BBC Radio Humberside

BBC Radio Humberside

City	Kingston upon Hull
Broadcast area	East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire
Slogan	Across Northern Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire
Frequency	95.9 MHz, 1485 kHz, DAB Digital Radio
First air date	25 February 1971
Format	Local news, talk and music
Language(s)	English
Audience share	13.6% (December 2012, )
Owner	BBC Local Radio, BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
Webcast	Listen
Website	BBC Radio Humberside

BBC Radio Humberside is a BBC Local Radio service covering the area of the former English county of Humberside, which was returned to North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire the East Riding of Yorkshire and the City of Kingston upon Hull on 1 April 1996.

Simon Pattern is the station's managing editor with Derek McGill as assistant editor.^[1]

History

It began broadcasting in 1971 from studios above a post office on Chapel Street, three years before the county of Humberside was created: It actually outlived the county as Humberside was abolished in 1996.

On the first night of broadcasting, many West Yorkshire rugby league fans were disappointed when the relatively powerful High Hunsley transmitter signal was heard instead of Radio Leeds, so all they heard was a commentary of Hull KR v Widnes instead of football. It did not broadcast on MW (neither did other BBC local stations) until late 1971. In 1979 it stopped broadcasting dedicated agricultural programmes (although East Yorkshire is an agricultural county).

In the 1970s it had the Radio Humberside Handicap horserace at Beverley Racecourse, which became the BBC Radio Humberside Stakes in the 1980s. By the 1990s this included the Martin Plenderleith Conditions Stakes, the Steve Massam Selling Stakes, the Peter Adamson Maiden Auction Stakes, the Charlie Partridge Selling Stakes and the Chris Langmore Handicap that all took place on the same day in early July.

BBC Radio Humberside's headquarters at Queen's Gardens, Hull

In line with the other BBC local stations in the area, BBC Radio Humberside was part of the BBC Night Network when it was formed in May 1989, providing the station with regular evening, albeit regional rather than local, programming for the first time. Before this, the station generally stopped broadcasting at around 6pm, and handed over to BBC Radio 2 which was carried on the station's frequencies until the following morning although for the three years before the launch of Night Network, Radio Humberside had broadcast the Yorkshire-wide early evening specialist music programmes which were also carried on Radios York, Leeds and Sheffield.

In 2004 the station moved to a new digital broadcast centre located at Queen's Gardens in Hull, where it was joined by a full TV operation, supporting Look North.

Awards

In 1995 it won a Sony gold in the popular music programme category, and Mike Hurley won the 1986 Sony for local radio personality. In May 2011 the sports team of David Burns, John Tondeur, Matt Dean, Mike White and John Anguish won a Sony bronze award in the best sports programme category for their coverage of Grimsby Town's relegation.

In 2012 the Sony Radio Academy award for Best Entertainment Programme went to Beryl and Betty (Beryl Renwick, Betty Smith) from BBC Radio Humberside. The two women are aged 86 and 90 respectively, and on the night Beryl Renwick said: ‘It’s never been known to have older people like us getting their big break in broadcasting. It’s quite a thing at our age. It all started six years ago. We used to run a Saturday night club for ladies, and we asked the BBC to take us round the studios. David heard us talking and interviewed us for a job on his show, and it all went on from there.’

When they were asked for the secret of the show’s success, Betty Smith said: ‘We never stop talking. And because we have lived full lives, people want to hear what we have to say. We are full of good advice.’ Mrs Renwick added: ‘We are never scared to give a straight answer. If a caller has a dilemma, we do our best to help. And we don’t get embarrassed, no matter what the subject matter is.’^[2] Smith died in 2013 and Renwick died in 2015.^[3]

In May 2013 BBC Radio Humberside won the Gold Sony Radio Academy awards for Station of the Year,^[4] and again in October the Frank Gillard Awards for Station of the Year.^[5]

Studio facilities

BBC Radio Humberside's Grimsby studio.

