Marcher Sound

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Marcher Sound
Image:Marchersound.png
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].

  1. ^ The Guinness Book of Answers erroneously claims Marcher Sound was launched in early 1982

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