Bristol's GWR FM

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For a list of all "GWR FM" stations, see GWR FM (disambiguation).

GWR FM (Bristol and Bath)

Broadcast area	Bristol and Bath
First air date	27 October 1981
Frequency	103.0 MHz, 96.3 MHz NOW Bristol DAB multiplex NOW Wiltshire DAB multiplex
Format	Contemporary
Owner	GCap Media
Website	www.gwrfmbristol.co.uk

GWR FM is a radio station 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.

1 History
2 Closure of Radio West
3 Split services
4 The Mix Network
5 Current programmes broadcast on GWR FM
6 Slogans
7 What GWR stands for
8 The GWR Group
9 Past and Previous Management
10 Premises
11 References
12 See also
13 External links

[edit] 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.

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.

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

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.

[edit] 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.

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.

[edit] 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

[edit] 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"

[edit] 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.

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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

[edit] 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)