Talk:WFMR

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of WikiProject Wisconsin, a WikiProject related to the U.S. state of Wisconsin.

[edit] WFMR in Warrington

WFMR was also a radio station in Warrington Cheshire. It started broadcasting as a restricted service station in 1992 as part of Warrington's Festival of Music and it stood for Warrington's Festival of Music Radio (WFMR - The Sound of Warrington) (later to become Warrington's Favourite Music Radio when the Festival of Music wasn't on). Originally it broadcast from a caravan on Bank Park in front of the town's Golden Gates (it then moved to Nora Street Community House in Howley, Warrington with a reception in Warrington town centre, and finally to it's present location in Beaumont's old school at Longford Business Park in Long Lane, Orford). It was originally assigned the frequency of 1602AM, it went on for years on this frequency, then one year it changed frequency to 1605AM. It got so successful that it increased it's broadcast from 1 month a year to 1 month every 6 months. After the 1 month on 1605AM it disappeared off the AM band forever, and came back in crystal clear FM Stereo on 107.8FM, it also was known as "the longest running and most successful restricted service station". It's first appearance on 107.8FM was also to be it's last as after that WFMR went in with Ulster TV to gain the full time licence that was being offered in the area, it faced some competition for this with Halton's Halton FM and a freak outsider Heart FM which were claiming to be a station for Warrington, they set there studio's up at Birchwood, 6 miles outside of Warrington and whilst everyone in Rixton and Birchwood could hear them (mainly farmland!), most of Warrington couldn't. Ulster TV decided to re-label the station to enhance their chances with the bid and to also alter the coverage area of WFMR to include Warrington, Widnes & Runcorn. It changed names to Wire FM, came on a few more times on RSL frequency 107.8 and finally won the licence for the 107.2FM frequency and was launched permanently in 2002, at the same time as Manchester's Century 105.