Hopefully Chris will be able to talk more about this, but the Shropshire Star have unvieled that the name for the new Shrewsbury and Oswestry radion station will be "The Severn". Or is it "Severn FM"?

Either way, it's good. Though Oswestry isn't really anywhere near the River Severn! :rolleyes:

I can confirm that Shropshire’s newest radio stations will be called “The Severn”.

With the group having pondered over several names this seemed the logical choice, after all its the river severn that runs through Shrewsbury.

The station will broadcast on two frequencies serving Oswestry and Shrewsbury, with each frequency being run as a seperate station, although they will both share the name of “The Severn”. The stations will be up and running by late summer.

The Severn will broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from the very heart of Shropshire with music, comprehensive news and weather, Live Travel reports, Sport and information for Shrewsbury and Oswestry.

For more information see our new website - http://www.thesevern.co.uk

Shrewsbury’s first radio Station launches website
Shrewsbury’s first dedicated radio station has launched its website as it gets set to hit the airwaves. “The Severn” will start broadcasting later this year from studios in Shrewsbury. The new station will also serve the town of Oswestry with its own programming on a separate frequency.

Station boss Pete Wagstaff said: “We are getting a lot of correspondence from local residents and businesses wanting to find our more information about our new station. This new website will have all the latest information about The Severn including news on presenters, frequencies and events we will be attending in the run up to our launch”.

The Severn has already secured premises in Oswestry and is currently looking for premises in Shrewsbury to house its offices and studios. Recruiting is also underway for sales staff, presenters and the news team.

To find our more information log onto: http://www.thesevern.co.uk

Are you planning on broadcasting from the town centre of Shrewsbury?

It all seems pretty good- I'll look forward to it.

At the moment I'm not sure, premises in the town centre have been viewed but there are a number of considerations to take into account like parking, being able to modify existing offices etc...

The Severn hopes to secure Shrewsbury base
"The Severn" Shrewsbury and Oswestry's brand new radio station has announced that it hopes to secure premises in Shrewsbury for its new office and studio complex.

"The Severn" which already has studio space in Oswestry wants to make its Shrewsbury home in the former bank building at 13-14 Abbey Foregate.

Managing Director Pete Wagstaff said: "The former bank building is an ideal location for "The Severn" as its easily accessible and is situated just on the edge of the town centre in a prominent historic part of Shrewsbury".

If current plans to change the building's use into a radio station get the go-ahead the station will broadcast 24hrs a day from sound proofed studios inside the building.

"The Severn" will begin broadcasting later this Autumn on two frequencies broadcasting to Shrewsbury, Oswestry and the surrounding area's.

More information can be found at: http://www.thesevern.co.uk

Will Tudor joins The Severn for Breakfast
The familiar voice of Will Tudor will be back on the airwaves of Shropshire later this year. Will who lives in Shrewsbury with his Wife Kaz and two Children will be helping to wake up Shrewsbury each weekday morning on The Severn's breakfast show.

The Severn's Managing Director Pete Wagstaff said: "It will be just like old times, I first met Will just before I set up Beacon Radio's Shropshire service in Wolverhampton and he was my first choice for early mornings".

Will said: "It was great to hear from Waggy, I just love the idea of being on-air in my home town. I live and breathe Shrewsbury, I have lived in the town all my live and just love our life here".

"I hope all of Shrewsbury's radio listeners will remember the fun we used to have first thing in the morning and try out the new station when The Severn comes on air later this year".

How are things going securing planning permission for your possible home on Abbey Foregate?

We find out on June 7th, fingers crossed we should be ok.

I'm pleased to say that today we have been successful in our planning permission application to convert the former Lloyds bank building in Abbey Foregate into The Severn's new home.

Work will shortly begin on converting the old bank into a combined hi-tech studio and office complex ready for the stations launch later this year. The Severn's Oswestry studios are already under construction ahead of schedule.

congratulations.

what do the people of Oswestry think about having their local radio station named after a river that is about 15 miles away?

s.g.d.

We researched many names and tested them on locals both in Shrewsbury and Oswestry.

"The Severn" proved the most popular even in Oswestry which is surprising, as you say the river is about 15 miles away.

Good stuff Chris - I hope you will have a better alternative between 9 and 12 on weekday mornings than that rubbish Jim Bloody Hawkins does. :unsure:

When The Severn comes on air it will widen the listeners choice, at the moment locally we have Radio Shropshire, Beacon and WABC.

