GWR FM is a stations serving the former county of Avon. It broadcasts on 96.3, the station plays top 40 and Hot Adult contemporary music targeting 15-35 year old adults. It is currently the highest-rated local radio station in the area, (Source RAJAR) beating local competition from, BBC Radio Bristol, Kiss 101 (Previously Vibe 101) and Star 107.2. Bristol (IPA: ) is a city, unitary authority and ceremonial county in South West England, 115 miles (185 km) west of London and located at With a population of 400,000, and metropolitan area of 550,000, it is Englands sixth, and the United Kingdoms ninth, most populous city... For other uses, see Bath (disambiguation). ... October 27 is the 300th day of the year (301st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 65 days remaining. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sine waves of various frequencies; the lower waves have higher frequencies than those above. ... MegaHertz (MHz) is the name given to one million (106) Hertz, a measure of frequency. ... Digital Audio Broadcast or DAB is a standard for digital radio broadcast developed by EUREKA as a research project for the European Union. ... Digital Audio Broadcast or DAB is a standard for digital radio broadcast developed by EUREKA as a research project for the European Union. ... A radio format or programming format describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. ... GCap Media plc is a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. ... Northavon Bristol Kingswood Woodspring Wansdyke Bath The County of Avon was a short-lived administrative county in the west of England, named after the River Avon which ran through it. ... Adult contemporary music, frequently abbreciated to just AC, is a type of radio format that plays mainstream and pop music, without hip-hop or rap since, as per the name, it is geared more towards adults than teens. ... BBC Radio Bristol is the BBC Local Radio service for the English city of Bristol and surrounding area. ... Vibe 101 is a radio station in South West England playing dance music and RnB under the slogan Fresh Beats. ... Star 107. ...

History

GWR FM launched on 27th October 1981 under its original name, Radio West, 11 years after BBC Radio Bristol. The station began a full service commercial radio station on 96.3 MHz FM and 1260 kHz AM (238 metres medium wave) and it was the culmination of a merger between two companies bidding for the Bristol and Bath radio licence (Radio Avonside and Bristol Channel) awarded by the then Independent Broadcasting Authority. The choice of on-air name proved to be a simple affair as the BBC aired a series called Shoestring complete with the fictitious Radio West. (Redirected from 27th October) October 27 is the 300th day of the year (301st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 65 days remaining. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... BBC Radio Bristol is the BBC Local Radio service for the English city of Bristol and surrounding area. ... A megahertz (MHz) is one million (106) hertz, a measure of frequency. ... Frequency modulation (FM) is a form of modulation which represents information as variations in the instantaneous frequency of a carrier wave. ... A kilohertz (kHz) is a unit of frequency equal to 1,000 hertz (1,000 cycles per second). ... [[Amplitude modulation]] (AM) is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a carrier wave wirelessly. ... The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television (ITV and Channel 4 - cable and satellite television were the responsibility of the Cable Authority) and radio broadcasts. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, invariably known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of £4 billion. ...

Radio West's cost base was large due to the extravagant studio premises that had been purchased, and the lack of audience made for disastrous advertising revenue and losses of £300,000 by 1983. John Bradford, who had helped found the extremely successful Mercia Sound in Coventry, joined the station in 1983. Alongside Dave Cash (ex Capital Radio), big guns Johnnie Walker (ex Caroline, BBC) and Roger Day (ex Caroline, Piccadilly, and latterly BRMB) were wheeled in, but to no avail. The station still slipped and programmes had to be curtailed in October 1983 and the station closed down each day at 7:30 pm, while the remaining resources were concentrated on daytime output. After more fine tuning of the station's output Radio West became more mainstream and by late 1984 things were looking more promising and programmes were extended to a 1am closedown. 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mercia FM is an Independent Local Radio broadcasting from Coventry. ... The Precinct in Coventry city centre. ... Dave Cash was born in the UK but grew up in Canada, where he started broadcasting. ... Capital Gold, started in London in 1988 on Capital FMs AM frequency. ... Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker MBE (born Peter Dingley, 30 March 1945 in Birmingham, England) is a radio disc jockey. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, invariably known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of £4 billion. ... Key 103 is a radio station that broadcasts on 103 FM, from a 4KW transmitter on Saddleworth Moor, to Manchester and the north west of England. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Although the station was broadcasting programmes of a high quality (including award-nominated computer show Datarama), listeners remained loyal to BBC Radio Bristol, already established as the first radio station for the locality.

Financially commercial radio struggled to make any money as the 1980s economy in Britain was hampered by vast union strikes. Radio West never made a penny since it started and looked set to close when the neighbouring local station Wiltshire Radio, based in Swindon made an official approach to merge the two stations, creating a station covering from Weston-super-Mare in the west to Swindon and Hungerford in the east. This merger was approved by the British Government and was completed in 1985. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Swindon is a town in Wiltshire in the South West of England. ... Weston-super-Mare is an English seaside resort town in North Somerset, population 65,000 (1991 estimate). ... Swindon is a town in Wiltshire in the South West of England. ... Hungerford is a market town by the River Kennet in the English county of Berkshire. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Closure of Radio West

Radio West formally closed in September 1985 with a preview of the new radio station to come during test transmissions which followed immediately. In October 1985 GWR Radio was launched as a 24-hour radio station (previously Radio West closed in overnight to re-open in the morning). New disc jockeys were brought in, however the station still sounded like competitor Radio Bristol with its mix of music, news and talk (as per the trend in British commercial radio at the time) and radio listening figures still didn't see an improvement.

