GEM AM
| Broadcast area | Nottingham and Derby |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 999 kHz in Nottingham 945 kHz in Derby DAB in Leicester and Nottingham |
| First air date | 4 October 1988 |
| Format | Oldies |
| Owner | Classic Gold Digital (UBC) |
Solid Gold GEM AM (later Classic Gold GEM-AM) was a United Kingdom radio station, broadcasting to much of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland and East Staffordshire from studios in Nottingham, and later Dunstable, Bedfordshire.
The station ran as Solid Gold GEM AM until the mid-1990s when it was absorbed into the rest of the Classic Gold network, and was replaced on 3 August 2007 by a new network called simply Gold. The result of the merger of the Classic Gold and Capital Gold networks under one owner, GCap Media. The GEM name has since re-emerged with the launch of the Internet station Solid Gold Gem AM in 2012.
The station began as GEM-AM in 1988 (the letters GEM standing for Great East Midlands). It was one of the most well-regarded gold-formatted stations to come to the British airwaves in the late 1980s and was launched as a response to government disapproval of the simulcasting of radio companies' FM programming on their mediumwave frequencies. GEM was the offshoot of Radio Trent, which began to cater for a younger audience and became known as Trent FM upon the frequency split, and the new AM service was launched to much fanfare with a team of Olympic style runners completing a marathon from Leicester to Derby and finally to Nottingham (the three main areas to which GEM was to broadcast).
GEM's medium wave broadcasts to Nottinghamshire on 999 kHz and Derbyshire on 945 kHz were initially supplemented by transmissions on 1260 kHz to Leicestershire, but this last frequency was later given over to programming for Leicester's large Asian population (Sunrise Radio later Sabras Radio).
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