Broadcast area Carmarthenshire Format Adult Contemporary | First air date 13 June 2004 Owner Nation Broadcasting | |
Frequency 97.1 MHz (Carmarthenshire), 97.5 MHz (Carmarthen) Audience share 11.6% (March 2011, [1]) | ||
Radio Carmarthenshire (Welsh: Radio Sir Gâr) is a Independent Local Radio station serving Carmarthenshire. It is owned and operated by Nation Broadcasting and broadcasts on 97.1 and 97.5 FM from studios near the St Hilary transmitter in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Contents
The station plays chart music from the 1980s to the present day, alongside local news, travel, Welsh language programming and community information.
History
Following the successful launch of Radio Pembrokeshire in 2002, the owners, led by Keri Jones, founded Radio Carmarthenshire in mid-2003 in order to bid for the Carmarthenshire licence. Another applicant, Carmarthenshire Sound (led by The Wireless Group - owners of Swansea Sound and The Wave) withdrew from the bidding process, leaving Radio Carmarthenshire unopposed.
The station began broadcasting on Sunday 13 June 2004 from Radio Pembrokeshire's Narberth studios. Four months after launch, the station was given a yellow card warning by the broadcasting regulator OFCOM, following complaints about the levels of Welsh language programming. As of March 2016, Radio Carmarthenshire airs a two-hour Welsh language music show on Monday - Thursday evenings, simulcast with Radio Ceredigion.
In August 2006, the station was sold to Town & Country Broadcasting (now Nation Broadcasting).
In September 2016, Nation Broadcasting announced plans to relocate Radio Carmarthenshire and its two sister services from the Narberth studios to the group's headquarters based near the St Hilary transmitter on the outskirts of Cowbridge. The station switched broadcasting to the St Hilary studios at 10am on Tuesday 22 November 2016, although the Narberth site is retained as a studio for specialist programming and a sales office.
Programming
The majority of Radio Carmarthenshire's output is produced and broadcast from Nation Broadcasting's St Hilary studios. Most programming and presenters is shared with sister stations Radio Ceredigion, Radio Pembrokeshire, Bridge FM and Swansea Bay Radio. The weekday evening show is also simulcast with Nation Radio.
Presenter-led shows air from 6am - 10pm on Monday - Thursdays, 6am - 7pm on Fridays, 6am - 6pm on Saturdays and 6am - 7pm on Sundays. The station's weekday presenters are Mark Powell and Ruth Wignall (breakfast), Chris Blumer (mornings), Sean Gerrard (afternoons) and Lee Jukes (drivetime).
Specialist opt-out programming includes a Welsh language music show on Monday - Thursday evenings and a weekly farming affairs programme on Sunday mornings, alongside the weekly rugby magazine show Rugby Nation. The Vodafone Big Top 40 is produced by Global Radio at its Capital studios in London for broadcast on 145 commercial radio stations in the UK every Sunday afternoon.
News
Local news bulletins air hourly from 6.02am - 6.02pm on weekdays and 8.02am - 12.02pm at weekends with headlines on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime. As of June 2016, the station's news bulletins are provided by independent company Radio NewsHub in Leeds.
Radio Carmarthenshire also airs national Sky News Radio bulletins 24 hours a day and detailed local weather forecasts on the half-hour.