BBC Radio Lincolnshire


BBC Radio Lincolnshire is the BBC Local Radio service for the major part of the English county of Lincolnshire. It broadcasts from studios near Newport Arch in Lincoln on 94.9 and 104.7 FM, 1368 AM and online.
According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 102,000 listeners and a 11.4% share as of December 2018.

History

Launched on 11 November 1980 at 7am with a commissioned peal of bells from Lincoln Cathedral. The first words spoken on BBC Radio Lincolnshire came from Nick Brunger: "And it's a warm welcome for the first time to the programmes of BBC Radio Lincolnshire."
In 1988 the station commissioned UK jingle producer Alfasound to compose a jingle package based on the traditional English folk song The Lincolnshire Poacher, continuing on this theme until 2006.
In 2006 it conducted a six-month trial of XDA pocket-PCs for the BBC, using Technica Del Arte's Luci mobile interviewing application. It used to have a BBC Bus, until licence fee cutbacks in early 2008 forced budget priorities to be streamlined.

Building

The station is located on Newport, Lincoln.

Management

Under its first manager, Roy Corlett, the station achieved record audience figures as its programming of news, music and chat became very popular. Corlett left to found BBC Radio Devon and was replaced briefly by Laurie Bloomfield, who also left to launch a new BBC local station, BBC Radio Shropshire.
After Bloomfield's brief stay, the station was managed for 14 years by David Wilkinson, one of the founding team, and a local radio pioneer from his days at BBC Radio Nottingham in 1968. Upon Wilkinson's retirement in 1999, the station was taken over by BBC Radio Leicester managing editor, Charlie Partridge. In 2004, the station recorded record audience figures – according to RAJAR, listeners were tuned into BBC Radio Lincolnshire for longer than any other radio station in the country.

Lincolnshire flag

In October 2005, it presided over the creation of a new flag for Lincolnshire.

Name change

The station changed its name from BBC Radio Lincolnshire to BBC Lincolnshire on 30 November 2009. The name reverted to BBC Radio Lincolnshire in May 2012.

Transmitters and coverage

The main signal on 94.9 FM comes from the Belmont transmitting station near Donington on Bain in the north of the county, which, until the height reduction carried out in September/October 2009, was the tallest mast in Europe. The MW signal on 1368kHz came from Lincoln but closed in early 2018.
Neither the FM nor the MW signals cover the southern edge of the county, including Bourne, Holbeach, Stamford, Market Deeping and Spalding. Likewise, most of northern Lincolnshire cannot receive the station, including Barton upon Humber and Immingham. As such, Radio Lincolnshire only covers central Lincolnshire.
The Grantham signal, from just south of the town, is a filler transmitter with low power. Radio Lincolnshire was the only local radio station in Lincolnshire until 1992, when Lincs FM began, also broadcast from Belmont.
Monks' Dyke Technology College in Louth is used for the East Lindsey reports. District outposts are important due to the time taken on Lincolnshire's ill-equipped roads.

DAB

The Belmont transmitter broadcasts BBC National DAB and Digital One; MXR Yorkshire closed in June 2015. For Lincolnshire, a DAB multiplex could have only been realistically established by financial investment from the Lincs FM Group, and other transmitter positions could theoretically be used. The DAB licence, was in October 2007, which will not cover Stamford or South Holland, but will cover North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. On , the company MuxCo Lincolnshire was the only company to bid for the Lincolnshire DAB licence. It is 51% owned by the Lincs FM Group, and will have transmitters at Belmont, High Hunsley, Grantham and Lincoln County Hospital. They were the DAB licence on 19 February 2008. Transmissions were expected to begin by July 2009, but funding for the project delayed the roll-out and the multiplex went on air in September 2015.

Programming

BBC Radio Lincolnshire broadcasts seven days a week from 6am until 1am.
Radio Lincolnshire broadcasts full commentary on all Lincoln City football matches with additional commentary of Boston United and Gainsborough Trinity matches online.
A weekly news bulletin in Portuguese was broadcast for migrant workers until July 2008. It was read by Rui Silva, who worked for Boston Borough Council. The station also simulcasts some programming with counterpart BBC Local Radio stations.
During downtime, Radio Lincolnshire simulcasts BBC Radio 5 Live output including the nightly overnight show Up All Night, the early morning news programme Morning Reports and Wake Up to Money.
The station is one of few to have a dedicated farming programme on Sundays at 7am, which it has had since the station began. Radio 4's Farming Today is the only national BBC Radio programme to routinely feature stories from the county.

Events

Since the early 1980s, a race had been held at the Market Rasen Racecourse, the BBC Radio Lincolnshire Novice's Hurdle. In recent years, this has become the Mike Molloy Memorial Handicap Chase, named after a former sports presenter who died of Myeloma.
In 1983 it formed a charity trust, thought to be the first in the UK for a radio station. This became known as Going for Gold. Originally GOLD stood for Give Our Lincolnshire Defibrillators. Since then, money has been raised for a number of other local causes.
It holds an annual folk song competition called "Song For Lincolnshire".

Notable former presenters