Wyvern FM

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Wyvern FM

Broadcast area	Herefordshire and Worcestershire
First air date	4 October 1982
Frequency	97.6 MHz, 102.8 MHz and 96.7 MHz
Format	Contemporary
Owner	GCap Media
Website	www.wyvernfm.co.uk

Wyvern FM is a radio station broadcasting to Herefordshire and Worcestershire in the United Kingdom. It is owned by GCap Media, and is part of "The One Network".

Wyvern FM is predominantly music-based, playing pop from the 1980s through to the present day. The station carries programming from its Worcester studios from 3am to 7pm weekdays, and for shorter periods at weekends. Other programming is provided centrally.

Radio Wyvern originally went on-air in 1982. The initial presenter team consisted of Sammy Southall at breakfast, Roy Leonard in the morning, Graham Hughes in the afternoon, and Mike George at drivetime. Weekend presenters included Jeff Roberts, Rob Yarnold and Bob Lee. For the first year or so, the station opened at 6 a.m. (7 a.m. on Sundays) and closed at 8 p.m. Later the station provided a 24-hour service by joining up with Beacon Radio from 10 p.m. and then a wider network of Midlands stations from 1 a.m. Radio Wyvern took the SuperStation overnight service in the late 1980s, and when that closed abruptly, a local Late Show was introduced, with the overnight output from 1 a.m. shared with BRMB and Mercia FM.

After its licence was renewed in 1994, the station split into Wyvern FM, playing newer music, and Wyvern AM (Quality and Variety) which was essentially a gold service. The AM station was rebranded as Classic Gold soon afterwards, and was sold to Murfin Music because of ownership regulations and the large overlap with neighbouring Classic Gold 774 in Gloucestershire. It is now called Classic Hits, has no links to Wyvern FM or Classic Gold, and is a fully-fledged local service.

Wyvern FM broadcasts on 97.6 FM in Herefordshire, and 102.8 FM in Worcestershire. In the late 1990s it added a third frequency, 96.7 FM, covering Kidderminster and the Wyre Forest in north Worcestershire.

The name derives from the River Wye and River Severn, the rivers running through Hereford and Worcester respectively (the name was proposed in the 1970s for what would become the county of Hereford and Worcester). It is noted that Wyvern FM often broadcasts the same content as Severn Sound, Beacon and BRMB because all 4 radio stations are owned by GCap Media.

Wyvern played host to many well-known broadcasters over the years. Neil Fox started with the station in the 1980s, and "Wyvern News, this is Howard Hughes" became very familiar to listeners. Sammy Southall spent 17 years with the station, leaving in 1999 to pursue a new career in photography. Rich Edwards, who joined in the very early days, still presents on Classic Hits. Many presenters, such as Mike George, from earlier years have found a new home at BBC Hereford and Worcester.