Premier Christian Radio

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Premier Christian Radio
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City of license London
Format Contemporary Christian music
Audience share 1.2% (July 2014, RAJAR [1])
Owner Premier Christian Media Trust
Website [3]

Premier Christian Radio is a British Christian radio station, part of Premier (a Christian communications organisation) which is in turn wholly owned by the charity Premier Christian Media Trust.

Premier Christian Radio broadcasts Christian programming including news, debate, teachings and Christian music across the United Kingdom.

It operates on four frequencies on medium wave across six transmitters:[2]

  • 1332 (London)
  • 1305 (Stevenage, Bishops Stortford, Harlow and Hertford; Crawley, Guildford, Reigate and Woking)
  • 1413 (Maidenhead, Camberley, Staines, Harrow, Watford; and Chelmsford, Brentwood, Dartford, Maidstone & Sevenoaks)
  • 1566 (Guildford)

It also broadcasts on the Digital One national DAB multiplex,[3] nationally on Freeview (channel 725), via its website, and via its mobile app.

Broadcasters

Presenters [4] include:

  • Andy Peck
  • Ben Vane
  • Cindy Kent, former singer with the 1960s folk group The Settlers
  • Dave Rose (Station Director)
  • Jeff Lucas
  • John Pantry, 1970s singer and music producer
  • Justin Brierley
  • Lady T
  • Loretta Andrews
  • Marcus Jones (News Editor)
  • Maria Rodrigues
  • Micha Jazz
  • Michael Cleere
  • Michael Fanstone
  • Muyiwa
  • Nage
  • Nick Battle
  • Nicky Gilchrist
  • Pam Rhodes
  • Rick Easter
  • Rosie Wright
  • Ruth Dearnley (CEO Stop the Traffik)
  • Steve Fanstone
  • Tony Miles

Listenership

Premier Christian Radio's supporters come from many different Christian denominations, including those from the Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Evangelical, Methodist and Pentecostal Churches.[5]

In 2004 The Times placed Premier Christian Radio at number one in a chart of the "most upmarket stations" based upon the percentage of its audience (81%) that is ABC1.[6] In the quarter ending June 2010 the station was receivable by 10,983,000 people; 143,000 listened, for an average of 12 hours each, 0.80% of all listening hours.[7]

History

Premier Christian Radio was founded in 1994, broadcasting exclusively on MW to a Greater London audience when it also began its telephone counselling service, Lifeline. It took the air at a launch party in Battersea Park, London on 10 June 1995.[8]

A series of magazine titles then joined. The charity currently produces Premier Christianity, Premier Youthwork, Premier Childrenswork and Christian Marketplace.

In 2001, Premier Christian Radio received an official warning from The Radio Authority (the regulatory body for radio at the time) for broadcasting "items that were offensive to people of other, non-Christian beliefs". A "yellow card" warning was issued, recognising that Premier had acknowledged its errors and put in place significant new compliance measures to ensure such breaches would not be repeated.[9]

In the months of April to July 2014 Premier Christian Radio reached its biggest-ever audience in its near twenty years history. RAJAR figures showed a weekly reach for the period of 240,700 people in London and the South East, and also showed that each listener tuned in for an average of 10.1 hours each week.[10] This boost followed on from a rebranding exercise in the beginning of 2014 and a new website which included listen-again features and breaking news.

Availability

Premier Christian Radio was at first only available on medium wave in London. It later added broadcasts on the internet, Freeview channel 725,(UK and Ireland), Sky Digital (channel 0123, terminated 14 December 2012), Virgin Media (channel 968, terminated 6 May 2009) and London DAB - a national DAB broadcast was added later.[11] In 2006, the media group launched Premier.tv, one of the first Christian IPTV channels in the UK.

Its 2007 application for a national DAB licence, as part of the National Grid Wireless consortium, was refused; Premier Radio said "almost 72,000 Premier listeners stepped up and made their voices heard in supporting the bid".[12] In August 2009, Premier achieved its target of meeting the £650,000 yearly fee to broadcast on the national Digital One DAB multiplex and launched on the multiplex on 21 September 2009.[3]

Premier Gospel was launched as a DAB spin-off station in 2010, taking the London DAB slot vacated by the parent service's move to D1.[13]

A second sister station, Premier Praise!, playing contemporary Christian pop and rock, launched on 27 March 2016 as part of the Sound Digital national DAB multiplex. It will be available on SDL alongside the core Premier service, which completes its migration over from Digital 1 to SDL in April.

References

  1. :: Rajar
  2. Aircheck: Kent
  3. 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. http://www.premierchristianradio.com/Presenters
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  7. RAJAR listening figures
  8. [1], The Tablet, On The Air, 17 June 1995
  9. Notes of Radio Authority Meeting, Radio Authority, 4 October 2001.
  10. [2], RAJAR, Q2 2014 Figures.
  11. http://www.premierradio.org.uk/listen.aspx
  12. "Disappointing news", Premier website. Retrieved 8 January 2008. Archived at the Internet Archive
  13. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links