ContactLeicester Sound
"The commercial sound of Leicestershire..."
Leicester Sound FM
Leicester Sound, Sound FM, Leicester Sound FM
Following the close of Centre Radio on October 7th 1983, the ILR licence for Leicester was readvertised on October 31st 1983.
There were two applications, and a bid by Nottingham based Radio Trent won. The licence was awarded to them in April 1984. Radio Trent bought the assets of Centre Radio from the receivers for £300,000, and so the new station was to have Granville House as it's home, just as Centre had done. Once this was sorted out, Radio Trent got to work in setting up Leicester's new local commercial station, and the finished product, Leicester Sound, went on the air on 7th September 1984.
The opening line up was Nick Murden on breakfast, Guy Morris on the morning show, Tony Lyman at lunch, and Andy Marriott on drivetime. After 6.00pm on weekdays and 12.00 at weekends, programmes were networked from Radio Trent in Nottingham, with split adverts and jingles for each station. This situation was not to change for many years. At the end of 1987, some new presenters arrived at Leicester Sound. This coincided with the arrival of David Lloyd as Programme Controller. He was also one of the new presenters, the other being Kenny Hague.
With both of these new presenters installed, and a new schedule in place, the station annouced that, from October 4th 1988, it was giving up it's 1260 AM frequency to a new service GEM-AM, which would broadcast golden oldies from the 60's and 70's, as well as taking Sabras, Leicester Sound's existing programme for the Asian community, and all the sport previously heard on Leicester Sound. Leicester Sound was renamed Sound FM.
After the station became Sound FM in 1988 it seemed to be more music based than ever before. Most of the specialist programmes went, with only 'The Business Programme' remaining after very long (this finally finished in 1993). Apart from this, there was very little change at the station until early in 1991, when it was renamed (again), this time being called Leicester Sound FM.
In September 1991, David Lloyd left after 4 years, a new programme controller was brought in, and the station's schedule was revamped. This revamp included, for the first time in the station's history, programmes broadcast from Leicester in the evenings, as prior to 1991, evening programmes after 6.00pm, and 12midday at weekends, had always come from Radio Trent in Nottingham. The new evening show was to be presented by Mark Hayman, and ran from 6.00pm each weekday night.
In January 1992, following the creation of Midlands Radio plc the previous year, Leicester Sound stopped sharing evening programmes with Trent FM in Nottingham and began sharing with Mercia FM in Coventry instead. Both Mark Keen and 'Nightbeat' were shared with Mercia FM. Of course, when Mark was on holiday we were treated to a variety of Mercia presenters covering his show, and over time we met Gary Hynes, Matthew Wright, Jim Twyneham, Chris Pegg, Marc Silk and others.
Leicester Sound's licence was renewed for another 8 years in 1993, the present one expiring in 1995. Later that year, Midlands Radio plc was bought by the GWR Group, who wanted to know what people thought of the station & questionnaires were published in local newspapers. This data was looked at, and on Sunday 20th March 1994, we began to get a taste for what was about to happen, as all that was heard all day (apart from the Network Chart) was back to back music and announcements like the one above. There were no commercials. This was all in preparation for the re-launch of the station the following morning, as on Monday 21st March at 6.00am, Leicester Sound was re-launched as 'The New Leicester Sound Greatest Hits 103 FM', and adopted GWR's 'Better Music Mix' format.
Back in 1996, when GWR bought Classic FM, they tried to sell Leicester Sound to Daily Mail and General Trust (who owned Essex FM, Vibe FM etc) but the deal was blocked by the Radio Authority because they felt that because DMGT also owned the Leicester Mercury, the dominant (only!) evening paper in the area, they would have a monopoly on commercial media in the area (no Century or Saga back then, so Leicester Sound was the only commercial FM service available) In any case, as GWR have since bought DMGT, they would have probably got them back again anyway!
The only other major change since then has been the frequency, on 6th Janaury 1997, Leicester Sound moved from 103.2mhz to 105.4mhz. This was the work of engineer Pete Langford, who, the genius that he is arranged for the power of the transmitter to be increased from 500w to 6kW, meaning that some areas of Leicestershire heard the station clearly for the first time. Also meaning that most of the northern hemisphere could now here the station.
In February 2002 the Radio Authority awarded a digital radio licence for this area to NOW Digital East Midlands, and Leicester Sound was included as one of the services they will provide in digital form. This means that the analogue licence has been extended for a further 8 years, as the Radio Authority have said that any station gaining a place on a digital multiplex in it's area receives automatic licence renewal. So Leicester Sound will definitely be with us until 2010.
And finally, after 18 years Leicester Sound said goodbye to the building that was home to commercial radio in Leicestershire for the past 21 years. The station left Granville House behind for brand new state of the art studios based at the Meridian Business Park, just off Junction 21 of the M1. The switch took place on Tuesday July 30th at 3.00pm, with Steve Jordan being the last presenter to broadcast from Granville House.
Information amended from the excellent Aircheck UK webpageLeicester Sound Jingles
- Leicester Sound - Christmas Jingle for Sound FM