About
Radio Wimbledon broadcasts daily on 87.7FM between 8 am and approximately 10 pm during the Championships at Wimbledon. Broadcast from specially designed studios near the Press Centre at the AELTC, it is available in an area approximately within a 5 mile radius of the AELTC under a Restricted Service Licence, as well as online through www.wimbledon.org. Launched in 1992 it provides extensive commentaries for matches using a team of reporters around the ground. More recently, the service has been extended to provide dedicated commentaries for Centre Court on 96.3FM and No. 1 Court on 97.8FM. Due to the use of lower powered frequencies, these services are only available by radio for visitors in the stadiums, but are also available online. Radios are available in the grounds, though visitors are asked to use headphones at all times.
Since the station has been available online, the number of listeners has increased dramatically around the world to a peak of 600,000. It is perhaps the only station with such extensive ball by ball coverage that is available internationally, particularly as the BBC doesn't own the rights to broadcast through radio worldwide. However, a good relationship between BBC 5 Live and Radio Wimbledon has meant that material is sometimes shared between the two stations. Radio Wimbledon's reporting style is more impartial than the BBC, but there is still some patriotic support shown for British players such as Tim Henman and Andy Murray.
Wimbledon was the first Grand Slam tournament to offer radio coverage of this type. Other events have followed such as the Australian Open which launched a radio station in 2000.
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