Split services

GWR Radio began splitting frequencies as required by the British Government - which declared its desire to end simulcasting on both FM and AM. GWR Radio launched Brunel Radio on 15 November 1988, a golden oldies station on 1260 kHz in Bristol, and 936/1161 kHz AM in Wiltshire. In the early 1990s Brunel started networking programming to 2CR Radio in Bournemouth and Radio 210 in Reading, Berkshire. Each station had Classic Gold appended to the end of their names (eg Brunel Classic Gold, 210 Classic Gold). Local news and shows was combined with networked programmes in each of its areas. A simulcast takes place when a program or event is simultaneously broadcast across more than one broadcast platform at the same time. ... Classic Gold Logo in Bristol and Bath Classic Gold Logo in Swindon and West Wiltshire For the local Swindon radio station of a similar name see Brunel FM Classic Gold is the regional Classic Gold station in the west of England. ... November 15 is the 319th day of the year (320th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 46 days remaining. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Wiltshire (abbreviated Wilts) is a large southern English county. ... 2CR FM (Two Counties Radio) is a commercial radio station broadcasting from Bournemouth. ... Bournemouth is a large resort town on the south coast of England. ... Reading is a town and unitary authority (the Borough of Reading) in the English county of Berkshire. ...

After the lifting on sanctions restricting the time spent playing music (so-called 'needle time') in 1988, GWR FM became more and more music-led, playing Top 40 chart music during the daytime, and specialist music (Big Band music, rock, rap etc) was over time eliminated. The local element of the station especially its news coverage had progressively become briefer and reduced in length, then moved onto Brunel Classic Gold, before being dropped altogether. Despite this GWR FM had at last become popular with the rise in listenership figures confirming this.

A Bath ILR licence was awarded by the IBA in 1986. GWR Radio Bath debuted on 22 May 1987 as a separate station, now know as Bath's GWR FM. Although there was still some programming being shared from GWR Bristol, local programming was installed during peak listening hours. However for official licencing purposes GWR Bath and Bristol are listed as one station and audience figures from RAJAR are combined with GWR Swindon. All programming for GWR Bath comes from studios in Bristol. The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television (ITV and Channel 4 - cable and satellite television were the responsibility of the Cable Authority) and radio broadcasts. ... May 22 is the 142nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (143rd in leap years). ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... GWR FM is a UK radio station that serves Bath. ... RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Limited) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. ...

The Mix Network

In 1992 a re-launch of the station saw The New GWR-FM become the hub of what was The Mix Network, a network of radio stations owned by the GWR Group (now GCap Media ) covering southern England and Wales. The radio station's (and the group's) long held philosophy of heavily researching the average person's listening habits and tastes led by Group chairman Ralph Bernard has created a tightly formatted sound where popular Top 40 chart hits ex-Top 40 songs are blended in with older hits. This led to its "Better Music Mix" format which spread to other radio stations within the GWR Group, including Essex FM, Trent FM and Beacon Radio creating a mini national network. GWR Group was a British radio company, until its merger with Capital Radio Group in May 2005 to form the new company GCap Media. ... GCap Media plc is a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Motto: (Welsh for Wales forever) Anthem: Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau Capital Cardiff Largest city Cardiff Official language(s) English, Welsh Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Rhodri Morgan AM Unification    - by Gruffudd ap Llywelyn 1056  Area    - Total 20,779 km² (3rd in... Essex Radio launched on September 12th 1981 from Southend-on-Sea, Essex. ... 96 Trent FM is an Independent Local Radio station which broadcasts from Nottingham in the United Kingdom. ... Beacon Radio is the name of a radio station in the midlands of England, previously known as Beacon FM. Beacon Radio 303 began broadcasting on MW303 metres from Wolverhampton to the Black Country at 6 A.M. on April 12th 1976. ...

The practice for the Mix Network stations were each station played a centrally produced playlist (from GWR FM itself). Songs were broadcast at, or almost at, the same time as neighbouring group stations and each station adopted the "Better Music Mix" tagline, to be said by local disc jockeys in between songs. Fans of the previous guises of some stations bought by the GWR Group, notably Essex FM and Beacon Radio were shocked and unhappy at the sudden re-branding of the stations, accusing the new management of reducing local content such as news reports and cancelling local shows in place of programming from the Mix Network, such as Late Night Love and The Request Fest, which originate from the Bristol studios.

