BBC Wiltshire celebrated 30 years on-air with a live Outside Broadcast at Swindon College, with presenter Ben Prater & the Breakfast team remembering the 1980s. On the anniversary, Station Editor Mary Sanders said: “It’s been wonderful for BBC Wiltshire to spend the last 30 years at the heart of the community in Swindon and Wiltshire – covering major news events and celebrating the incredible achievements of people living in the county. “As well as the big stand out moments, listeners talk to us every day and have a wonderful connection with our presenters. They share stories they haven’t told anyone else; they laugh with us; they cry with us and they inspire us to make great radio for them. We hope our listeners enjoy celebrating this 30th year with us, and we look forward to the next 30!” The station started life as BBC Wiltshire Sound on 4th April 1989, and not the usual BBC local radio format of ‘Radio + County Name’, due to GWR owning the copyright of Wiltshire and Radio in any combination. The first presenter heard on air was Paul Chantler, whilst original presenter Graham Seaman remains on-air to this day, hosting weekday lunchtimes.
(Source: BBC; RadioToday; BBC Radio Wiltshire)

This article was featured in the June 2019 issue of Radio User.