Radio station in Exeter
Radio Exe (formerly Exeter FM) is an Independent Local Radio station based in Exeter, Devon, England.[1]
As of September 2023, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 38,000, according to RAJAR.[2]
History
Exeter FM launched on 18 February 2008 as part of the London-based Sunrise Radio Group.
In June 2011, the station was taken over by Exe Broadcasting Ltd, a new company owned by local broadcaster Paul Nero. The station relaunched as Radio Exe on Tuesday 10 January 2012 at 7:55 am, when breakfast presenter Ben Clark played Billy Joel’s 'River of Dreams'.
In August 2016, Devon Radio Ltd, owned fully by Celador Radio, sold their 40% share in Radio Exe. This also led to the resignation of Paul Smith, a director of the station who is also the chairman of Celador, resulting in the station becoming 100% locally controlled and owned.[4]
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the station launched an emergency fundraising drive to keep the station local due to a lack of advertising revenue and other factors. The fundraiser was successful with £45,919 raised.
In January 2023, the Radio Today website reported that 16-year-old Josh Tate, who reads the sports news for the station, was believed to be the UK's youngest newsreader.[5] Tate subsequently made an appearance on Matt Chorley's show on Times Radio, where he was invited to read the midday news.[6]
Digital radio
Radio Exe broadcasts its primary DAB service on the NOWdigital local digital multiplex serving south and north Devon; added in 2017,[7] the move brought the station's output to listeners across much of the county, including those areas of North Devon which the multiplex had been expanded to cover in 2012.[8]
On 4 March 2022, Radio Exe launched on the Plymouth DAB multiplex. This move expanded its coverage to encompass the whole of West Devon.[9]
In 2020, Ofcom advertised a smallscale local DAB multiplex for Exeter (as part of a range of new such multiplexes being commissioned across the country). The Exeter licence was won by ExeDAB, a consortium of Radio Exe, Exeter community station Phonic FM and Torbay community service Riviera FM.[10] This multiplex began broadcasting in November 2022.
In 2022, Ofcom advertised a similar multiplex for Torbay. TorDAB, a consortium of Radio Exe, online station South Devon Radio and newspaper publisher Clear Sky Publishing competed for the franchise against a rival consortium including Riviera FM, Like Media and UK DAB Networks Ltd, a firm which manages several other of the smallscale licences around the UK.[11] In January 2023 TorDAB was awarded the licence.[12]
In March 2023 a smallscale multiplex to serve Plymouth was awarded to PlymDAB Ltd, a firm backed by Radio Exe[13] in partnership with Exeter Community Radio Ltd, Hospital Radio Plymouth and Westward Media Ltd[14] - this was chosen by Ofcom in preference to a rival bid (Plymouth DAB Ltd) whose backers included Like Media and UK DAB Networks, with Riviera FM a minority stakeholder.[15]
The PlymDAB and TorDAB multiplexes both went live in early November 2023.[16]
On August 22, 2023, Radio Exe launched a spin-off DAB+ and Internet service, Radio Exemas, which carries exclusively festive music through Epiphany. It is believed to be the first station in the English-speaking world to adopt a full-time Christmas format for the 2023 holiday season.[17]
