City King's Lynn Frequency FM: 96.7 MHz | Slogan Real Music Variety First air date 1 July 1992 | |
Broadcast area King's Lynn and West Norfolk: FM Format Contemporary Hit Radio, News, Entertainment, Speech, Showbiz | ||
KLFM 96.7 is an independent local radio station located in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. Its name is an abbreviation of King's Lynn FM, followed by its broadcasting frequency, 96.7.
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It broadcasts from 18 Blackfriars Street in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England, previously the location of a small bank. The station uses the former BBC Radio Norfolk frequency of 96.7 MHz FM. The station's current Managing Director is Darren Taylor.
The station broadcasts to approximately 135,000 people aged over 18 years old in the King's Lynn and West Norfolk district.
Licence application
In 1987 Mid-Anglia Radio Limited identified King's Lynn and West Norfolk as an area poorly served by the broadcast media.
An application to the Independent Broadcasting Authority for a relay transmitter to serve this area was turned down. Discussions were then opened with the West Norfolk MP, Henry Bellingham, who then wrote to the Home Office and the IBA supporting the concept of a station serving the area.
On 4 October 1990 the IBA announce that King's Lynn is one of the areas to be advertised in the first phase of local radio licences by the new Radio Authority who take over responsibility for licensing and regulating commercial radio in the UK on 1 January 1991.
On 4 June 1991 the licence was formally advertised, with a closing date of 24 September 1991 at 2 pm. Potential applicants had 16 weeks to put their proposals on paper and send them back. On 25 September—they announced that three applicants had applied for the licence—King's Lynn FM (Mid-Anglia Radio plc), X-Cel FM (X-Cel FM Ltd) and one other.
The original licence was issued for a period of 8 years.
The original working title for KLFM was King's Lynn Radio.
In December (about 12 weeks after the closing date for application forms to be sent), it was announced that Mid-Anglia Radio plc (trading as King's Lynn FM) had won the licence to provide the area with its own independent local commercial radio station. Two weeks of test transmissions followed commencing on 16 June 1992. Two kilowatts of power was originally used to broadcast from a transmitter at the Great Massingham transmission site. It was later increased to 3 kilowatts.
Equipment
Studio equipment originally included DAT players, a computer playout system for jingles and commercials, Technics CD players and an Audionics mixing desk. The original audio processor was an Inovonics FM 250 model. In the Summer of 2004 the old studio equipment was taken apart after 12 years of continuous use and new equipment and furniture installed. This included a Sonifex Sovereign mixing desk and a new digital playout system (RCS Master Control).
Management
Stewart Francis was the first Managing Director of the station, with Peter Kingham holding the post of Station Manager and Dave King was Programme Controller. Other people on the Board Of Directors were Martin George (Chairman), Dr Mary Archer MA, David Ball, Jean Barker OBE, David Cocks, Tony Durham MA, William Gibbs, Harry Giltrap, Patrick Sharman & Richard Winfrey.
After Mid-Anglia Radio PLC was sold to the GWR Group in 1994 KLFM's on-air name was changed to "Greatest Hits 96.7 The New KLFM"! This 'new' service played more music and had less chat.
In November/December 1996, displeased with the new format, Dave King, Paul Baker and a number of other presenters left the station and set up a 28-day Restricted Service Licence trial service. They called the station "King's Lynn Radio 105.4" and the station's tag line was "All That LOCAL Radio Should Be".
In March 1997, GWR sold a number of local commercial stations, including KLFM, as part of a planned disposal programme following the acquisition of Classic FM. Dawe Media of Cambridge bought KLFM for £1.1 million. Stewart Francis once again became involved with the station by becoming the new Chairman. It was while Dawe Media owned the station that some equipment changes were made, including the installation of a computerised playout system (the Enco DAD).
In December 1999, Dawe Media sold KLFM to the UKRD Group, who still own the station today.
Branding
On air imaging has come from mainly Century 21 and Jam Creative Productions. The original jingles (July 1992-September 1993) were re-sings of Century 21's 'Madison Avenue' package. Between September 1993 and August 1994 the station used TM Century re-sings of a WPLJ package. The 1997-2002 jingle package was a re-sing of Jams 'Ultimate One' package (originally created for BBC Radio 1). A recent package (the '...And Now' package) was originally produced by Jam for KIMN in Denver, Colorado and re-sung for KLFM 96.7, although these were never used on air by KLFM. Most of KLFM's on air branding (jingles, promotions, etc.) is now produced in-house at UKRD's production department in Bristol.