Valleys Radio

Valleys Radio (Welsh: Radio'r Cymoedd) was a British radio station broadcasting to the heads of the South Wales Valleys.[1] The broadcast area was covered by two transmitters, 999 kHz from the Aberdare transmitter, and 1116 kHz from the Ebbw Vale transmitter, with the Ebbw Vale signal being the comparatively stronger of the two.

Valleys Radio
(Welsh:Radio'r Cymoedd)
Broadcast areaHeads of South Wales Valleys
BrandingFor The Heart Of South Wales/Am Y Calon De Cymru
SloganYou Love It, We Play It
Frequency1116 kHz, 999 kHz
First air date23 November 1996
FormatAdult Contemporary
OwnerUTV Radio
Sister stationsThe Wave
Swansea Sound
Website"Valleys Radio - For The Heart Of South Wales". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2008-05-26. Retrieved 2011-01-09.

History

Owners Wireless Group were offered FM frequencies for The Heads of the Valleys they wanted to share programming with neighbouring service Swansea Sound and relocate Swansea Sound to a new media centre in Neath. Wireless applied to extend Swansea Sound West as well and applied for a licence to broadcast from transmitters in Carmarthenshire at Llanelli Carmel and Carmarthen. But due to ownership rules the applications were refused by Ofcom. FM transmissions were not initiated in the area. [2][3]

On 20 March 2009, UTV Radio announced Valleys Radio was to be sold or shut down within the next 4 weeks.[4] On Thursday 30 April 2009 at 10am, Valleys Radio ceased transmitting, after many listener messages, emotional speeches and farewells from radio producers and presenters. The final song aired was "Our last song together" by Neil Sedaka, on the final radio show, which was called Mark Powell @ Breakfast.

Presenters/Producers (over the years)

These included Gareth Williams, Karen Brown, Bernie Keith, Dafydd Phillips, Steve Powell, Patrick Downes, Tony Peters, Mark Powell, John Curtis, Keri Jones, Simon Hawkins, Jo Price, Dave Bowen, Steve Johnson.

Music

The station mainly featured a strong variety of current and classic hits. The station also ran an online 'Music Academy' [5] which allowed listeners to feedback on the music played by the station via the Valleys Radio website.

Sister Stations

Two sister stations, Swansea Sound and 96.4 The Wave - which broadcast to the Swansea area are still active.[1] Some previous and current presenters from these two stations have broadcast on Valleys Radio.

References
  1. Broadcast Radio MCAs maps
  2. "Carmarthen Sound withdraw licence application". Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  3. "Valleys Radio (Heads of South Wales Valleys) - request for co-location". Ofcom. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  4. Valleys Radio is shut / sold
  5. Songpeople - listen to new music online, watch music videos and win prizes


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.