disambiguation . coordinates 54 55 06 n 1 25 12 w 54.91839 n 1.419921 w 54.91839 ; 1.419921 sun fm broadcast area sunderland frequency fm 103.4 mhz first air date 5 july 1995 format contemporary audience share 13.2 % june 2013 rajar owner the local radio company ukrd group website www.sun fm.com sun fm is a radio station serving the city of sunderland and also available in tyne and wear northern parts of county durham in england . it broadcasts on the frequency 103.4 mhz and plays a mix of contemporary and classic popular music alongside local news travel and covered ground breaking dance music in the early 90 s. contents 1 wear fm 2 from sun city 103.4 to sun fm 3 today 4 programming 5 references 6 external links wear fm edit the station now known as sun fm was launched in 1990 as wear fm sunderland community radio association was initially led by pieta o shaughessey . the station gained international acclaim for its community programming and social inclusion and won the sony award for uk radio station of the year in 1992 . covering durham and sunderland the station faced competition for its licence when it reapplied for it in february 1994 from the wearside broadcasting company . although the licence was retained times were not good at the station tension between management and staff led to a walkout in early march of that year . they felt that due to their base being at the university of sunderland a takeover by the same was imminent . the university made various attempts to save the station but legislation prevented a public body owning the station and a commercial buyer was sought . wear fm ceased transmissions in 1995 when it was taken over by the minster sound group who relaunched the station as sun city fm . wear fm s studios in the foster building were taken over by the university of sunderland . wear fm sport mainly broadcast on a saturday morning from 8am to noon . this programme was produced and written by gary ellwood and presented by graeme anderson . the programme covered all aspects of sport within wearside . the sunderland afc hour from 11 am was its most popular item . probably the first and only audio fanzine for a football club . wear fm presenters the god squad among the presentation and production team were barry wilson from peterlee and neville whitehead from shiney row . their main contribution was to the sunday breakfast show which covered faith and moral values . their aim was to appeal to a wide section of population by the varied style of religious music available and interview various people from all walks of life . they were also noted for attracting celebrities to their show including cliff richard harry secombe and jan graveson . barry moved to nottingham and spent 7 years working on bbc radio nottingham s thought for the day . other team members included tom davies toby tyler graeme anderson john watson karen wheeler jerry stevens lee thompson lisa steele julie donaldson rose wheeler richard kell stephen wilson dave barrass leon bateman karen dent and paul wappat . from sun city 103.4 to sun fm edit sun city took over when wear fm ceased broadcasting in 1995 . sun city 103.4 s operator was financially penalised in that year by the radio authority for not coming up with elements of their promise of performance an agreement which formed part of their licence remit and not offering a balanced argument with options of sadism and the occult . a sale to border radio holdings owners of the century brand followed with a new name of sun city fm . in january 1999 brian lister joined what was then sun fm in sunderland as managing director . sun fm was wholly owned by border radio and later became part of the capital radio group when they acquired border radio in april 2000 . granada tv acquired the border tv business for 50m with the total deal of 146m to allow capital radio to hold on to the radio business . it was scottish radio holdings that proved strong competition in the process with srh bidding 141m but failing with an increased offer from the london based business . later with capital streamlining their businesses and focusing on large area based stations part of their capital cities portfolio radio investments limited purchased sun fm and its handling company bucks broadcasting in march 2001 . this sale also included the other group station mix 96 in aylesbury . capital along with sales of its 30 % share in wolverhampton s the wolf to forever broadcasting netted around 9.5 cash in the deals . brian lister continued his work with ril and was appointed group development director in july 2001 responsible for licence applications and development work around the uk . he later left what became known as the local radio company and is now a freelance consultant but still with a close working relationship with tlrc . today edit today sun fm plays chart hits and oldies and provides local news sport and information on 103.4 fm from its sunderland based studios reaching southwards through its designated broadcast area to washington ryhope houghton le spring and murton and outwards to newcastle south shields chester le street and durham itself . in 2009 and moving on into 2010 sun fm is under new ownership after the ukrd tlrc ownership bid was successful . programming edit the majority of programming is presented locally and live from sun fm in sunderland with overnight output 0000 0600 and weekday sunday nights 2200 0000 automated . the vodafone big top 40 is syndicated from capital in leicester square london . references edit external links edit official website sun fm listen online v t e city of sunderland tyne and wear education academy 360 argyle house school biddick academy castle view enterprise academy espa college farringdon community academy grindon hall christian school hetton school kepier school monkwearmouth academy oxclose community academy red house academy st aidan s catholic academy st anthony s girls catholic academy st robert of newminster catholic school sandhill view academy southmoor academy sunderland college sunderland high school thornhill school university of sunderland venerable bede church of england academy washington school places of interest sunderland museum and winter gardens stadium of light penshaw monument national glass centre sunderland empire theatre st peter s church monkwearmouth sunderland international airshow washington old hall monkwearmouth station museum sunderland aquatic centre the bridges wwt washington keel square new wear bridge local media sunderland echo sun fm spark fm twinned places essen saint nazaire washington d.c. harbin sport sunderland a.f.c. sunderland ladies v t e ukrd group radio 96.4 eagle radio eagle3 eagle extra kl.fm 96.7 pirate fm pirate 2 star radio cambridge and ely former tlrc stations 2br minster fm mix 96 spire fm spirit fm star radio north east stray fm sun fm wessex fm yorkshire coast radio dab multiplexes muxco north yorkshire muxco surrey & sussex south west digital radio other ukrd support & development first radio sales heart south devon itsmymarket.com savebuckets.com former assets 107 the bee merged with 2br arrow fm central 103.1 fm dune fm isle of wight radio ivel fm nova radio pennine fm 106.9 silk fm sovereign fm the quay vale fm 107.3 abbey fm closed mix 107 closed v t e radio stations in north east england major stations bbc newcastle bbc tees capital heart metro radio radio borders smooth star radio sun fm tfm community radio ne1fm radio hartlepool radio sunderland for hospitals radio teesdale spark fm spice fm student radio click teesside newcastle student radio purple radio pirate radio radio 270 dab multiplexes metro radio 2 real radio xs tfm 2 defunct stations alpha radio durham fm great north radio minster northallerton radio tees tynedale fm retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sun fm & oldid 736932336 categories the local radio companyradio stations in north east englandcity of sunderlandradio stations established in 1990hidden categories use dmy dates from august 2012use british english from august 2012coordinates on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 30 august 2016 at 19 27 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy 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