Radio Shropshire - does a great job for news and information.

Beacon - plays a good mix of music but with low speech content after breakfast.

WABC - plays a wide range of classic hits but being on AM listeners have to put up with poor audio quality.

Radio Shropshire broadcasts from Shrewsbury, Beacon broadcasts to Shropshire from Wolverhampton and WABC only has a few hours per day of local programming again from Wolverhampton the rest is taken from the national network.

So The Severn will be the only "commercial" station for Shrewsbury actually broadcasting from within its broadcast area.

The Severn will be music-led, playing classic hits from the past 40 years from easy listening to adult pop.

Presenters will provide listeners with entertaining and informative programming and our first class news team will produce local news bulletins throughout the day, with an extended bulletin at 6pm each weekday evening.

Why did Beacon FM move out of Shrewsbury? Seems daft broadcasting a Shropshire radio station from Wolverhampton!

I hope Severn's Shrewsbury station goes well - though don't go down the Beacon FM path of constant 'pop' music and never ending "messing around" banter. What we need is a mixture of good music, news and stories and a way in which communities around the Shrewsbury area can connect and inform.

I don't think Beacon did ever broadcast programming from Shrewsbury as far as I know it was just offices.

The Severn to feature local Bands
Shrewsbury & Oswestry’s newest radio station The Severn is on the look out for local bands to air during its new music show “Hot Pop”.

Hot Pop an hour long show already features on The Severn’s sister stations The Wyre in Kidderminster and Telford FM providing airtime to local artists along with the week’s new releases.

Hot Pop presented by Paul Shuttleworth will air on Sunday evenings when the station launches in September. For details on how to get your band on-air visit contact us through our website.

Melanie Sykes and Nick Snaith Join The Severn - 08/08/06
Melanie Sykes and Nick Snaith have been confirmed as part of The Severn's Sunday Schedule. The pair will host The A-List chart on Sundays from 4 - 7pm across Shrewsbury & Oswestry when the station launches in September.

Melanie has worked as a TV presenter since 1997, on daytime chat shows, award ceremonies and quiz shows. In addition to her TV career, Melanie previously worked in radio in 1999, with a presenting slot on TFI on Galaxy with Tim Vincent. The following year, she went on to present her own show for the Galaxy network every Saturday, which brought radio listeners exclusive interviews with celebrity guests and bands.

Nick Snaith has worked in radio for more than a decade starting his career at BRMB, one of the UK’s biggest regional radio stations. he originally comes from Newport in Shropshire where his family still live today. Nick presented drive-time on BRMB in Birmingham before being poached by London’s most listened to radio station, Heart 106.2, to present his own afternoon show.

'The A List' is the definitive Artists chart, playing the biggest songs of the week based on radio airplay across the UK.

For more information visit: http://www.thesevern.co.uk

Does this mean Melanie Sykes will be in Shropshire every Sunday?

or is it going to be pre-recorded miles from here like Beacon used to do when they lost a lot of their "local" listeners.

s.g.d.

:ph43r:

:lol:

I am not a stalker,honest.

I just feel that our "local" station maybe unlocal, Hot Pop,the Kidderminster new music show, is already lined up.

s.g.d.

I have the answers...

Apart from 4-7 on a Sunday when we take the A-List live with Mel and Nick all other shows will come from Shrewsbury or Oswestry. Melanie will not be in Shrewsbury :( instead she will be in London for the duration of the show.

To prove we are realy in Shrewsbury you can wave to us through the window as you walk past our studio's in Abbey Foregate :P

Hot Pop does go out on Telford FM and The Wyre in Kidderminster but they are different shows for that area. So for Shrewsbury's The Severn you will only hear Shrewsbury bands and for Oswestry's version of the station you will only hear Oswestry bands.

I believe The Severn will be broadcasting more local live hours than both Beacon, WABC or Radio Shropshire currently do.

thanks for that Chris. here's to keeping it local,

s.g.d.

Skimming through the radio frequencies I found two interesting broadcasts.

"Severn" on 106.5 FM

and

"Severn" on 107.1 FM

I know Chris said they were launching in September so this must be pre-launch testing as they appear to be test transmissions at the moment and I take it that 106.5 FM is the Shrewsbury frequency and 107.1 FM is the Oswestry frequency because the 107.1 FM frequency is very weak on my radio here in Shrewsbury whereas 106.5 FM is much stronger.

