The Basingstoke relay station has transmitted BBC FM network radio services since October 1995, and is situated above the village of Cliddesden, to the south of the town. The service area is a very narrow beam centred on the town centre. Consequently transmissions fade rapidly as one travels away from the site in any other direction but north. The Band II transmitting aerials are formed of two log-periodics, and the station receives its input feed by off air reception of the Oxford main station about 40 miles to the north. The aerial for this is the horizontally polarised array half-way up the mast.
Local radio service Kestrel FM is provided from Fanum House (The AA's headquarters) this can be seen from the site. The town's other ILR station, 2-Ten FM comes from the Hannington TV transmitter, 7 miles NW of the town.
After over a year of planning wrangles with the local council, Arqiva have finally installed a 1kW transmitter for the local DAB service, NOW-Reading (12D). It entered service on 12th September 2005. Digital One DAB followed on 14th August 2006, with BBC DAB from 6th December 2013. |
