Viking FM

Viking FM

City	Kingston upon Hull
Broadcast area	East Riding of Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire
Slogan	Your Music, Your Life
Frequency	FM: 96.9 MHz RDS: VIKING DAB: 11B
First air date	17 April 1984
Format	Classic Hits & Contemporary Hits
Audience share	7.8% (June 2014, RAJAR)
Transmitter coordinates	53°48′11″N 0°33′55″W / 53.8031°N 0.5653°W / 53.8031; -0.5653Coordinates: 53°48′11″N 0°33′55″W / 53.8031°N 0.5653°W / 53.8031; -0.5653
Owner	Bauer Radio
Sister stations	Viking 2 Viking 3
Webcast	whatsON
Website	www.vikingfm.co.uk

Viking FM is a British Independent Local Radio station which has broadcast music and local information to the East Riding of Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire since 1984.^[1] It is based in Kingston upon Hull. The station is owned & operated by Bauer Radio and forms part of Bauer's City 1 network of stations.

Technical

Viking FM logo used from 2004 to 2015.

The station is transmitted from the High Hunsley transmitter on the Yorkshire Wolds, near North Cave, sharing the 200 ft tower with Capital Yorkshire and BBC Radio Humberside, as well as on the Bauer Humberside DAB multiplex from three transmitters, located at High Hunsley, Buckton Barn near Bridlington and Grimsby town centre.

It is also streamed over the Internet via Viking FM's website (listed in the external links), making it accessible to listeners from all across the United Kingdom. Worldwide webcasting has recently been suspended for licensing reasons.

History

During the application process for the licence, the station's working title was Humber Bridge Radio; however on 17 April 1984, it was launched as Viking Radio and broadcast on 102.7 FM and 1161Khz AM (258m Medium Wave). The first on-air presenter was David Fewster and the first song played was Celebration by Kool & the Gang. In Spring 1986, the frequency was changed to 96.9 FM, the then residence of arch-competitor Radio Humberside, (which moved to 95.9 FM). In the Summer of 1986, the station hit the showbiz big time by signing up the pop music connoisseur Paul Gambaccini.

Viking was the first commercial radio station in the UK to introduce split programming so that it could broadcast rugby league commentary on Sunday afternoons on its AM frequency, leaving FM to take The Network Chart Show. On 31 October 1988, Viking Radio split frequencies on a permanent basis and was transformed into Viking FM on 96.9 FM and Viking Gold on 1161 (said "Double-One Six-One") medium wave.^[2] The AM station later became Classic Gold, Classic Gold Radio, Great Yorkshire Gold, Great Yorkshire Radio, Magic 1161 (pronounced "Eleven-Sixty-One") and from 2015, Viking 2.

In 1990, The Yorkshire Radio Network, who owned Viking as well as Radio Hallam, Pennine Radio (now known as Pulse 1) and Classic Gold, were bought by The Metro Radio group. In 1996, the station was bought by media empire, EMAP and as a result of a group takeover in 2008, Viking is now owned by Bauer Media Group, being part of their City 1 network of radio stations.

Achievement

In 2005 the station won its first Gold Award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards for "Happy Hour"; a news investigation into binge drinking in the region. They won a Bronze award in 2006 for their series of programmes on subjects like ASBO's and street crime.

In 2005, Viking FM's Creative Team (who write and make the adverts) won a Vox Award for a Road Safety ad, in 2006 they won no less than 4 Vox Awards (Best Campaign, Best Use of Music, Best Media Production and Other) and the London International Awards for Sound Design. In 2007 they achieved a finalist place at the New York Awards and won a United Nations Award for Peace and Human Rights, one of only 4 given out worldwide.

Branding

The original logo depicted the station mascot "Eric the Viking", this was phased out in the late 1980s when the logo style was shared with its sister stations. This was later phased out and replaced by the Bauer City 'splash'; used by many stations on the network. In 2015, the logo was overhauled across the Bauer City network and Viking FM has now adopted the 'Your' logo, in line with branding changes to all Bauer City stations.

Viking original package was produced by CBC Creative, further idents were made by Jam Creative Productions, Alfasound and Reelworld. Viking went through a stage starting in the late 1990s of only using voice over sweeper production produced in-house, however, in 2006 a new sung package was commissioned. These new idents are from Wise Buddah in the U.K

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from Viking FM's Hull studios from 6am-2pm and 3-7pm on weekdays, 2-6pm on Saturdays and 12-4pm on Sundays.

Viking FM also airs networked programming from sister stations Key 103 in Manchester, Radio Aire in Leeds, Hallam FM in Sheffield and Forth 1 in Edinburgh. The Vodafone Big Top 40 is syndicated from Global Radio at its Capital studios in London for broadcast on over 145 commercial radio stations across the UK.

The station's national network presenters include Paddy McGuinness, Darryl Morris, Marvin Humes, and Wes Butters.^[3]

News

Viking FM broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 6am to 7pm on weekdays, from 7am to 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Headlines are broadcast on the half hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside sport and traffic bulletins.

National bulletins from Sky News Radio are carried overnight with bespoke networked bulletins on weekend afternoons, usually produced at sister station Radio Aire in Leeds.

Notable past presenters

References

External links

• Official website
• Viking FM - Public File
• History of local radio in Yorkshire. (Archived (Archived 19 October 2009)
• David's Transmitter World
• High Hunsley transmitter