Contact96.4FM BRMB
"Because it's my station... BRMB"
BRMB
BRMB
BRMB can stake a claim as being one of the first ILR stations outside of London to come on-air - BRMB started transmissions on 19th February 1974 as the fourth of the original 19 commercial stations to start in that decade.
There's always been some doubt as to what BRMB actually stands for - an approximation of "Brum Broadcasting" is our preferred , but no-one really seems to know for sure.
The area was in the grip of a three day working week - power cuts were common place and the station actually went off-air for 35 minutes when the transmitter lost power. Serving Birmingham, the station originally started broadcasting on 94.8 VHF and 261 meters Medium Wave, with news editor Brian Sheppard the first voice, saying 'It's six o'clock and this is BRMB news.' The breakfast show presenter of the time was Adrian Juste but it was ATV continuity announcer Kevin Morrison who was the first DJ on launch day.
Other presenters of the day were Stewart White, also an ATV announcer, on mid-mornings, Ed Doolan, still on BBC local radio today, who presented lunchtime's phone-in show and Nicky Steele operated the afternoon show where listeners could buy and sell things they no longer wanted. The evenings featured a news and topical debate show from 6pm up until 8pm when specialist music shows started. From 11pm, Paul Brown presented the late show until closedown. Sundays included regular religious output. Other 70's BRMB stars were Les Ross and Tony Butler. Les had previously applied in 1974, got rejected by them, and so disappeared to Radio Tees. The damage was repaired in 1976 when Les returned to take over breakfast - albeit with a brief move to AM's XTRA, from 1989-1993, this would last until 2002. Tony Butler was in charge of sport back then, regularly shouting '....on yer bike' to callers he didn't like very much.
The 80s, saw new presenters Nick Meanwell on mid-mornings, Stephen Rhodes at lunchtimes, Phil Riley on early afternoons, Brendan Kearney at drive and Phil Holden in the evening slot. There was plenty of opportunity for Brummies to air their views as talk took up a large amount of air time. News output remained in the same slot and there were still a host of specialist shows. 1984 saw the creation of The Masked DJ and a show of continuous music - a concept which would flood through the Midlands Radio group stations. In 1986, the station moved as part of an industry reallocation of frequency - and so the move to 96.4FM took place.
When XTRA-AM launched in 1989 BRMB used a strapline 'music power' focusing on playing 90s hits. It was at this time that presenters, some of whom are still firmly planted in the local radio industry, first appeared: names such as Phil 'Flupp' Upton (now at 100.7 Heart FM), Andy Hollins, Simon Davies, Deborah Kench and the man who found his way somehow to GWR, Graham Torrington, who many argue was much better in his BRMB days than he is now. After a brief spell away, Brendan Kearney returned.
It was also around this time that music content took more presidence - long news shows ended and 80s hits returned amongst the 90s favourites. There were series of music sweeps, announced by 'voice-overs' as '10 strong songs in a row'.
Approximately 20 years after it's launch, it came under the umbrella of Capital Radio plc. Capital purchased it from GWR who bought the station as part of Midlands Radio plc. GWR didn't want BRMB or it's sister station X-TRA-AM which was created in the late 80s, and as Capital wanted it for it's 'Capital Cities Portfolio', the deal was done. Many presenters left or had been fired, but Les Ross moved back to FM until his run ended at the end of September 2002. He's now at SAGA 105.7 where he started the breakfast show on Monday 6th January 2003.
BRMB is part of GCap Media plc.
Information amended from the excellent Aircheck UK webpage
BRMB Jingles
- BRMB Beds - Travel, News and Sports Beds from On the Sly