BBC Radio Leeds is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of West Yorkshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at St Peter's Square in Leeds. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audienc ...

, whose output also featured matches played by the senior North Yorkshire clubs. Later in the decade, the station started to produce its own sports programming as broadcast hours slowly expanded. Weekday afternoon broadcasting was introduced in autumn 1984 and programming also began to start earlier in the day and by the time regional evening programme was introduced by the end of the decade, the station was producing its own programming all day from 6am on weekdays and from 7am at the weekend. Evening programming on BBC Radio York has always been of a regional nature. The very first was a Saturday evening 45-minute programme consisting of organ music which aired during the winter sports period at 6:45 pm on BBC Radios Leeds, York and Humberside. Then in August 1986 Radio York joined with the other BBC local stations in Yorkshire in broadcasting an early evening service of specialist music programmes. This was expanded on 29 May 1989 with the launch of the

BBC Night Network The BBC Night Network (sometimes referred to on-air as BBC North FM and originally Radio North East) was an all-evening radio network which linked up the North East England, Yorkshire and the Humber, and later the North West England regions of BBC ...

– an all-evening networked service which broadcast nightly on all six Yorkshire and north-east stations from 6.05 pm (6 pm at the weekend) until midnight. In May 1991, local programming was expanded by an hour, until 7 pm. This co-insided with the ''Night Networks expansion to include the BBC's north-west stations and the following year, Night Network programming was extended on weeknights until 12:30 am, and to 1 am by the end of that decade. Initially, BBC Radio York did not provide any programming for the network but later on, ''Late Night North with David Dunning'' often aired from the

studios and in 2002 the BBC's Yorkshire stations, including Radio York, parted from the network to bring back a phone-in with Alex Hall, who had presented a similar show on

Pulse In medicine, the pulse refers to the rhythmic pulsations (expansion and contraction) of an artery in response to the cardiac cycle (heartbeat). The pulse may be felt ( palpated) in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surfac ...

. Other programming included

Martin Kelner Martin Barry Kelner is a British journalist, author, comedian, singer, actor and TV presenter, whose primary career is in radio presenting. He has spent over 40 years hosting radio shows, mostly for the BBC, in particular Radio Leeds. He has ...

's Late Thing. ''The Early Show'' from

BBC Radio Humberside BBC Radio Humberside is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving the former county of Humberside which includes the unitary authorities of England, unitary authorities of East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston upon Hull, North Lincolns ...

(within the

BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, sometimes abbreviated to BBC Yorks & Lincs, is the name for the BBC's twelfth English Region, based in Kingston upon Hull and created from the division of the former BBC North region, based in Leeds (now known ...

region) was also carried. BBC Radio York was not the first radio station broadcasting in York.

University Radio York University Radio York (commonly known as URY) is a University Radio station covering the campuses of the University of York. It was the first legal independent radio station in the United Kingdom. Broadcasting from Vanbrugh College on the Uni ...

, the oldest independent legal radio station, is the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

's student radio station and before the BBC, URY was named Radio York. The independent commercial rival,

Minster FM Minster FM was an Independent Local Radio station serving York and the surrounding areas such as Selby, Tadcaster, Thirsk, Northallerton and Goole. The station closed on 31 August 2020 and its frequency is now a relay of Greatest Hits Radio Yo ...

, began broadcasting on 4 July 1992.

Stray FM Stray FM was an Independent Local Radio station serving the western half of North Yorkshire, and sections of West Yorkshire, to the north of Leeds and Bradford, England. The original licence covered the towns of Harrogate and Ripon and the surr ...

, the independent station covering the

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and civil parish in the North Yorkshire District, district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist de ...

and

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Within the boundaries of the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, the ...

areas, made its first transmission exactly two years to the day after Minster's launch and eleven years to the day after Radio York's launch.

Technical

BBC Radio York broadcasts from its studios in

and uses three FM transmitters. The station broadcasts on 95.5 (

Oliver's Mount Oliver's Mount is an area of high ground overlooking Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. It offers views over the town, a tribute monument to the war dead, camping and caravanning at selected times of the year, 10 football pitches, 1 rugby l ...

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

), 103.7 (Acklam Wold transmitter near

Leavening In cooking, a leavening agent () or raising agent, also called a leaven () or leavener, is any one of a number of substances used in doughs and batters that cause a foaming action (gas bubbles) that lightens and softens the mixture. An altern ...

