| Broadcast area | Lincolnshire |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 102.2 MHz, 96.7 MHz, 97.6 MHz |
| First air date | 1 March 1992 |
| Format | Classic Hits & Contemporary Hits |
| Owner | Lincs FM Group |
| Sister stations | Compass FM, Trax FM, Oak FM, Dearne FM, KCFM, Ridings FM, Rother FM, Rutland Radio |
| Webcast | 64 kbit/s stereo |
| Website | www.lincsfm.co.uk |
Lincs FM is an Independent Local Radio (ILR) station serving Lincolnshire and Newark, from the Humber to The Wash. It is the current holder of the licence which was advertised by the Radio Authority on 4 March 1991.
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The station has a 23.7% share of all radio listening within its TSA with average hours per listener of 10.9 per week (RAJAR June 2009). Lincs FM broadcasts from studios at Witham Park in Lincoln, next to the River Witham at the far end of Waterside South where the river is crossed by the Nottingham-Grimsby railway. The building used to be the Titanic Works owned by the Clayton & Shuttleworth engineering company. Captain Roy Brown's Sopwith Camel, which shot down Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) on 21 April 1918, was made in this building.
Budget cuts within the Lincs FM Group mean that Lincs FM, amongst others within the group, have restricted live programming. The station used to provide live radio 24/7, but now use automation (where the presenter's links between the records are all pre-recorded but made to sound live) between 2100-0600.
In 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007, the station was nominated for a Sony Radio Award for Station of the Year in the 300,000 to 1 m listeners category. Jane Hill (now a novelist and stand-up comedian) was nominated for Station Programmer of the Year in 2004. David Lloyd, who helped launch the station was one of the judges.
The main transmitter 102.2 FM signal comes from the Belmont transmitting station. It also has lower-powered frequencies in Grantham, south of the town near the bypass, on 96.7 FM and Trent View Flats (near the John Leggott College) in Scunthorpe on 97.6 FM. Lincs FM can be clearly heard in northern Nottinghamshire and eastern South Yorkshire. The Belmont transmitter has the Digital One and MXR Yorkshire 12A multiplexes but does not transmit Lincs FM on DAB. The Bauer Humberside 11B multiplex transmits Lincs FM across East Yorkshire, with a transmitter at Bevan Flats in north Grimsby. A further DAB transmitter at Trent View Flats was planned as a later possibility when the licence was awarded in December 2000. EMAP Digital Radio was the only bidder for the licence.
The Lincolnshire DAB licence was advertised[1][2] on 24 October 2007, with a likely bidder in place by late 2008. The far south of the county (South Holland, Bourne & Stamford) will not be covered (as it is covered by the Peterborough multiplex), yet all of North and North-East Lincolnshire will be. On 24 January 2008, Ofcom received one application for the Lincolnshire DAB licence - from MuxCo Lincolnshire, which is 51% owned by Lincs FM Group, and was awarded on 19 February 2008.[3] It will also carry Compass FM and another new Lincs FM digital-only station called Lincs County, and use four transmitters at Belmont, High Hunsley (East Riding of Yorkshire), Grantham and Lincoln County Hospital. It should be available by 2011, being originally planned for July 2009.
The station uses the "Link-up" jingle package produced by S2blue. The strapline for the station is "hits and memories".
In 2010 they introduced a resing of the South London Radio 107.3 package, also from s2blue.