I also managed to pick up the 106.5 transmission whilst out in the car... I was still receiving it load and clear when I got to my destination in High Ercal.

Having looked at the new ' the Servern' website, new radio station for Shrewsbury, I really do hope that we do not get much of the same 'stacked', heavily compressed music from 'sister 'stations.

From what I read on their website its looking alarmingly similar to whats on offer currently by commercial stations who call themselves 'local' but network a lot of their programmes and the presenters dont seem to be that local either apart from a few old pastimers.

I think its great however broadcasting locally, allbeit on the fringe of the town, but looking at their scheduling lots of programmes seem to be networked with two other stations, not what I call local radio!

I do hope that this station is going to be different rather than stuck in a eighties type groove. We shall see !! Good luck to them anyway I will be listerning with critical ears in September

Just a few bits in reply to earlier posts:

Yes, The Severn is currently testing on 106.5FM for Shrewsbury and 107.1FM for Oswestry, the station will launch fully Mid-September. So far it seems the signal is getting out well from both transmitter sites and covering the area its meant to and more!

The only networking on The Severn will be the A-List as mentioned earlier, which will come from London. Some shows will have the same name as those on the other two sister stations like Hot-Pop which is a very popular show for local bands and new music, we will hear a Shrewsbury's version and Oswestry version.

Personally I think The Severn's output sounds good at the moment, its certainly not "heavily compressed" with no plans to make it so. The current music output is for testing only and on a loop so please don't think that's all The Severn will be playing :)

All the presenters are local people, who will know the broadcast area very well.

When we launch I'm sure there will be those who tune in and like what they hear and those who tune back out, there's plenty of other stations to listen to these days, local or not!

I tuned into the severn the other day after it was mentioned on here.

I have had no problems listening in Copthorne and its ok in Wem as I listened whilst I drove to see my Mum the other day. I've kept it tuned in as I'm enjoying listening to the music whilst out and about in the car.

I think I'll probably give it a go when it fully launches.

The output of Severn sounds 'ace' at the moment Chris, very good sound for Shrewsbury in quality, Nice to hear Sams voice on transmission too! Amazed they dont both broadcast in DAB digital though in this digital age :unsure: I refer to Telford FM which is heavily compressed never implied that Severn was. I know that when Telford FM first started it sounded good but the owner seems to like the heavy compression, the sound changed. :blink: If you listern you will hear what I mean. As far as the 'footprint' for transmission is concerned I understand that as you say The severn are exceeding their transmisson area in relation to their predicted coverage and I know Ofcom are currently looking into this as they specified signal strength not too exceed to the extreme north of the county. I think the launch date for both stations is September 18th.......... and Beacon did used to broadcast from Shrewsbury in the basement at their Castle Street Offices, there was a studio there.

Telford sounds terrible, very loud, sounds like it's overmodding when the presenters speak.

Surprised they haven't been pulled up on it?

Nice to see Chris' name in the programming for 'The Severn' on their site. I will be listerning weekday afternoons !Well done mate ! Not a lot of different presenters there though between Oswestryand Shrewsbury? And why isnt the Oswestry studio featured (pics) on the Severn site ? I presume there is one ? Or is it all controlled from Shrewsbury ?

Smacks of Beacon radio if there isnt an Oswestry studio!

Ben Day doesnt sound like a local lad either( very Brummie) No offence is it local radio ?

Our Oswestry studio is located on Salop Road in Oswestry you will be able to see the location and studio shots when the new websites launch on the 18th but eher's a preview.



The current website for the station is a holding site only.

some good looking boys in the shropshire star tonight and i dont mean will tudor !

Pictures in the Shropshire Star? I could not possibly comment :rolleyes:

Must admit listerning to both new stations to Oswestry and Shrewsbury is a blessing for the town. Both the very informative local news service paying attention to detail and the fact the presenters do not waffle on but just play great music is a great recipe for success and beats the other forms of County radio the beeb provide, which I believe is sinking in the ratings! Be interesting to see if Radio Shropshire changes its format its been stuck in a rut since the 70's.

I've only just read the news about the death of Severn FM's Rob James. Very sad, especially as he was such a young bloke too.

http://www.1065.thesevern.co.uk/robjames.html

Dragging up an old thread but I just remembered that it was a year ago today that we had our transmitters turned on for test transmissions.

How time flies!

Time does fly Chris. Its a valuable asset for the town though. When is your birthday BASh! P.S. I have V.I.P. Tickets for 'V' are you there? (The Severn)