Classic Gold GEM
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| Classic Gold GEM | |
| Broadcast area | Nottingham and Derby |
|---|---|
| First air date | 4 October 1988 |
| Frequency | 999 kHz in Nottingham 945 kHz in Derby DAB in Leicester and Nottingham |
| Format | Oldies |
| Owner | Classic Gold Digital (UBC) |
Classic Gold GEM is a United Kingdom radio station, broadcasting to much of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland and East Staffordshire from studios in Dunstable. Regional news, weather, events and community information, local advertising (separate for Derby and Nottingham) and a four-hour weekday regional programme come from a studio centre in Nottingham, home also to 96 Trent FM.
[edit] History
The station began as GEM-AM in 1988, one of the most well-regarded gold-formatted stations to come to the British airwaves in the late 1980s as a response to government disapproval of the simulcasting of radio companies' FM programming on their medium wave frequencies. Gem was the offshoot of Radio Trent, which began to cater for a younger audience and became known as Trent FM upon the frequency split. Gem's medium wave broadcasts to Nottinghamshire on 999kHz and Derbyshire on 945kHz were initially supplemented by transmissions on 1260kHz to Leicestershire; this last frequency was later given over to programming for Leicester's large Asian population (Sunrise Radio later Sabras Radio).
In the mid 1990s, Gem was bought, along with its sister station Trent FM, by expanding radio company GWR, which gradually networked the station's programming with that of other gold stations it had purchased elsewhere in the country. The station was subtly rebranded Classic Gold Gem - over time, it became more Classic Gold and less Gem, until only four hours of local programming was left.
Many of the original presenters of GEM-AM may now be heard on a newer oldies and easy listening station, also broadcasting to the East Midlands, called Saga 106.6 FM. In March 2007 this was due to be rebranded Smooth Radio.
By the end of the 1990s, Classic Gold Gem and GWR's network of other medium wave Classic Gold stations across the country were sold to media company UBC, in order for GWR to comply with government rules of the time, restricting how much share of listening one company could own.
[edit] Classic Gold Gem Today
Classic Gold Gem continues to the present day with only one regular local presenter, Geoff Hemming, whose drivetime show is on the air on weekday afternoons. The dwindling audience tuning in to the station's crackly medium wave frequencies has in recent years been supplemented by those listening to a stream on the internet, and also on DAB Digital Radio in Nottingham and Leicester. The bit rate for this broadcast was reduced in 2006 to accomodate more radio stations to the digital multiplex. Former Radio 1 presenter Tony Blackburn co-presents a national breakfast show. Regional news bulletins, recorded around 15 minutes before broadcast, are read from 6am to 6pm weekdays by GCap's news teams in Nottingham and Derby. Outside of these times, national news is read live on the hour from London by the IRN180 service of Independent Radio News.
After nineteen years broadcasting from the basement 'Studio C' at Radio Trent's Castle Gate headquarters, Classic Gold's Nottingham studios moved, along with Trent's, to the sixth floor of Chapel Quarter, an office building on the corner of Mount Street and Chapel Bar, in January 2007.