Despite protests from outside Bristol, GWR FM continues to be very popular with current RAJAR listening figures showing an average 18% listening share of all radio broadcast in the area. In 2002 the Radio Authority renewed GWR FM's licence. It is due to expire in October 2009, however it is expected to be automatically renewed because it provides a DAB simulcast signal. This is the same scenario applies to its sister stations GWR FM Bath and Classic Gold 1260. For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... The Office of Communications, usually known as Ofcom, is the UKs communications regulator. ... 2009 (MMIX) will be a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... DAB may refer to: Digital Audio Broadcasting Dave & Busters, a chain of restaurants in the United States Daytona Beach International Airport (IATA airport code: DAB) in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States Defense Acquisition Board, a Pentagon group that reviews large proposed purchases by the U.S. Department of Defense... Classic Gold Logo in Bristol and Bath Classic Gold Logo in Swindon and West Wiltshire For the local Swindon radio station of a similar name see Brunel FM Classic Gold is the regional Classic Gold station in the west of England. ...

Current programmes broadcast on GWR FM

• The Bush and Troy show with Andy Bush and Paris Troy
• Late Night Love with Graham Torrington
• Music Control with Kevin Hughes and Sally Bailey
• Sunday Revival with James Bassam
• Party Friday with Howard Ritchie
• The Breakfast Club with Howard and Lucy
• Music on Demand with James Clayton
• Entertainment Weekly
• Live at the Local- new show
• hit40uk

Hit 40 UK is a networked music singles chart broadcast on a number of UK commercial radio stations every Sunday from 4pm to 7pm. ...

Slogans

• 1982 Radio West- "We got a good thing going"
• 1985 GWR- "Listen, we're talking about you!"
• 1989 GWR Radio "The West number one", "Good Music, Great Talk"
• 1992 The New GWR FM- "No rap, less chat"
• 1994 "A mix of the 70s, 80s and the best of today"
• 1995 GWR FM - "A better music mix - from the 70s, 80s and today"
• 1997 "Today's better music mix"
• 2000 "Today's best mix, today's best variety" "More music, less talk" "From the world's best city"
• 2005/6 "Good Music is Back"

What GWR stands for

It is well known that the initials GWR has had a long association with the Great Western Railway especially in the South West of England, and there is a popular misconception with listeners that the station stands for Great Western Radio. Indeed neighbouring GWR Wiltshire was called Wiltshire Radio (WR) before its merger with Radio West. However according to Group management, the letters GWR officially do not stand for anything. The original Bristol Temple Meads station, first terminus of the GWR, is the building to the left of this picture The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company, linking South West England, the West Country and South Wales with London. ...

It should also be noted that GWR's oldies service was originally called Brunel Classic Gold, after the GWR's founding father Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Brunel before the launching of the Great Eastern. ...

The GWR Group

The company which formerly owned GWR, the GWR Group, expanded from the late 1980s / early 1990s onwards to purchase other stations throughout the country. Many UK stations now follow the GWR format. It became the largest radio company in the UK, before merging with its competitor Capital Radio to become GCap Media on May 9, 2005. GWR Group was a British radio company, until its merger with Capital Radio Group in May 2005 to form the new company GCap Media. ... See also 1990s, the band The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive, sometimes informally including popular culture from the late 1980s and shortly after the year 2000. ... The Capital Radio building in Leicester Square, London. ... GCap Media plc is a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. ... May 9 is the 129th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (130th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Past and Previous Management

• Chairman: Stella Pirie

• Programme Controller
• 1994-1995: Steve Orchard (now GCap Media Group Programme Controller)
• 1995-1997: Dirk Anthony (now GCap Media Group Content Director)
• 1997-1998: Vaughan Hobbs
• 1998-2000: Mark Beever
• 2000-present: Paul Andrew

GCap Media plc is a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. ... GCap Media plc is a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. ...

Premises

• 1982-2001: Watershed Centre, Canons Road, Bristol
• 2001-present: Passage Street, Bristol (also houses " One Network" programming, Classic Gold 1260, GWR FM Bath, Chill and housed The Storm)

1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... The One Network is the collective name for the thirty-eight of GCap Medias local radio stations, broadcast at various locations in the United Kingdom It was previously known as The Mix Network and coincided of stations owned by GWR Group, but upon the merger of Capital Radio Group... Classic Gold Logo in Bristol and Bath Classic Gold Logo in Swindon and West Wiltshire For the local Swindon radio station of a similar name see Brunel FM Classic Gold is the regional Classic Gold station in the west of England. ... Chill is the name of a digital-only radio station in the UK. It broadcasts on the DAB digital radio platform in several locations in mid and southern England. ... The Storm was a digital-only, modern rock music radio station broadcasting in parts of Central and Southern UK, and owned by GCap Media. ...

References

• The Radio Companion by Paul Donovan, ISBN 9-780586-090121
• Commercial Radio Pocket Book by Commercial Radio Companies Association
• Radio Authority Pocket Book 1992-2003 by the Radio Authority
• Transdiffusion http://www.transdiffusion.org

The Office of Communications, usually known as Ofcom, is the UKs communications regulator. ...

External links

• Bristol's GWR FM
• Classic Gold Network
• Chill's website
• GCap Media
• CRCA
• RAJAR
• The Hot FM

See also

• Bath's GWR FM
• Wiltshire's GWR FM
• The One Network
• Gcap Media