KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country

KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country

Broadcast area	Folkestone, Dover, Deal, Romney Marsh
Slogan	The Music You Want, The News You Need Kent's Music Station
Frequency	96.4 MHz (Shepway) 106.8 MHz (Dover) RDS: __KMFM__
First air date	29 September 1997
Format	Adult contemporary music
Audience share	7.7% [1] (RAJAR Q1 2008, [1])
Owner	KM Group
Website	www.kmfm.co.uk/shepway

KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country is an Independent Local Radio serving the districts of Dover and Shepway and the surrounding areas in Kent, South East England. It is part of the KMFM group of radio stations in the county, which are part of the KM Group.

The station has been referred to by many names. Its official name is "KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country", however the website describes it as "KMFM Dover and Folkestone", and on air it was referred to as "Shepway's KMFM".

History

KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country launched on 29 September 1997 as Neptune Radio, broadcasting on 96.4 and 106.8 FM after a month-long trial concluded earlier that same morning.

The station's roots extend to the 1970s, where it began as pirate radio station Channel Radio, which only broadcast in the Dover area. Run by Dover native Eddie Austin, who previously worked at Radio Caroline, the station was fined numerous times, but Austin maintained it until the town received its own radio license.^[2]

The station emerged as a combination of two stations broadcasting through the 1990s^[2] – "Shepway Sound" in Folkestone (broadcasting November–December 1993, and August 1994),^[3] and "White Cliffs Sound" in Dover (broadcasting May 1994 and August 1995^[3]). Austin and his group, South East Radio, applied for the licences for Shepway and White Cliffs Country in 1996 and were awarded the licence for both areas in January 1997.^[3] The new station was rebranded as Neptune Radio due to the station's proximity to the English Channel.

The station won the UK Radio Station of the Year award twice, in 1999 and 2000,^[3] and reached approximately 30,000 listeners each week (a 24% share of the audience). After being bought by Radio Investments Ltd, its successful format was applied to its sister stations Arrow FM in Hastings and Sovereign Radio in Eastbourne. A group, spearheaded by Neptune Radio disc jockey Mark Carter, also applied for the Ashford licence under the name Ashford FM, but they did not gain the licence.

The station was purchased by the KM Group in 2001 and started programme sharing at weekends with other KM-owned stations in Kent. It was subsequently re-branded to KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country in 2003. The KM Group relocated the station from premises on Church Street in Dover to their Folkestone offices for the Kentish Express in Sandgate Road.^[2]

The company was reawarded the licence for the station in July 2008.^[4] In April 2009, KMFM were granted permission by Ofcom to move the studios to their building in Ashford, although the sales team remains in Folkestone.^[5]

In June 2010 the Breakfast Show was presented live from the Folkestone Multi-Cultural Festival with several guests and show crew.

Like the rest of the KMFM network, the station was relaunched in September 2010 with new jingles, schedule changes and more emphasis on music.

Programming

The station currently broadcasts locally to Dover and Shepway (from Ashford) during weekday breakfast. All other output is networked across the KMFM network.

Until 2007 KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country produced its own programmes during daytimes, before it joined up with KMFM Ashford to network all programmes other than breakfast. The stations joined together with KMFM Canterbury and KMFM Thanet to create an East Kent network in April 2009,^[6] before all programmes apart from weekday/Saturday breakfast and Sunday afternoons were networked across all KMFM stations in September 2009.^[7] In July 2010, Saturday breakfast and Sunday afternoons became networked.

News bulletins come from the KMFM News Centre during peak times, on the hour and every half-hour between 7am - 9am and 4pm - 6pm. Traffic and travel updates are broadcast just before the hour, and every 15 minutes between 7am - 9am and 4pm - 7pm.

Presenters

Local presenters

• Adam Dowling

Networked presenters

• Nigel Ansell
• Tony Blackburn
• Adam Dowling
• Neil Faraday
• Si Kennett
• Bob Mower
• Kirstyn Reed
• Mike Russell
• Myma Seldon
• Benedict Smith
• Andy Walker
• John "Webbo" Webster

Former presenters

• Eddie Austin^[3]
• Dave "Davey B" Bethall
• Mark Carter^[8]
• Spencer Cork^[9]
• Vanessa Elms
• Nigel Harris
• Louis Hurst
• Emma Lee^[10]
• Johnny Lewis
• Toby Mackenzie
• Paul Pearson
• Neil Redding
• benedict Smith
• Tim Stewart^[11]
• Richard Walters^[12]
• Rob Wills
• Adam Wolstenholme
• Jonathan "LJ" Young

References

1. ^ KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country at MediaUK
2. ^ ^{a b c} Aircheck UK: Kent
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} "History of Radio in Dover & Neptune Radio" by Eddie Austin
4. ^ KMFM secures two licences
5. ^ Room for another KMFM in Ashford
6. ^ Agreed Change of Format: KMFM West Kent and Maidstone (Page 2)
7. ^ KMFM to share more programming
8. ^ An application to Ofcom for the Independent Local Radio Licence for Ashford and the surrounding area (Page 6)
9. ^ spencercork.com
10. ^ Aircheck Downloads
11. ^ Tim Stewart (1957 - 2009) KMFM News
12. ^ Full Career History - richardwalters.co.uk

External links

• KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country
• Dover Soul Community Website Includes Histories of Local Radio in Kent