Analogue and digital television • The station was originally constructed by the BBC during the early 1960s to provide the BBC's VHF/FM national and regional radio networks and the BBC-TV service on
405-line VHF to the city of Oxford and the surrounding area. The mast carried a two-tier
Band I array above a six-tier slot array for
Band II FM. A smaller 150-foot tower in the western corner of the site carried receiving aerials. • The station was extended in 1968, having been chosen as a suitable site for high power colour
UHF transmissions, which entered service on 17 February 1968 carrying
BBC Two.
BBC One followed in May 1970 and
ITV (ATV) in June of the same year.
Channel 4 was carried from launch day in November 1982. The
effective radiated power (ERP) of these four analogue TV transmissions was 500 kW • In 1997, the station began analogue transmissions of
Channel 5 at an ERP of only 40 kW. The lower power was necessary to avoid co-channel interference with other transmitters sharing this frequency in the surrounding areas. • The Oxford transmitter was included in the first 81 transmitters to carry the
UK digital terrestrial television service when it was launched in the UK on 15 November 1998. Six digital
multiplex signals were transmitted at low power from the station in addition to the five existing analogue television services. • In 1999, the station began analogue transmissions of Oxford's
RSL local station,
The Oxford Channel, on low-power. At this time the Oxford transmitting site carried a total
12 television transmissions, six analogue services, and six digital multiplexes. • On 28 September 2011 all the analogue television services at Oxford transmitter were switched off as part of the
UK Digital Switch Over project. Three of the frequencies (uhf channels 53, 57 and 60) that had been used for the analogue service were transferred to the digital television service at high power (100 kW). The remaining three multiplex signals continued to be operated at lower power until the completion of switchover on 18 April 2012 when their power was increased to 50 kW. At the same time the highest frequency multiplex, on uhf channel 62, was moved to channel 50 as part of the UK scheme to clear the
800 MHz frequency band for use by mobile 4G services.
Television coverage area The coverage area provided by the digital television service is roughly the same as that provided by the analogue service. The transmitting station covers
Oxfordshire, western
Buckinghamshire, small parts of southwestern
Northamptonshire, small parts of eastern
Gloucestershire and northern parts of
Berkshire and
Wiltshire. This includes cities and towns such as
Oxford,
Milton Keynes,
Banbury,
Swindon,
Aylesbury,
Buckingham,
Brackley,
Didcot,
Abingdon,
Goring and
Stow-on-the-Wold. It is sometimes called the
Beckley mast, a reference to an adjacent village, or the
Otmoor mast, this referring to the area on which it is located. Oxford has 5 relay stations which are located in
Chipping Norton, Charlbury,
Icomb,
Guiting Power, and Ascott under Wychwood. From 2006, a new non-franchise regional news area
ITV Thames Valley was provided from the ITV Meridian studios at
Whiteley, Hampshire. This programme was replaced in February 2009, in a cost-saving reorganisation, by ITV Meridian's
Meridian Tonight. However,
Central Independent Television remained the licensee and broadcaster until 2014, when it was formally transferred to ITV Meridian.
Analogue radio • The Oxford site started transmitting four BBC VHF/FM services (the
BBC Light Programme,
BBC Third Programme,
BBC Home Service, Midlands, and
BBC Home Service, South & West) on 28 May 1962. The transmissions were horizontally polarised as they were intended mainly for fixed rooftop aerials. With an ERP of 22 kW the transmitter covered the whole of Oxfordshire and much of the surrounding adjacent counties.
Digital radio • When the BBC launched its
Digital Radio national service on 27 December 1997 the Oxford transmitter was included in the network to provide coverage to Oxfordshire and to boost the coverage to surrounding areas. The first national commercial network,
Digital One, was added to the transmitter on 23 September 1999 and a second national commercial network,
Sound Digital on 29 February 2016. • On 21 December 2012 Now Digital, a local digital radio multiplex owned and operated by
Arqiva, started transmission from the Oxford site. It provides a mix of local and national radio stations to a population of some 610,000 in the city of Oxford and surrounding area.
May 2010 incident On 13 May 2010 the digital and analogue television transmitters (except
Channel 5) went off the air at about 13:20
UTC following an incident when smoke was seen drifting from the top of the mast. The fire service reported that there had been an intense fire and that the cause was unknown. Engineering work to reinstate service began once fire crews left and the mast was made safe. Transmissions were restored via the reserve transmitter at reduced power by 20:30 UTC. The incident occurred during testing of a new main antenna which had been installed during the previous few months in readiness for the proposed
digital switchover. Investigation into the cause of the fire established that it was damaged beyond repair and a replacement was installed by the end of September 2010. ==Services transmitted since June 2018 – listed by frequency ==