BBC Radio Lincolnshire

BBC Radio Lincolnshire is the BBC’s local radio station serving the county of Lincolnshire.

It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios near Newport Arch in Lincoln.

According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 99,000 listeners and a 6.9% share as of September 2021.

Launched on 11 November 1980 at 7 am with a commissioned peal of bells from Lincoln Cathedral. The first words spoken on BBC Radio Lincolnshire came from Nick Brunger: “And it’s a warm welcome for the first time to the programmes of BBC Radio Lincolnshire.”

In 1988 the station commissioned UK jingle producer Alfasound to compose a jingle package based on the traditional English folk song The Lincolnshire Poacher, continuing on this theme until 2006.

Until the end of the 1980s, BBC Radio Lincolnshire did not broadcast during the evening and simulcast BBC Radio 2 from around 7 pm on weekdays and 5 pm at the weekend. However, the end of the 1980s saw BBC Local Radio beginning weeknight programmes with stations broadcasting a mostly regional rather than local with the same programme networked on all the stations in that area. BBC Radio Lincolnshire broadcast its own programmes until 9 pm before joining with the other East Midlands stations to air a late show which broadcast from 9 pm until 12 midnight. However evening programming at the weekend didn’t begin until many years later and the station still handed over to BBC Radio 5 Live mid-evening at the weekend until well into the 2000s.

In 2006, BBC Radio Lincolnshire conducted a six-month trial of XDA pocket-PCs for the BBC, using Technica Del Arte’s Luci mobile (on the hoof) interviewing application.

It used to have a BBC Bus, until licence fee cutbacks in early 2008 forced budget priorities to be streamlined.

On 15 January 2018, BBC Radio Lincolnshire stopped broadcasting on MW.