Marcher Sound
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Marcher Sound | |
Broadcast area | Wrexham and Chester |
---|---|
First air date | 31 March 1989 (on FM and mediumwave 5 September 1983) |
Frequency | 103.4 MHz |
Format | Contemporary |
Owner | GCap Media |
Website | www.marchersound.co.uk |
Marcher Sound (formerly MFM 103.4) is a radio station broadcasting to North West England and North East Wales from its Mold Road studios in Gwersyllt, Wrexham. The station is owned by GCap Media after GWR Group purchased Marcher Radio Group in October 2000, and subsequently GWR merged with Capital Radio Group creating GCap Media. Despite this, Marcher Radio Group Ltd remains the official licensee .
It is broadcast from the Wrexham-Rhos Relay, situated just above Moss Village near Wrexham, and although it officially broadcasts to Wrexham and Chester, it can be heard much further afield. It is part of GCap's The One Network, and brings the network's national programming to its broadcast area. Its sister radio station is Classic Gold Marcher.
The station went on air in 1983[1], on 95.4 VHF and 1260AM under the name Marcher Sound, nicknamed Radio Redundo because the original management were made redundant by coal mine closures in Flintshire and surrounding counties, and investments were made with their redundancy money. After a frequency review, it moved to 103.4 FM on the Wrexham-Rhos transmitter (for Wrexham and Chester) and on 97.1 to the Moel-y-Parc transmitter (for transmission on The Wirral).
It remained as Marcher Sound until 1989 when the FM and AM frequencies were split into three separate services. 103.4FM remained as MFM 103.4, the service on 97.1 was re-named MFM 97.1 (whose transmission site was later moved to the Storeton transmitter on the Wirral in 1998 and the station was renamed again to 'Wirral's Buzz 97.1'), while the medium wave (AM) frequency became Marcher Gold, now Classic Gold Marcher.
In November 2005 it was announced that the Marcher Group's radio stations, including Marcher, were to be sold, but in March 2006, despite a number of offers GCap called off the sale. [1].
On Monday 25 September 2006, the station has rebranded as 103.4 Marcher Sound, reverting to their original name, after to a survey conducted by listeners confirmed the name "Marcher Sound" was more appropriate[2].
- ^ The Guinness Book of Answers erroneously claims Marcher Sound was launched in early 1982
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Listen to Marcher Sound
- DooYoo Review
- History of local radio in Cheshire
- Wrexham-Rhos transmitter
Corporate Directors: Ralph Bernard (Chairman) | Steve Orchard (Operations Director) | Wendy Pallot (Group Finance Director)
National FM radio station: Classic FM
The One Network: 2CR FM | 2-Ten FM | 96 Trent FM | 96.9 Chiltern FM | 97.6 Chiltern FM | BRMB | Beacon Radio | Buzz 97.1 | Champion 103 | Coast 96.3 | Essex FM | Horizon Radio | Fox FM | Bath's GWR FM | Bristol's GWR FM | Wiltshire's GWR FM | Gemini FM | Hereward FM | Invicta FM | Lantern FM | Leicester Sound | Marcher Sound | Mercia FM | Mercury FM | Northants 96 | Orchard FM | Plymouth Sound FM | Power FM | Q103 Cambridge | Radio Broadland | RAM FM | Red Dragon FM | SGR Colchester | SGR-FM | Severn Sound | Southern FM | Ten 17 | Wyvern FM
Other Local FM Stations: Capital 95.8 | South Hams Radio | Ocean FM
Local AM Stations: Capital Gold Network
Choice FM: Choice FM London | Choice 107.1 FM | Choice Digital
Xfm Network: Xfm London | Xfm Manchester | Xfm Scotland
Digital-only stations: Capital Disney | Chill | Core | Fun Radio | Planet Rock | theJazz
TV Station: Classic FM TV
Website: www.gcapmedia.com