In July 1937 the BBC separated the Welsh and West Regional programmes transmitted from the Washford transmitter. At Washford the National transmitter was changed to transmit the West Regional programme on 1050 kHz. To improve coverage of the West Regional programme, two new transmitters were built at Clevedon and Start Point on the South Devon coast. Both stations entered service on 14-Jun-1939, with Start Point taking over 1050 kHz from Washford with Clevedon transmitting on 1474 kHz which had been used at two of the original 1920’s BBC transmitters at Bournemouth (6BM) and Plymouth (5PY).
This new arrangement was short lived as both Clevedon and Start Point were both closed on 1-Sep-1939 at the start of WW2. During the war the Clevedon transmitter was converted for short wave use. The Home service for the area was transmitted from Washford.
From 29th July 1945, Clevedon resumed domestic use transmitting the West Home Service as before on 1474 kHz. On the 29th September 1946, the frequency changed to 1384 kHz, as 1474 kHz was to be used for the new Third Programme, low power transmitters.
On the 15th March 1950, the frequency changed to 1457 kHz under the Copenhagen plan reorganisation. On the 2nd September 1972, the frequency changed to 908 kHz, as 1457 kHz was now to be used by BBC local radio. On the 23rd November 1978, Clevedon was re-assigned to Radio 2 on 909 kHz, and on the 27th August 1990 this was re-assigned to Radio 5.
Clevedon was initially used to transmit Radio Bristol on 1546 kHz until the service was transferred to Mangotsfield in March 1976. |
