Uckfield FM

Uckfield FM first launched at 8:00am on Monday, 23 July 2003.

The temporary studio was situated within a storage and office area at The Picture House Cinema in Uckfield High Street. The station broadcast on 87.9FM and online, subsequent temporary broadcasts took place on the same frequency.

The station broadcast each Summer in support of the Festival by way of a 28-day Restricted Service Licence until 2009.

During the station's time at The Picture House presenters were live 24 hours a day, to allow for access when the cinema was closed, plus the playout system didn't support broadcast automation.

Uckfield Community Radio Limited was formed in late 2006. The station moved to the current premises at Bird In Eye Farm in early 2007. Summer broadcasts resumed from the new location that summer.

Additional 21 day broadcasts took place during December 2007 and 2008, to support Uckfield's Late Night Shopping event.

An application was submitted to OFCOM in November 2008 for a Community Radio License.[1]

The initial community radio licence for full time broadcasting was awarded on 22 July 2009,[2] just after the final Restricted Service Licence broadcast ended.

Full time broadcasting commenced at 1.05pm (to mark the current frequency of 105FM) on Thursday 1 July 2010. Then Uckfield Town Mayor John Carvey officially cut the ribbon. Community radio stations in the United Kingdom are required to set out key commitments.[3]

The station was initially branded as 105 Uckfield FM. This has since been largely dropped from the station's imaging and the name is referred to as just Uckfield FM.

The schedule was adjusted in March 2020 due to COVID-19.

During usual live broadcast hours from 7am until 10pm, additional programmes of (usually) one hour have been introduced between programmes being broadcast from Bird In Eye Farm.

This is to allow for cleaning of studio equipment and to maintain social distancing.

These additional programmes are generally voice-tracked by regular presenters from other locations.

The community radio licence is valid for 5 years. The initial license was valid until 2015.

Although Uckfield FM was one of a number of community radio stations who had certain Key Commitments investigated by OFCOM in late 2014,[4] the licence was extended from 2015 to 2020.

A further extension was confirmed in 2020 for a further 5 years until 2025.

Regular guests on the station include MPs Nus Ghani (Wealden) and Maria Caulfield (Lewes).

BBC Radio 2 newsreader John Marsh lives locally and has been a long term supporter of the station has been a guest a number of times. Marsh returned in 2016 as part of the tributes to Terry Wogan alongside Mike Skinner (Wogan had offered regular publicity during the early years of the station on Wake Up to Wogan). The tribute also featured on BBC South East Today.

Other notable guests include Henry Blofeld, Carlo Curley, Paul Carrack, Michaela Strachan, Gretchen Peters, Frank Ifield, John Wheeler, Wayne Horsburgh, Chloe Paige and Kerry Katona.

On 28 February 2020, during the global coronavirus crisis, Uckfield FM allowed a supposed 'registered nurse' to deliver a 20 minute section on unproven theories about how 5G causes coronavirus. After multiple complaints to OFCOM, the station was warned for its actions and ordered to take actions for allowing unproven theories to be aired without guests being 'sufficiently challenged'. The 'registered nurse' was found to be a proponent of alternative medicine and did not have any medical qualifications whatsoever.[5][6][7][8]

The station broadcasts special programmes from events within Uckfield and the surrounding villages throughout the year.

Key events include The Big Day (generally the first Saturday of the annual Uckfield Festival in July). Uckfield Carnival which takes place on the first Saturday in September and The Christmas Late Night Shopping event on the first Friday in December.