| Industry | Commercial radio |
|---|---|
| Founded | March 1991 |
| Headquarters | Witham Park, Waterside South, Lincoln, LN5 7JN |
| Area served | England |
| Key people | Michael Betton CEO Eddie Shaw Head of Music |
| Products | 11 independent local radio stations |
| Total assets | MuxCo Lincolnshire |
| Divisions | 11 |
| Website | Lincs FM Group |
The Lincs FM Group based in Lincolnshire, in the UK is the parent company of several Independent Local Radio (ILR) stations.
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The Lincs FM group started with just Lincs FM in Lincolnshire, UK but has won and acquired licences to operate other local radio stations across the UK's Midlands and Yorkshire regions.
In the early 1990s it sponsored the Lincs FM Novice Hurdle at Market Rasen Racecourse.
As with many ILR stations, recent times have caused for budget cuts. Such effects have meant a loss live programming. The different stations have different live times (a majority only presenting the breakfast show live, the rest of the day being automated).
Each station's logo is green and purple as these are the company colours; these logos feature heavily in each stations merchandise.
The station runs two brands, the "Hits & Memories" brand which is a Soft AC format and the "Music You Love" brand which is an Easy Listening format. Both networks operate a centralised music log, and have networked off-peak shows. In the cases of the two Trax FM stations, and the two Oak FM stations, the stations carry 24 hours a day of networked programming with the exception of Sunday evenings on Oak FM, where Hinckley receives a country music show, and Loughborough receives a show for the Asian community, as required by their respective formats.
Until October 2007 the group was unique in the United Kingdom in that it had grown completely by license awards, rather than by acquisition of existing stations. As FM licenses stopped being advertised in the late 2000s, the group, with a desire to continue growing, made their first acquisition of Oak 107 FM in October 2007 (previously owned by the CN Group). This was followed by the acquisition of KCFM in June 2009, previously owned by Planet Broadcasting.
In 2006, the group made a bid to win the Hull licence along with six other groups.[1] The format for the Lincs bid was the same of that of Compass FM; this is thought to be because Lincs FM already overlaps the North East Lincolnshire area. The station went under the working title of "White Rose Radio" to reflect the white rose of Yorkshire. The group did not win the licence and lost out to Kingston upon Hull-based KCFM.[2] However, KCFM became part of the Lincs FM group in June 2009.[3]