History
The station begun broadcastion as Mercia Sound at 0700 BST on 23 May 1980 with an opening announcement by Programme Director Ian Rufus, followed by breakfast presenter Gordon Astley and a news bulletin read by Mike Henfield. In its first year of operation, it boasted the highest weekly reach of any commercial radio station in England and Wales, a record that still stands to this day.
In 1987, the station moved FM frequencies, along with most ILR stations at the time to 97.0 FM. Shortly after this a new transmitter on 102.9 FM was created to serve South Warwickshire.
In 1989, along with BRMB in Birmingham, the AM frequency was split from the FM transmissions to create a new radio station called Xtra AM which played music from the 60's and 70's.
In 1993, the station's owners, Midlands Radio plc, sold the station to Capital Radio who, shortly afterwards sold it to GWR, who re-branded it in-line with their "Today's Best Mix" slogan from 1994 onwards. During this period numerous presenters from other GWR stations joined Mercia, including Craig Strong (Trent FM, Ram FM, Leicester Sound) Tim Gough (Trent FM) Rachael Hopper (Ram FM) and Sean Goldsmith (Trent FM). From 2002 onwards, the slogan was "Playing the best mix of the 80's, 90's and today". In 2007, it reverted back to the old slogan of "Today's Best Mix".
On 8 August 2008, it was confirmed that due to competition 'conflict of interests' in the West Midlands (and in other areas), Mercia would be sold by Global Radio, along with other West Midlands owned GCap/Global stations BRMB, Wyvern FM, Heart 106 and Beacon Radio. In July 2009, the station was sold officially to a company backed by Lloyds TSB Development Capital and Phil Riley called Orion Media.
In common with many other ILR stations, the last decade has seen an increase in networked programming shared between stations operated by the same 'parent' group. Automation and presentation techniques during these hours insert local idents, jingles and commercials. Currently, seven hours of local programming are broadcast each weekday with four hours on weekend mornings. Outside of these hours, programming is simulcast with the rest of the Free Radio network in the West Midlands from Orion's Birmingham studios.
On 8 July 2011, Orion Media announced plans to close Mercia's Coventry studios and co-locate the station to the company's headquarters in Birmingham - the move took place two months later, leaving Coventry with only one locally-based station (BBC Coventry & Warwickshire).
On 9 January 2012, Orion Media announced that Mercia would be rebranded as Free Radio Coventry & Warwickshire from April 2012, along with its sister West Midlands stations Beacon, BRMB and Wyvern.
Local programming is retained at breakfast and weekday drivetime while live football commentaries on Coventry City matches are now broadcast on Free Radio 80s on 1359 AM and DAB.
The Mercia brand was phased out on Wednesday 21 March 2012 in preparation for the rebrand, which took place at 7pm on Monday 26 March 2012.
Read more about this topic: Free Radio Coventry & Warwickshire
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