Free Radio (network)

Free Radio was a regional group of Independent Local Radio stations in the West Midlands, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Hits Radio network.

The Free Radio brand name was replaced by localised versions of Hits Radio on 17 April 2024.

Free Radio launched on Monday 26 March 2012 as a result of the rebranding of four FM stations – BRMB, Beacon, Mercia and Wyvern.

On Tuesday 4 September 2012, a secondary AM station broadcasting 1980s chart music, Free Radio 80s, was launched.

The four FM stations are now subsumed into the Hits Radio network whilst the AM transmitters, which latterly carried Absolute Classic Rock, ceased broadcasting in April and June 2020.

BRMB began broadcasting to Birmingham and the surrounding areas on 19 February 1974 – the fourth ILR station to launch in the UK and the first station of its kind outside London. Beacon Radio (later Beacon) has served Wolverhampton and the Black Country since 12 April 1976 with its licence area expanded to cover Shropshire in 1987. Mercia Sound (later Mercia) was launched in Coventry and Warwickshire on 23 May 1980, followed by Radio Wyvern (later Wyvern) in Herefordshire and Worcestershire on 4 October 1982.

These stations were initially run independently of each other, although by the late 1980s, BRMB and Mercia were under the ownership of Midlands Radio plc, alongside AM station Xtra AM, which broadcast on both stations' former AM frequencies. The group was bought for £18 million by Capital Radio plc in 1993, who sold Mercia to the GWR Group but retained BRMB. GWR went on to buy Beacon from its holding company BCCL in 1995 and Wyvern FM two years later. The four licences came under the same ownership in 2005 when GWR and Capital merged to form GCap Media.

GCap was taken over in 2007 by Global but the Office of Fair Trading ruled in August 2008 that Global would need to sell off BRMB, Beacon, Mercia, Wyvern and Heart's East Midlands station due to concerns over competition interests. The stations were bought in May 2009 by a consortium led by former Chrysalis Radio chief executive Phil Riley, trading as Orion Media. Heart East Midlands continued to operate under a franchise agreement with Global until January 2011, when the station was rebranded as Gem 106 and replaced most networked output with local programming from Nottingham.