BBC Radio Humberside has studios at Queen's Court, Queen's Gardens in Hull. Additional studios are located at Victoria Street^[6] in Grimsby.

Technical

BBC Radio Humberside broadcasts to East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire on 95.9 FM (High Hunsley), 1485 AM (Paull, east of Hull), DAB and on the BBC website via the internet.

The FM transmitter, between Beverley and South Cave 500 ft. up on the Yorkshire Wolds is quite powerful over the relatively flat surrounding area being heard clearly in most of South Yorkshire as well. The signal reaches right across to the highest point of the M62 near junction 22 with the A672, the highest point of the A66, much of Lincolnshire, and as far south as Nottingham on the M1, near the Trowell service station and Newark. It also broadcasts Viking FM on 96.9 FM (Radio Humberside's old frequency), Capital Yorkshire on 105.8 FM and BBC National DAB (since 20 April 2006).

High Hunsley 95.9 FM mast

The Paull transmitter also broadcasts Absolute Radio on 1215 MW and TalkSPORT on 1053 MW.

The DAB signals come from the Bauer Humberside 11B multiplex from three transmitters at Cave Wold^[7] (most powerful, three miles south of High Hunsley, and a BT microwave transmitter which also has the MXR Yorkshire multiplex), Buckton Barn (Bridlington, also has Yorkshire Coast Radio on 102.4) and Bevan Flats^[8] (Grimsby, also transmits Compass FM on 96.4). There is no FM transmitter on the south bank, but there is a DAB transmitter in Grimsby.^[9]

Like many other local BBC Radio Stations, Radio Humberside uses Radioman as its play out system and Calrec mixing desks.

Jingles

In the past BBC Radio Humberside have used David Arnold Music for their Jingles. The first package was written by Paul Hart and performed by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. As of August 2005, the station began using a custom made package featuring the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, it was produced by S2blue in Staffordshire. BBC Radio Humberside were responsible for its artistic commissioning and for the eventual shape and construction of the idents. The package was re-sung for BBC Radio Nottingham and the instrumental versions were used on BBC Radio Merseyside. The package was topped up in late 2006 to introduce the "Great Place for a Great Station" strap-line and to freshen the set up. In autumn 2008 a further refresh was introduced with new sings for key daytime programmes and presenters. In 2010 the idents package was completely refreshed by S2Blue, introducing new rhythm tracks to the 2005 package, new instrumentation across the whole set and a raft of new cuts, all keeping the same memorable logo.^[10] David Reeves is currently the station sound producer with Katy Noone and James Shippham providing many of the voiceovers.

Travel news

BBC Radio Humberside takes travel bulletins every 30 minutes (15 during Breakfast and Drive) from INTRIX Travel Media site, also used by commercial stations like KCFM and community station West Hull FM. Regular broadcasters include Wayne Foy, Nick Robbins and Ed Sheppard.

Programming

The majority of the station's programming is produced and broadcast from Hull. During off-peak hours, BBC Radio Humberside carries regional programming for Yorkshire and the North Midlands, produced from sister stations BBC Radio Leeds and BBC Radio Sheffield. As with all BBC Local Radio stations, it also airs the networked weekday evening shows, originating from Radio Leeds and produced independently by Wire Free Productions. During the station's downtime, BBC Radio Humberside simulcasts BBC Radio 5 Live .

Notable former presenters

• Keeley Donovan
• Peter Levy
• Keri Jones (now at Radio Scilly)
• Chris Harvey (now at STV North)
• Paul Heiney (now a reporter for Watchdog)
• Mike Smartt (later BBC TV News Correspondent and presenter and editor-in-chief BBC News Interactive)

References

External links

• BBC Radio Humberside
• Buckton Barn (digital)
• Cave Wold (digital)
• High Hunsley transmitter (includes coverage map).
• Paull MW transmitter
• Hull studio building
• Lincolnshire Radio campaign (an anti-Humberside website)

News items

• Guardian November 2006

Coordinates: 53°33′57″N 0°04′58″W / 53.565752°N 0.082847°W / 53.565752; -0.082847