BBC Radio Northampton

Encyclopedia : B : BB : BBC : BBC Radio Northampton

Broadcasting House in Abington Street, Northampton

BBC Radio Northampton is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Northamptonshire. It broadcasts from its studios in Broadcasting House, Northampton (a listed building) on 104.2 (Northampton) and 103.6 (Geddington, between Kettering and Corby) FM. The station also has two studios in Daventry and Corby.

Contents

1 Opening
2 Today
3 Transmitters
4 Sports coverage
5 Current presenters
6 Past presenters
7 External links

Opening

The station was launched at 6:45am on June 16 1982 on 1107 AM and 96.6 FM, with Jon Beynon's programme Start the Day, the first piece of music being John Williams's Superman theme, followed by Work that Body by Diana Ross. The station was renamed BBC Northampton in 1990, but reverted to its original name on April 3 2000.

The first outside broadcast followed on June 17, and the official openening was performed by Duke of Gloucester.

Today

Bernie Keith, who has the mid-morning programme, loves to deviously wind-up unsuspecting callers to his show, treating them to the occasional double-entendre. Less worldly-wise listeners may be embarrassed.

Harpenden's Jonathan Vernon-Smith, a presenter from Three Counties Radio has taken over the lunch programme, following the departure of Richard Oliff. His show is also a consumer programme in the style or parody of one by Stephen Rhodes.

From 7pm until 1am, the station joins up with the rest of BBC local radio in the BBC East region, who are covered by the evening BBC news programme, Look East. Nick Lawrence hosts until 10pm, then the veteran Keith Skues takes the helm, with both broadcasting from Norwich.

The current Managing Editor is Laura Moss, who joined the station in 2003.

Transmitters

The station has two transmitters, with 104.2 FM broadcast from the Moulton Park area of Northampton, and 103.6 FM broadcast from a mast near the village of Geddington. Listeners can tune in to 104.2 in the south and west of the county (including Northampton and surrounding area), whereas 103.6 serves the north and east (including Kettering and Corby).

Along the M1, the station can be heard on 104.2 FM from Milton Keynes to Copt Oak (near Leicester. There is no MW frequency, nor does the station currently broadcast on DAB. For the north-east of the county near Oundle, the Peterborough transmitter has Radio Cambridgeshire on DAB from a NOW Digital multiplex. The Northampton transmitter also has the GCap-owned commercial station Northants 96 on 96.6FM, and has national radio frequencies.

The transmitter at Daventry on Borough Hill has BBC DAB National, Digital One 11D and an MXR West Midlands 12A multiplex (since August 2001). This transmitter was the BBC's first Long wave transmitter, beginning 27th July 1925. It had not been previously used by the BBC since 1978.

Sports coverage

BBC Radio Northampton has extensive sports output, hosted by Geoff Doyle. Commentators include Tim Oglethorpe for Northampton Town, Ben Jacobs for Rushden and Diamonds, and James Knight and James Burridge for Northampton Saints. Notable past Sports Editors include Mike Sewell, who as of 2006 is a sport reporter for BBC Radio Five Live.

Other contributors include Simon de Choisy, who reports on Kettering Town, Corby Town reporter Chuck Middleton, and Peter Bradley, who is their Rothwell Town reporter.

Behind the scenes at the studio, the show is kept on the airwaves by Tom Gilder and Mark Harrison.

Current presenters

Past presenters

[Jim Hawkins] - former presenter of the weekday Talk Show
Liz Kershaw - former breakfast show presenter, as of 2005 a presenter on BBC 6 Music
[Richard Oliff] - former presenter of the daily lunch consumer show 2001-2005 now back to his roots at Connect FM.
[Steve Riches] - former breakfast show presenter, as of 2005 presents BBC Radio Cambridgeshire's breakfast programme
Howard Stableford - went on to present the BBC television series Tomorrow's World
[Martin Stanford] - as of 2006 presents Sky News's Sky News Today

David Saint former presenter of 'Saint on Sunday' and the weekday afternoon programme. Still hold the record as BBC Radio Northampton's presenter with the longerst unbroken record 1982-2000. words@davidsaint.co.uk www.davidsaint.co.uk

External links

BBC Local Radio stations
BBC Radio Berkshire	BBC Radio Bristol	BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
BBC Radio Cleveland	BBC Radio Cornwall	BBC Coventry & Warwickshire
BBC Radio Cumbria	BBC Radio Derby	BBC Radio Devon
BBC Essex	BBC Radio Gloucestershire	BBC Radio Manchester
BBC Radio Guernsey	BBC Hereford and Worcester	BBC Radio Humberside
BBC Radio Jersey	BBC Radio Kent	BBC Radio Lancashire
BBC Radio Leeds	BBC Radio Leicester	BBC Radio Lincolnshire
BBC London 94.9	BBC Radio Merseyside	BBC Radio Newcastle
BBC Radio Norfolk	BBC Radio Northampton	BBC Radio Nottingham
BBC Radio Oxford	BBC Radio Sheffield	BBC Radio Shropshire
BBC Radio Solent	BBC Somerset Sound	BBC Southern Counties Radio
BBC Radio Stoke	BBC Radio Suffolk	BBC Radio Swindon
BBC Three Counties Radio	BBC WM	BBC Radio Wiltshire
BBC Radio York

Former BBC Local Radio stations
BBC Radio Brighton	BBC Radio Bedfordshire	BBC Radio Durham
BBC GLR	BBC GMR	BBC Radio London

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.