BBC Three Counties Radio

BBC Three Counties Radio is the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire (referred to as "Beds, Herts and Bucks"). It broadcasts from its studios in Luton on 94.7 (Quainton Hill, near Aylesbury) FM, 95.5 (Sandy Heath) FM in Bedfordshire, 98 (High Wycombe) FM in Buckinghamshire, 103.8 (Zouches Farm, near Luton) FM in Hertfordshire, 104.5 (Bow Brickhill, Milton Keynes) FM in Buckinghamshire, 1161 (Kempston, near Bedford) kHz MW, 630 (Lewsey Farm, near Luton) kHz MW, DAB and from the Three Counties BBC website using Real Player. It started unglamourously as Radio Bedfordshire on June 24th 1985, then added the counties of Bucks and Herts to become its present name on April 5th 1993. Since 1995 it has not played music during its daily output.

Milton Keynes 104.5 FM is broadcast from Bow Brickhill, near Bletchley, Milton Keynes, and has the strongest and furthest signal of all three, although none of the frequencies are that powerful, it can be heard in Swindon. The studios in Willen have produced a separate breakfast show from 6.30am to 10am since Oct 2001, and a separate evening show from 5 - 7pm since Nov 2004. The Three Counties traffic broadcasts are useful if you are stuck in rush-hour traffic near Luton or Milton Keynes on the M1 motorway.

The Bow Brickhill transmitter, which is no higher than a large mobile phone mast, also has the commercial station FM 103 Horizon on 103.3FM. The Sandy Heath transmitter has television reception for most of the surrounding counties, national radio frequencies and the commercial station 96.9 Chiltern FM. The Zouches Farm transmitter, between Luton and Dunstable is not particularly high and also has 97.6 Chiltern FM. The Quainton Hill transmitter, near Aylesbury, also has Mix 96 on 96.2FM.

Justin Dealey, a presenter in his early 20s, always does the early-bird slot from 4.30 - 6.30am. As no-one's around at that time to have lucid conversations, he often chats with people around the world instead, which can be very revealing and uncensored.

On the weekend from 12 - 2pm, Ernie Almond and Jonathan Vernon-Smith create mayhem in their programme called 'Ern and Vern'. Although never crossing the line of bad taste, it is sometimes a close call. Often listeners calling in have only a passing familiarity with rules of broadcasting. JVS adopts an air of faux-sophistication and innocence to get past the censors.

From 10am until 1pm everyday, Stephen Rhodes, investigates people's consumer problems. Conmen are his bread and butter, of which the Three Counties region is never facing a shortage. Local dodgy garage proprietors get called up so often, Stephen and his assistants have their numbers as part of their Friends & Family (http://www2.bt.com/btPortal/application?origin=content.jsp&event=bea.portal.framework.internal.refresh&pageid=presales_myacc&siteArea=con.mya&rp.related.content.id=your_account/billing/my_account/editorial/consumer_fandf_presales_editorial.xml).

From 7pm - 1am, all the BBC local radio stations in the East connect up (as all BBC local radio regions do), and Nick Lawrence hosts until 10pm.

External links

• BBC Three Counties Radio (http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/threecounties)
• Behind the scenes (http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/threecounties/behind_the_scenes.shtml)
• Media UK - BBC Three Counties Radio (http://www.mediauk.com/radio/273)
• An original Radio Bedfordshire jingle. (http://www.tvradiobits.i12.com/RadioBeds.rm)
• Three Counties jingle. (http://www.tvradiobits.i12.com/Radio3CR.rm)
• Jonathan Vernon-Smith. (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vernon-smith)
• Bow Brickhill transmitter. (http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/bow-brickhill.asp)
• High Wycombe transmitter. (http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/high-wycombe.asp)
• Quainton Hill transmiter. (http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/quainton-hill.asp)
• Sandy Heath transmitter. (http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/sandy-heath.asp)
• Zouches Farm transmitter. (http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/zouches-farm.asp)
• Lewsey Farm transmitter. (http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/lewsey-farm.asp)Template:UK-bcast-stub