Broadcast area South Wales Owner Nation Broadcasting | First air date 29 November 2007 | |
City St Hilary, Vale of Glamorgan Frequency 106.8 MHz
(Cardiff area),
107.3 MHz
(Swansea area)
DAB Digital Radio
(South East Wales, Mid and West Wales, Wrexham and Chester) Format Mainstream pop and guitar music | ||
Nation Radio is a regional radio station, broadcasting to South Wales on FM and in West and North East Wales on DAB. It is owned and operated by Nation Broadcasting and broadcasts from studios near the St Hilary transmitter on the outskirts of Cowbridge.
Contents
The station's music playlist originally consisted of new and classic guitar-led music, reflecting the franchise won originally by XFM, but in 2015, the format was changed to include mainstream pop music.
History
Nation Radio began broadcasting on 16 June 2008, taking over the regional Ofcom broadcasting licence, which was held by XFM South Wales until GCap Media sold the station to Town and Country (now Nation Broadcasting) for an unspecified fee on 30 May 2008.
In 2013, Nation Radio increased its coverage area via DAB - it began broadcasting to north-east Wales and parts of Cheshire and Merseyside in March, via MuxCo's Wrexham, Chester and Liverpool multiplex. In August, the station launched in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire via the Muxco Mid and West Wales multiplex.
Programming
All of Nation Radio's programming is produced and broadcast from its St Hilary studios, including presenter-led shows from 6am - 10pm on weekdays, 6am - 6pm on Saturdays and 8am - 8pm and 10pm - 1am on Sundays.
The station's presenters include Carl Hughes and Rachel Chew (The Big Welsh Wake Up), Mark Powell, Neil Greenslade, Sean Gerrard (weekday drivetime) and Mike Jordan (weekday evenings). Specialist programming includes the weekly rugby magazine Rugby Nation (presented by Sean Holley) on Wednesday evenings (networked on all Nation-owned stations) and an unsigned music show, Airplay, on Sunday evenings.
Local news bulletins air hourly from 6am-6pm on weekdays (with headlines at 6.30, 7.30, and 8.30 during The Big Welsh Wake-Up) and from 8am to midday at weekends. As of June 2016, the station's news bulletins are provided by independent company Radio NewsHub in Leeds.