Lantern FM

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Lantern FM

Broadcast area	North Devon and Torridge
First air date	19 October 1992
Frequency	96.2 MHz (North Devon) 97.3 MHz (Ilfracombe)
Format	Contemporary
Owner	GCap Media
Website	www.lanternfm.co.uk

Lantern FM is an Independent Local Radio station in the North Devon area. It began as Lantern Radio, taking its name from Lantern Hill. Its owners, Orchard Media, came from Orchard FM in Somerset. GWR took it over in 1999, so now it is owned by GCap Media.

Intitially based in the town of Bideford, Lantern is now based in Roundswell Business Park in Barnstaple. The majority of programming broadcast by Lantern is locally produced; however, networked programming from other stations is also broadcast, particularly at night and at weekends.

The station broadcasts from two locations: its main transmitter at Huntshaw Cross on 96.2FM, and a relay station to cover the Ilfracombe area on 97.3FM. Both frequencies broadcast the same output.

In November 2005 it was announced that GCap's local radio stations in the South West, including Lantern FM, are to be sold. This is due to the fact that they are outside of the company's primary target area

It has since been decided that the stations that were for sale by Gcap including Lantern FM, are no longer to be sold due to the fact that no one came up with an acceptable price. [1].

Current presenters include: James Chapple, Paul Hopper (Hopps), Susan Gale (Suse), Dave Hills, Rachel, Ian Starling.