Argyll FM
Script error: No such module "Draft topics".
Script error: No such module "AfC topic".
| City | Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Argyll and Bute, parts of Ayrshire and Antrim |
| Branding | The sound of Argyll |
| Frequency | FM: 106.5 MHz (Baraskomil) 107.1 MHz (Ballygroggan) 107.7 MHz (South Knapdale) |
| First air date | 10 July 2000 |
| Format | Contemporary & Scottish traditional music, country music & community voices |
| Owner | Argyll FM Ltd, a non-profit company |
| Webcast | 320k MP3 256k AAC 56k AAC |
| Website | argyllfm |
Search Argyll FM on Amazon.
Argyll FM is a non-profit, locally owned independent local radio station. It broadcasts from Campbeltown on the Kintyre peninsula of the Argyll and Bute region of south-west Scotland, reaching listeners across Argyll and Bute, the southern Inner Hebrides, the Clyde islands, Ayrshire and the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland via Internet and FM radio broadcasts.
The station primarily plays a variety of contemporary and Scottish traditional music and features a range of local presenters and DJs. Argyll FM also provides a news and weather service for the region, and airs community bulletins, advertisements for regional businesses and public service broadcasts from the Scottish Government.
Station information[edit]
The station's studio and office is based in Campbeltown, located in the remote south of the Kintyre peninsula in Argyll. The station currently broadcasts from three sites:[1]
- 106.5 FM from Baraskomil, overlooking Campbeltown Loch, covering Campbeltown, central, southern and eastern Kintyre, as well as parts of the Isle of Arran, Northern Ireland and South Ayrshire.
- 107.1 FM from Ballygroggan near Machrihanish, covering the west of Kintyre and reaching Gigha, Islay, Jura and the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland.
- 107.7 FM from South Knapdale, serving the north of Kintyre, large parts of mainland Argyll and many of the southern Inner Hebridean and Lorn islands, Arran, Bute, and much of Ayrshire.
Argyll FM also provides an Internet radio service, broadcasting three digital audio streams on 320k MP3, 256k AAC and 56k AAC.[2]
History[edit]
The station was originally established in the year 2000 following a series of test broadcasts (as Kintyre Community Radio) in the 1990s. Coverage was initially restricted to southern and mid-Kintyre, and the station was rebranded to Argyll FM to reflect the station's far greater reach after all of its main transmission sites were introduced, when the station was awarded the independent local radio (ILR) licence for the Kintyre, Islay and Jura broadcast area by the Radio Authority.[3][4]
Argyll FM is one of only a small number of volunteer-run, non-profit radio stations in the UK to operate under an ILR commercial licence while remaining fully independent of the ownership or control of any for-profit broadcast media company, using locally-produced content only (without network content).[5]
Until 2021 the station broadcast solely over FM, with an Internet radio service introduced for the first time in November of that year. As a result, Argyll FM was the last radio station in the UK with a commercial licence to begin broadcasting online.[6]
Local people from Kintyre have found wider success in music and broadcasting after starting their careers volunteering at or playing for Argyll FM, including Grace Nicoll, who presented a show on the station at the age of sixteen, and later worked for West FM, Clyde 1 and Capital FM before joining Moray Firth Radio.[7]
Programming[edit]
The station broadcasts a mixture of live and recorded programmes from their studio in Campbeltown[8] twenty-four hours a day, all year round, with live programming generally scheduled between 7am-7pm daily. Most of the station's output is locally produced, with a small number of guest or syndicated programmes, and some shows are repeated no more than once over the course of each week. The station also features at least three hours of Gaelic language programming per week as per the requirements of the station's Ofcom licence format.[9]
Funding[edit]
As the station operates under a commercial licence, it raises income through the sale of on-air advertising spots, typically for small and medium businesses operating within Argyll.[10] Ads are also frequently run on behalf of Argyll and Bute Council and the Scottish Government. This included public health information and advice broadcasts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The station has also received grant funding from a variety of private and public sources, including the Caledonian MacBrayne Community Fund,[11] Argyll and Bute Council via their Common Good Fund for Campbeltown[12] and the Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Resilient Communities Fund.[13]
References[edit]
- ↑ https://ukfree.tv/radio/stations/Argyll_FM Argyll FM Transmitters
- ↑ "LSN.to/ARG - Argyll FM".
- ↑ "Radio Authority Licence News - The Media Leader". 14 April 1999.
- ↑ Newton, Norman. Kintyre. David & Charles Publishers. ISBN 0715328883. Search this book on
- ↑ "Radio stations in the UK, by owner".
- ↑ "James Cridland's International Radio Trends: 4BC switches frequency; and a landmark for UK commercial radio - RAIN News".
- ↑ "RAMP - 2022 Cohort".
- ↑ "Campbeltown". The Travel Company Edinburgh.
- ↑ "Ofcom | Analogue Radio Stations".
- ↑ "Argyll Radio Advertising | Advertise on Argyll FM".
- ↑ https://www.calmac.co.uk/article/6832/Awards CalMac Community Fund Awards
- ↑ "Issue - items at meetings - ARGYLL FM". 14 December 2017.
- ↑ "Huge funding boost for Argyll FM broadcasting". 9 November 2018.
External links[edit]
This article "Argyll FM" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Argyll FM. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
