BBC Essex

"From the coast to the capital..."

BBC Essex

BBC Essex

BBC Essex

BBC Essex was launched to serve over 1.5 million people, amongst a brightly lit night sky on Bonfire Night, November 5th 1986, and was officially launched by Marchess Marconi six days later. It broke from the naming convention of "BBC Radio (county name)" so as to avoid confusion with Essex Radio (now Essex FM).

BBC Essex set out to be different from existing BBC local stations, which were often perceived as rather "stuffy" and "worthy". It launched with a more up-beat sound, an almost "tabloid" news style and younger presenters than most stations; it even avoided use of the traditional BBC logo. However, over the years the style has been toned down and the format is now more in line with the rest of the BBC local radio family.

It serves Southend, one of Britain's oldest towns - Colchester, the coastal North Sea port of Harwich and the ever growing airport at Stansted, plus the rest of the county, from studios in Chelmsford. It runs a community helpline which started in 1993 and provides over 20 hours of local programming a day, consisting of the usual BBC local radio standards. Of the 1.5 million listeners possible, around one third actually listen according to 2002 research. It reached the age of 10 in 1996 with a tour of ten Essex towns and continued the theme in 2001 as it reached 15 with an outside broadcast tour of fifteen Essex towns. The station broadcasts on two FM frequencies, 103.5 & 95.3. To avoid confusion with the new commercial station (see below), the station became known as BBC Essex.

Saturday morning 17th April 2004 at 1:00am saw the reluctant close of Pirate BBC Essex after 7 days out at sea aboard the Lightship the LV18. Friday 9th April 2004 saw the beginning of the commemorative service on what was the 40th anniversary of the start of Radio Caroline. Pirate BBC Essex played pop music from the pre-Radio 1 era - 1964-1967. Speaking prior to the launch, Station Programme Editor Tim Gillett said: "Those years of emerging British pop music are cherished in the memory of pirate radio listeners. We'll also be featuring many of the songs championed by pirate radio like that David McWilliams classic The Days Of Pearly Spencer. There will also be the latest news headlines, as listeners in 2004 would expect and at breakfast and tea times, Pirate BBC Essex will be offering news and travel. Listeners will know that they can get the best of the pirate era's music and the latest news and information to get them out and about," he said.

Information amended from the excellent Aircheck UK webpage

BBC Essex Jingles

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