, midway between York and Malton) and 104.3 FM (Woolmoor, near

Upsall Upsall is a Hamlet (place), hamlet in and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately four miles north-east of Thirsk. Upsall is part of the Upsall and Roxby estates owned by the Turton family. The popu ...

four miles north of

Thirsk Thirsk is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England; it is known for its racecourse and depiction as local author James Herriot's fictional Darrowby. History Archeological finds indicate there was a settlement in Thirsk aro ...

close to the A19 – for

Northallerton Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the River Wiske in the Vale of Mowbray and had a population of 16,832 in 2011. Northallerton is an administrative centre for York and North Yorkshire ...

and the

Yorkshire Dales The Yorkshire Dales are a series of valleys, or Dale (landform), dales, in the Pennines, an Highland, upland range in England. They are mostly located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, but extend into C ...

). The 140 ft Acklam Wold transmitter broadcasts the strongest frequency on 103.7 which is for

Ryedale Ryedale was a non-metropolitan district in North Yorkshire, England. It was in the Vale of Pickering, a low-lying flat area of land drained by the River Derwent, Yorkshire, River Derwent. The Vale's landscape is rural with scattered villages ...

and the

Vale of York The Vale of York is an area of flat land in the northeast of England. The vale is a major agricultural area and serves as the main north–south transport corridor for Northern England. The Vale of York is a broad area of flat land in northe ...

. In the early days, Radio York's FM frequencies were 90.2 and 97.2. The station also broadcasts 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 712 in the

BBC Yorkshire BBC Yorkshire is one of the English regions of the BBC. It was formed from the division of the former BBC North region into BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, based in Kingston upon Hull. Serving West, North and South Yorkshir ...

and

BBC North East and Cumbria BBC North East and Cumbria is one of the BBC's BBC English Regions, English regions covering Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Gateshead, South Tyneside, City of Sunderland, County Durham, Northumberland, north and mid Cumbria and parts of N ...

regions and streams online via

. Until 24 February 2020, BBC Radio York was also broadcast on

– 666 ( Fulford) and 1260 (Row Brow, Scarborough) AM. The transmitters were closed as a cost-cutting measure. Much of BBC York's studio infrastructure was the original Mk3 installation, dating from the station's inception in 1983. This ageing equipment had become unreliable, causing the station to "fall off air" regularly. Because the refurbishment required was significant, it would not be possible to continue to broadcast from the existing premises during the refurbishment, and no suitable alternative premises could be identified. Therefore, plans were drawn up for BBC York to move in with BBC Leeds temporarily and to retain a presence in

through the BBC Bus, and through increased contributions from district studios in Harrogate and Scarborough. BBC York has since completed refurbishment of studio equipment and news room.

DAB licence

The DAB licence that BBC Radio York uses covers North Yorkshire from transmitters at Acklam Wold, Oliver's Mount, Harrogate, Hilderbrand, and

Bilsdale Bilsdale is a Dale (landform), dale in the western part of the North York Moors in North Yorkshire, England. The head of the dale is at Hasty Bank, and the dale extends south to meet Rye Dale near Hawnby. The dale is the valley of the River ...

. The licence was advertised in June 2007 and was awarded to

MuxCo MuxCo is an operator of digital radio in the United Kingdom. It is, in joint ventures, the licensee for local DAB ensembles in various parts of England and Wales. It is owned by Arqiva, Bauer Radio Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radi ...

in September 2007. It was supposed be ready in June 2009, then revised to December 2009. Finally, the North Yorkshire DAB multiplex launched on 17 December 2014. Listeners in

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

cannot get signals that broadcast BBC Radio York. However, the town is officially served by

BBC Radio Tees BBC Radio Tees, formerly known as BBC Radio Teesside, BBC Radio Cleveland and then BBC Tees, is a BBC local radio station broadcasting from Broadcasting House, Newport Road, Middlesbrough. It broadcasts to parts of County Durham and North Yor ...

that broadcasts from its studios in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

. Areas west of Craven such as

Settle Settle or SETTLE may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places * Settle, Kentucky, United States, an unincorporated community * Settle, North Yorkshire, a town in England ** Settle Rural District, a historical administrative district Music * Settle (band), an in ...

, Ingleton and Bentham is officially served by

BBC Radio Lancashire BBC Radio Lancashire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lancashire. Originally launched as BBC Radio Blackburn, in 1981 it expanded to cover the whole county and was renamed BBC Radio Lancashire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB ...

. Although editorially, news for those areas is covered by BBC Radio York, but FM reception and DAB isn't possible in those areas.

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's

studios from 6 am to 10 pm each day. The station's Sunday evening output also airs on

and

BBC Radio Lincolnshire BBC Radio Lincolnshire is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lincolnshire. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios near Newport Ar ...

