Brunel FM was owned and operated by YMC Ltd, however it was a company in its own right. The station broadcast both local and networked programmes which covered Wootton Bassett, Wroughton, Cricklade, Highworth, Purton and the Swindon area. This made for a total adult population reach of around 150,000. The station's main local rivals at the time were Swindon 105.5, Heart Wiltshire and BBC Wiltshire. The station's content was produced from studios on the Shrivenham Hundred Business Park, 9 miles northeast of Swindon, and was transmitted from the Blunsdon transmitter, 2 miles north of Swindon. The station generated the majority of its revenue from on-air advertising. Brunel FM broadcast on 107.7MHz FM and streamed online at BrunelFM.com. It did not broadcast on DAB digital radio.
History
In 2005, after radio group Swindon FM lobbied for a second FM radio licence to be granted for Swindon, Ofcom invited applications for the 12-year broadcasting licence for Swindon. The Local Radio Company applied for a licence, proposing a radio station called Now FM. After being awarded the licence, they renamed the station to Brunel FM, after Isambard Kingdom Brunel whose railway network had developed Swindon from a small village on the top of a hill, to a large town. Brunel Radio was also the previous name for Classic Gold Radio when Wiltshire Radio/GWR launched on FM. However Brunel FM and Brunel Radio/Brunel Classic Gold had no connection other than their names and where their studios were based. The station launched at 10am on 2 September 2006, to the sound of many people from around the coverage area wishing the station luck. In June 2008, Brunel FM was sold to Laser Broadcasting along with sister stationsBath FM and 3TR. Following the buyout, a number of the station's staff resigned, allegedly due to lack of payment. In October 2008, Brunel FM was again sold to South West Radio Ltd, following the collapse of Laser Broadcasting. In August 2009, South West Radio in turn collapsed and Brunel FM was acquired by YMC Ltd, along with Bath FM, 3TR FM, Quay West 107.4 and Quay West 102.4/100.8. YMC then ran the five licensed stations as a group, with local broadcasting throughout the day and some shared or "networked" programming over the weekend. On 24 March 2010, the five YMC stations were closed by administrators after multiple refusals on the part of regulator Ofcom to transfer the licences, following a number of financial issues at the stations following TLRC's sale. The stations were eventually bought by Brett Orchard's Total Star Group, which ran TotalStar 107.5 in Gloucestershire, and all stations were rebranded as TotalStar.
