Free Radio Herefordshire & Worcestershire
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| Broadcast area | Herefordshire and Worcestershire |
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| Slogan | All the biggest hits - All day long |
| Frequency |
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| First air date | 4 October 1982 |
| Format | CHR |
| Audience share | 8.5% (September 2012, [2]) |
| Owner | Bauer Radio |
| Website | planetradio |
Free Radio Herefordshire & Worcestershire (formerly Radio Wyvern) is an Independent Local Radio station serving Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The station, owned and operated by Bauer Radio, broadcasts from studios in Worcester on 96.7, 97.6, and 102.8 FM, and is part of the Bauer City 1 network.
Radio Wyvern originally went on-air on 4 October 1982. The original Wyvern name derived from the River Wye and River Severn, the rivers running through Hereford and Worcester respectively (the name was proposed in the 1970s for what would become the county of Hereford and Worcester). The initial Presentation team consisted of Sammy Southall at Breakfast, Roy Leonard in the morning, Graham Hughes in the afternoon and rock shows, and Mike George at drivetime. Weekend presenters included Jeff Roberts, Rob Yarnold and Bob Lee. Managing Director from 1984 until 1996 was Norman Bilton who joined Wyvern from Two Counties Radio in Bournemouth and Metro Radio in Newcastle.
In its early days, the station opened at 6am (7am on Sundays) and closed at 8pm, before it extended broadcasting hours to 24 hours a day by joining up with Beacon Radio from 10pm and then a wider network of Midlands stations from 1am. Radio Wyvern took the SuperStation overnight service in the late 1980s, and when that closed abruptly, a local Late Show was introduced, with the overnight output from 1am shared with BRMB and Mercia FM.
The station has played host to many well-known broadcasters over the years. Neil Fox began his professional broadcasting career here in 1984, and the line Wyvern News, this is Howard Hughes became very familiar to listeners. Rich Edwards, who joined in the very early days, presented on Classic Hits until its abrupt closure in 2007. David Holdsworth, now with the BBC was the station's News Editor, and Eleanor Oldroyd, now with Five Live, was a member of the Sport team. Several of the original presenters including Mike George, Graham Hughes, and Roy Leonard went on to long careers with BBC radio and television.
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