. The current weekday daytime presenters are Georgey Spanswick from 6 am to 10 am, Joanita Musisi (Jenkinson) from 10 am to 2 pm. Toby Foster's afternoon show is also carried on

and BBC Radio Sheffield. Off-peak programming, including the regional late show (10 pm to 1 am), originates from

. During the station's downtime, BBC Radio York 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 ...

and

BBC Radio London BBC Radio London is the BBC Local Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater London. It broadcasts on FM broadcasting, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Broadcasting House in Langham Plac ...

News, Sport and Weather

BBC Radio York provides hourly local news and sport bulletins and weather forecasts every half-hour from 6 am until 6 pm on weekdays. On weekends, local news and weather airs hourly from 7 am until 1 pm.

Notable former presenters

* Former presenters at the station include

ITV Sport ITV Sport is the Broadcasting of sports events, sports department of ITV plc, which produces and presents sports programming for the ITV (TV network), ITV network and ITVX. The branding was originally introduced in 1985 as an umbrella title fo ...

commentator

Jon Champion Jonathan Martin Champion (born 23 May 1965) is a British sports commentator currently working as an association football commentator for ESPN and NBC Sports. Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the ...

and

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

commentator Rob Hawthorne and Will Hanrahan, who went on to present

Look North ''BBC Look North'' is a name used by the BBC for its regional news programmes in three regions in the North of England: * ''BBC Look North (North East and Cumbria), BBC Look North'' for the BBC North East and Cumbria region * ''BBC Look North (Y ...

and report for ''

Good Morning with Anne and Nick In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil. The specific meaning and etymology of the term and its ...

''. *

Victor Lewis-Smith Victor Lewis-Smith (12 May 1957 – 10 December 2022) was a British film, television and radio producer, a television and restaurant critic, a satirist and newspaper columnist. He was executive producer of the ITV1 Annual National Food & Drink ...

started his

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

career here, presenting his chat and music programme, ''Snooze Button'', on Sunday mornings in 1984. * ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' host

Richard Whiteley John Richard Whiteley (28 December 1943 – 26 June 2005) was an English presenter and journalist, best known for his twenty-three years as host of the game show '' Countdown''. ''Countdown'' was the launch programme for Channel 4 at 4:45 ...

made several guest appearances in the early 2000s. * Sky News anchor

Gareth Barlow Gareth Barlow is an English journalist, presenter and newsreader best known for his work with BBC News. Prior to his broadcasting career he was a farmer and butcher. Early life and education Born in Reading, England, on 31 May 1990, he later ...

began his broadcasting career at the station. * ''

The Grand Tour ''The Grand Tour'' is a British motoring television series, created by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May, and Andy Wilman, for Amazon Prime Video, and premiered on 18 November 2016. The programme was devised in the wake of the depar ...

'' front-man

Richard Hammond Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is an English journalist, television presenter, and author. He co-hosted the BBC Two motoring programme ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' from 2002 until 2015 with Jeremy Clarkson and James Ma ...

was also once a presenter. * James Gordon's career began with presenting news packages for BBC Radio Yorkshire.

Awards

In 2001, BBC Radio York won the Sony Radio Academy Gold Award for Community Service for "Floodwatch News" – its coverage of the floods that hit the county of

in November 2000. In 2002, BBC Radio York was awarded Silver in the News Programme category for The

Great Heck Rail Crash The Selby rail crash (also known as the Great Heck rail crash) was a railway accident that occurred on 28 February 2001 near Great Heck, Selby, North Yorkshire when a passenger train collided with a car which had crashed down a motorway emban ...

: Countdown To A Tragedy. In 2011, BBC Radio York's news team won the Gillard award for Original Journalism. The awards are given out each year and are open to the entire

BBC local radio BBC Local Radio (also referred to as Local BBC Radio) is the BBC's local and regional radio division for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of 39 stations. As of December 2024, the network broadcasts to a combined audience of 7.1 mil ...

network. In 2012, the flagship breakfast show, ''Adam Tomlinson at Breakfast'', was nominated for a Sony award for Breakfast Show of the Year.Radio Today
/ref> In 2013, presenter Jonathan Cowap won Gold at the annual

Frank Gillard Awards The Frank Gillard Awards are awards for BBC Local Radio BBC Local Radio (also referred to as Local BBC Radio) is the BBC's local and regional radio division for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of 39 stations. As of December 2024, ...

for Best ''Hotseat'' interview. In 2014, the station won the Gillard Gold Award for Faith-based programming. In 2016, ''Georgey at Breakfast'' won Best Breakfast Show at the Local Radio Awards.

References

External links

BBC Radio York

{{Authority control

North Yorkshire Mass media in York Radio stations in Yorkshire Radio stations established in 1983 1983 establishments in England