BBC Radio Devon

BBC Radio Devon started broadcasting on 17 January 1983, replacing the BBC Radio 4 regional breakfast show Morning Sou'West. On the same day, BBC Radio Cornwall started broadcasting, as did BBC Breakfast television.

When broadcasting started, the new studios in Exeter had not yet been finished, so BBC Radio Devon was broadcast from portable cabins for the first few weeks. The Exeter studios were officially opened by Alastair Milne, then Director-General of the BBC, on 30 September 1983.[2]

The then new Exeter studio centre at Walnut Gardens on St Davids Hill had the latest in BBC broadcasting technology. The studios were made up of Mark III desks, which were built in-house by BBC engineers and first designed in the 1970s. The studio complex in Exeter consisted of the traditional BBC Local Radio Mark III set up, which saw three studios in a row - two broadcast ‘cubicles’ as they were known, either side of a centre talk-show style studio, which was home to the news programmes Good Morning Devon and Good Evening Devon. The desks were in use from 1983 until August 2015, when the original Exeter studios were closed and relocated to smaller premises on the outskirts of the city at Pynes Hill. [3] Since 2021, the Exeter studio and office is now located within the Exeter College building on Queen Street.[4]

BBC Radio Devon has reporters based in Exeter, Plymouth, Paignton and Barnstaple and the Plymouth newsroom is shared with the BBC's regional TV news programme Spotlight. The station has won several Sony Awards for its programming.[2]

Radio Devon is broadcast on the following radio frequencies (transmitter location in brackets):

• FM:
  • 94.8 MHz in Barnstaple (Huntshaw Cross)
  • 95.7 MHz in Plymouth (Plympton)
  • 95.8 MHz in Exeter (St. Thomas)
  • 96.0 MHz in Okehampton
  • 103.4 MHz in Devon and East Cornwall (North Hessary Tor)
  • 104.3 MHz in Torbay, Torquay and the South Hams (Beacon Hill)
• DAB:
  • 10C in Central and North Devon
  • 11C in East Devon, Exeter and Torbay
  • 12D in Plymouth and South Devon

The station also broadcasts on Freeview TV channel 720 in the BBC South West region and streams online via BBC Sounds.

Radio Devon previously broadcast on 855 kHz in Plymouth; these transmissions ceased in 2007 and the frequency was used for a trial of Digital Radio Mondiale services, though these trials ultimately did not lead to DRM going into permanent service in the UK.[5][6]

The station was broadcast on 1458 kHz in the Torbay area until the transmitter closed on 15 January 2018.[7]

The station's other AM transmissions, 801 kHz in North Devon (Barnstaple) and 990 kHz in Exeter, ceased after the 11 am news bulletin on 3 August 2021.[8][9] They were originally slated to cease in June 2021, but this was postponed.[10][11]

Local programming is produced and broadcast from the BBC's Plymouth studios from 6 am to 1 am on Sundays, from 6 am to 2pm on weekdays and from 6 am to 6 pm on Saturdays.

Some of the station's off-peak evening output is simulcast with sister stations in the BBC South West and BBC West regions.

During the station's downtime, BBC Radio Devon simulcasts overnight programming from BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio London.

• Official website

50.3861°N 4.1266°W / 50.3861; -4.1266