KL.FM 96.7

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KL.FM 96.7

Broadcast area	King's Lynn
First air date	July 1, 1992
Frequency	96.7 MHz
Format	Contemporary
Owner	UKRD Group

KL.FM 96.7 is a radio station based in King's Lynn, Norfolk in the United Kingdom.

It broadcasts from 18 Blackfriars Street in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England, which used to be a small bank. The station uses the former BBC Radio Norfolk frequency of 96.7 MHz FM.

1 History
2 Timeline
3 Sources
4 External links

[edit] History

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KLFM 96.7 was originally owned by Mid-Anglia Radio PLC, who also owned sister stations Hereward FM Radio (102.7 FM) in Peterborough, CN-FM 103 (now Q103) in Cambridge and the AM/MW service 'WGMS 1332 - The Worlds Greatest Music Station' (now Classic Gold 1332) which also came from Peterborough. The working title for the project was King's Lynn Radio (not connected to or to be confused with the trial service of 1996).

In 1987 Mid-Anglia Radio Limited indentified King's Lynn/West Norfolk as an area poorly served by the broadcast media. An application to the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) for a relay transmitter to serve this area was turned down. Discussions were then opened with the West Norfolk MP, Henry Bellingham, who then wrote to the Home Ofiice and the IBA supporting the concept of a station serving the area.

In June 1991 the Radio Authority, who took over the radio broadcast sector of the IBA, advertised a licence for the King's Lynn area. Potential applicants had 16 weeks to put their proposals on paper and send them back to the Radio Authority.

About 12 weeks after the closing date for application forms to be sent, the Radio Authority announced that Mid-Anglia Radio plc (trading as King's Lynn FM) had won the licence to provide the area with its very own, and first, independent local commercial radio station. The original licence was for a period of 8 years.

Stewart Francis was the first Managing Director of the station, with Peter Kingham holding the post of Station Manager and Dave King was Programme Controller. Other people on the Board Of Directors were Martin George (Chairman), Dr Mary Archer MA, David Ball, Jean Barker OBE, David Cocks, Tony Durham MA, William Gibbs, Harry Giltrap, Patrick Sharman & Richard Winfrey.

The station carried out 2 weeks of test transmissions from the 96.7 FM transmitter located at Great Massingham, Norfolk, England, using a power of 2 kiloWatts (later increased to 3 kiloWatts).

The first official voice on The Sound Of West Norfolk was that of former Chiltern Radio and Atlantic 252 presenter, Tony West, who opened the station at 8am on Wednesday the 1st of July 1992. The first song played was Bachman Turner Overdrives 1974 hit, "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet".

Originally Paul Baker had been lined up for the job of weekday Breakfast presenter but management thought the West Norfolk area wouldn't understand his Scottish accent and so placed him on 8am-midday weekends.

Other members of the original team included Peter Robinson (news) & Sasha Twining (news and presentation), Paul Gardner, Richard Tree and Sarah Harding (all 3 in Sales), Jim Warwick (Engineer based at Hereward Radio) & Amanda Wildman (on Reception).

Other original presenters included Mandy Walker, Mervin J Futter, singer-songwriter Terry Mckenna, Warren Davies, David Hamilton, Steve Allen, Craig Morris, Jimmy Savile, Mick & Sarah-Jane, Chris Brown and Harry Giltrap. Even Hospital Radio Lynn, the towns hospital radio service, linked up for 2 hours of requests on a Saturday evening.

The stations equipment included DAT players and a computer playout system for jingles and commercials, Technics CD players and a Audionics mixing desk. The original audio processor was an Inovonics FM 250 model.

One very famous British broadcaster who presented a syndicated programme on KLFM was Dave Lee Travis. This programme was broadcast from 10am on Sunday mornings from October 1993 via satellite radio station 'Quality Europe FM'.

In March/April 1994 Mid-Anglia Radio PLC (KLFM's parent company) was sold to Swindon based GWR Group for £3.5M. It was said that Mid-Anglia Radio had made a loss of £12,186 for the year ending September 30th, 1993. GWR changed KLFM's name/call-sign on Saturday August 27th, 1994, to the long title of Greatest Hits 96.7 The New KLFM! The 'new' service played more music and had less chat.

Displeased with the new format, a number of presenters left the station, including Dave King & Paul Baker, who set up a 28 day trial local radio service, in King's Lynn, in competition to KLFM in November/December 1996 (King's Lynn Radio 105.4 - "All That LOCAL Radio Should Be")

In March 1997, GWR sold a number of local commercial stations, including KLFM, as part of a planned disposal programme following the acquisition of Classic FM. Dawe Media of Cambridge bought KLFM for £1.1M. Stewart Francis once again became involved with the station by becoming the new Chairman. It was while Dawe Media owned the station that some equipment changes were made, including the installation of a computerised playout system (the Enco DAD).

In December 1999, Dawe Media sold KLFM to the UKRD Group, who still own the station today.

In the Summer of 2004 the old studio equipment was taken apart after 12 years of continuous use and new equipment and furniture installed. This included a Sonifex Sovereign mixing desk and a new digital playout system (RCS Master Control).

The station provides a contemporary music service to around 131,000 people aged over 15 years old in the King's Lynn & West Norfolk area. The current Station Manager is Mark Pryke (formally of Radio Orwell/Saxon/SGR-FM in Suffolk) and Programme Controller is Simon Rowe (formally of Ten-17 Radio in Harlow, Essex).

Another former national radio presenter now broadcasts on KLFM - Gary King, formerly of Atlantic 252 and BBC Radio 1, presents 'Totally 80s' every Sunday, 2-4pm.

A former regional radio presenter also broadcasts on KLFM - Adam Newstead formerly of Vibe FM and KISS crops up every now and again. He can now be heard on Radio Norwich evenings.

KLFM 96.7 can be contacted at... Address: 18 Blackfriars Street, King's Lynn, Norfolk, PE30 1NN, England. - Telephone: +44 (0) 1553 772777 - Facsimile: +44 (0) 1553 767200 - Studio Telephone: +44 (0) 1553 692192 - Studio SMS/Text: +44 (0) 7857 431581 - Email: admin@klfm967.co.uk

[edit] Timeline

1987 - Hereward Radio Ltd identified King's Lynn/West Norfolk as an area poorly served by broadcast media.

March/April 1990 - The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) calls for 'Letters of Intent' to help them timetable the advertisement of licences in area's of the UK which weren't covered by commercial radio (ILR).

4th October 1990 - The IBA announce King's Lynn is one of the areas to be advertised in the first phase of local radio licences by the new Radio Authority.

1st January 1991 - The Radio Authority take over responsibility for licensing and regulating commercial radio in the UK.

4th March 1991 - The Radio Authority advertise the first 2 licences - for Lincoln & the Shetland Islands.

4th June 1991 - The Radio Authority formally advertise the local commercial radio licence for King's Lynn, with a closing date of 24th September 1991 at 2pm.

25th September - 3 applicants applied for the King's Lynn licence - King's Lynn FM (Mid-Anglia Radio plc), X-Cel FM (X-Cel FM Ltd) and 1 other.

circa December 1991 - The Radio Authority announce Mid-Anglia Radio plc (trading as King's Lynn FM) have won the licence.

16th June 1992 - KLFM begin test transmissions from their Great Massingham mast.

1st July 1992 - At 8am, KLFM begins broadcasting with Tony West saying "It's 8 o'clock on Wednesday the 1st of July 1992. This is your very first independent radio station, broadcasting from studios in Blackfriars Street, King's Lynn - KLFM!"