Broadcast area Ceredigion Format Adult Contemporary | First air date 14 December 1992 Owner Nation Broadcasting | |
Frequency 96.6 MHz (Lampeter)
97.4 MHz (Cardigan)
103.3 MHz (Aberystwyth) Audience share 5% (December 2015, [1]) | ||
Radio Ceredigion ([ˈradjɔ kɛrɛˈdɪɡjɔn]) is a Independent Local Radio station serving Ceredigion. It is owned and operated by Nation Broadcasting and broadcasts on 96.6, 97.4 and 103.3 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
From its launch on Monday 14 December 1992, the station broadcast a bilingual schedule with roughly half-and-half proportion of English and Welsh output, much of it community-orientated, from studios and offices at the Old School in Aberystwyth.
On 9 March 2010, Radio Ceredigion's owners Tindle Newspapers announced the station would be sold off to the Welsh radio group Town and Country Broadcasting. At 9am on 19 April 2010, broadcasting ceased from its Aberystwyth studios and switched to Town and Country's West Wales studios in Narberth, Pembrokeshire (also the base for Radio Pembrokeshire, Radio Carmarthenshire and Scarlet FM). Following a short transition period, a daytime programming service was launched.
A proposal to reduce Welsh language programming on the station from 50% to 10% was rejected by the broadcasting regulator OFCOM in 2011 but subsequently permitted following further requests. As of March 2016, Radio Ceredigion airs a two-hour Welsh language music show on Monday - Thursday evenings, simulcast with Radio Carmarthenshire.
In September 2016, Nation Broadcasting announced plans to relocate Radio Ceredigion 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.
Coverage
Radio Ceredigion has a TSA of 74,000 people, and can be heard from Bangor through to Cross Hands, including parts of Powys, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. The main transmitter is located at Blaenplwyf transmitting station near Aberystwyth on 103.3FM, with relay stations at Mynydd Pencarreg transmitting station near Lampeter on 96.6FM and Penwaun near Cardigan on 97.4FM.
Programming
The majority of Radio Ceredigion's output is produced and broadcast from Nation Broadcasting's St Hilary studios. Most programming and presenters is shared with sister stations Radio Carmarthenshire, 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 Ceredigion also airs national Sky News Radio bulletins 24 hours a day and detailed local weather forecasts on the half-hour.