Formation 2005 (2008 Full-time) Headquarters Preston Guild Hall | Type Local Radio Website www.citybeat.fm | |
 | ||
Motto 'The Beat of Lancashire | ||
Preston FM was a community radio station radio station broadcasting on 103.2 MHz from its base on Cannon Street, Preston, UK, which commenced full-time broadcasting on 6 October 2008.
The station has broadcast previously on six one-month trials, in October 2005, March 2006, November 2006, May 2007, November 2007, and 2–29 June 2008. The community broadcaster, which was led by station manager Richard Lace, subsequently received a full-time community radio licence from UK regulator Ofcom. The station was partly backed thanks to EU funding. As of April 2012, the station went independent due to the closure of the arts charity Prescap.
10 April 2015 Licence Number CR000158BA/3, designated to run until 5 October 2018, was registered to Preston Community Radio 23, a limited company differing in make up, and constitution, to Preston FM Ltd which had run the station from April 2012.
From 4 May 2015, 103.2 Preston FM was re-branded as "CityBeat" with a new logo, schedule and professional sound with cutting edge production and presenters. Majority of the Presenters who had shows at Preston FM moved on to other stations and projects after this.
Projects
Many volunteers and staff will occasionally organise workshops that focus on teaching DJing radio and broadcasting, editing and mixing music along with oral and presenting skills. The workshops have, since the station went full-time in 2008, reached out to schools and colleges.
Preston FM launched a project named 12 weeks of summer, where across a twelve-week period, the radio station went on a tour of six locations in and around the city of Preston, and broadcast from each of the six locations for 2 weeks at a time, starting in Leyland, at the Rococo Coffee lounge and then moving on to Ingol, Ribbleton, Garstang Discovery Centre, Moor Park at the Preston College Park campus and then ending the tour with Preston FM broadcasting live from the City Centre, from inside the Guild Hall. CityBeat will be changing its name to dance decade 103.2fm