BBC Radio Northampton

BBC Radio Northampton is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Northamptonshire.

It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Abington Street in Northampton.

According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 70,000 listeners and a 4.0% share as of December 2023.

History
The station was launched at 6:45am on 16 June 1982 on 1107 AM and 96.6 FM, with Jon Beynon's programme Start the Day, the first piece of music being John Williams's Superman theme, followed by Work That Body by Diana Ross.

The first outside broadcast followed on 17 June 1982, and the official opening was performed by Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.

The station was renamed BBC Northampton in 1990, but then reverted to BBC Radio Northampton on 3 April 2000.

Technical
The station has two FM transmitters. The 104.2 FM frequency broadcasts from the Boughton Green Road area of Northampton and covers the south and west of the county (including Northampton and surrounding area). Along the M1, the station can be heard on 104.2 FM from Milton Keynes to Copt Oak (near Leicester).

The 103.6 FM frequency broadcasts from a mast near the village of Geddington and covers the north and east (including Kettering and Corby).

The station began DAB broadcasts on 28 March 2013 from the NOW Northampton Digital multiplex. The DAB transmitters are located at Northampton, Geddington and Daventry. The transmitter at Daventry on Borough Hill was the BBC's first long wave transmitter, which began broadcasting on 27 July 1925. It had not been previously used by the BBC since 1978.

The station also broadcasts on Freeview TV channel 734 in the BBC East, BBC East Midlands and BBC South regions. It also streams online via BBC Sounds.

The station was originally available on 1107 kHz medium wave across the county from a transmitter at Kings Heath; this was reallocated to Virgin Radio using 1233 kHz.

DAB licence
On 11 October 2007, the DAB licence was awarded to NOW Digital. MuxCo had also bid for the licence.

NOW Digital expected to start broadcasting from the three transmitters at Northampton, Geddington and Daventry in September 2008, however transmissions eventually began on 28 March 2013 on DAB channel 10C.

From February 2015, Ofcom approved the separation of the Northamptonshire multiplex from the Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire multiplex, resulting in the removal of BBC Radio Northampton from the Herts, Beds and Bucks multiplex.

Sports coverage
BBC Radio Northampton airs extensive sports coverage, led by Sports Editor Graham McKechnie. Football commentators include Tim Oglethorpe, Martin Smith and Terry Angus for Northampton Town, Peter Short for Kettering Town, Chris Barrett at Brackley / Rushden and Chuck Middleton at Corby. McKechnie commentates on Northampton Saints rugby with Lennie Newman and Ian Hunter. Northants Steelbacks cricket commentators include McKechnie, Andrew Radd and Lee Daggett.

Matches are covered on FM, DAB or both, with additional coverage on-line.

The station broadcasts four weekly sports shows from 6 pm to 7 pm, these include 'The Saints Show' on Wednesday presented by McKechnie and Newman, focusing on a guest from Northampton Saints and 'The Cobblers Show' presented by Jake Sharpe on Thursday.

Programming
Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's Northampton studios from 6 am to 2 pm on Mondays to Fridays.

All other programming became regional or national in 2023, much of this is broadcast from the studios of Three Counties Radio.

During the station's downtime, BBC Radio Northampton simulcasts overnight programming from BBC Radio 5 Live

Notable former presenters

 * Fi Glover – British journalist and presenter who currently hosts a two hour show for Times Radio and the Off Air podcast
 * Liz Kershaw – former breakfast show presenter; 2002, 2005–2010. Went on to be a presenter on BBC Radio 6 Music.
 * Stuart Linnell – veteran radio & TV presenter, former presenter of the breakfast and drivetime shows, also heard on BBC CWR.
 * Roger Mosey – delivered the very first news bulletin. Later to become Head of BBC Television News and Director of the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games coverage.
 * Howard Stableford – went on to present the BBC television series Tomorrow's World
 * Martin Stanford – one of the station's original producer/presenters, Martin went on to spend over 25 years with Sky News

ViLoR
ViLoR (Virtual Local Radio) is the name of a BBC project that uses computer virtualisation and audio-over-IP to reduce the amount of equipment at a radio station. In 2014, BBC Radio Northampton became the first station to operate in this way. ViLoR has been implemented at all BBC Local Radio stations (except BBC Radio Manchester and BBC Radio London.)



Satellite Van
Like other BBC local radio stations, BBC Radio Northampton no longer uses a car with a pump-up mast to get reports from locations around its area and instead uses a van with a satellite dish.

Involvement in U.S. presidential inauguration
BBC Radio Northampton operates the Twitter account "@BBCNorthampton". A tweet was sent from the Twitter account on the day after the President's Inauguration, claiming that Donald Trump had been shot, but later the BBC confirmed that the account had been hacked.