Mansfield - Media

Media

The local newspaper is the Chad (Formerly Chronicle Advertiser). Mansfield is home to one radio station, Mansfield 103.2 broadcast from the Fishpond Hill transmitting station on Skegby Lane which also broadcasts Mansfield versions of the Nottingham stations Radio Nottingham and Capital FM on 95.5 and 96.5 FM respectively.

DAB broadcasts from Fishpond's Hill began on 21 July 2006 with the NOW Nottingham multiplex, subsequently the Digital One and BBC National muxes were also added (during 2006-07) to give excellent digital radio reception across the town.

Television reception in Mansfield however is a different story. Television reception has often been poor due to the location of the town being between regions. Historically Mansfield has been part of the BBC North and Yorkshire Television region. Between 20 December 1965 and 30 July 1974 some homes in Mansfield received Anglia Television (until Belmont began transmitting Yorkshire Television).

Since the arrival of Diamond Cable (formerly ntl, and now Virgin Media) in 1995, BBC East Midlands and Central East were provided and since regionalisation of SKY digital, Mansfield is classified as 'North Midlands', meaning many residents can now watch BBC East Midlands which is the default region for this area and appears on channel 101. Channel 103 shows ITV Yorkshire East.

The Belmont transmitter provides the best reception to most of the town offering analogue and digital TV and is the most frequently used transmitter in the town providing BBC East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire and ITV Yorkshire (East)

Emley Moor is also receivable and in some areas of the town offers better reception than Belmont, providing BBC Yorkshire & North Midlands and Yorkshire Television (West).

While Yorkshire Television's news programme "Calendar" still covers Mansfield, BBC Look North has for many years refused to cover the town, insisting that Mansfield belongs in the BBC East Midlands region (though few homes get acceptable terrestrial reception of BBC East Midlands). This was highlighted when the celebrations for Rebecca Adlington's success at the Beijing olympics, although recorded by East Midlands Today, were shown on both East Midlands Today and Look North so that all Mansfield residents could see them.

Many homes have dual aerials with one pointing at Belmont (or in some places Emley Moor) and the other at Waltham (East Midlands), the latter which usually gives a far inferior picture quality but was often used in the days when ITV had more regional variations so that Mansfield folk could keep up with local news and sport. Dual aerial systems are being removed as they will not work for reception of digital terrestrial TV (until after switchover in 2011), in addition to the East Midlands variations being available through cable and satellite but many still remain from the 1990s and late 1980s.

Other transmitters serving Mansfield include:

Emley Moor- BBC Yorkshire & Yorkshire (West)

Sutton Coldfield- BBC Midlands & Central (West) and

Bilsdale- BBC North East & Tyne Tees (South)

All three transmitters provide good signals across the town, in many cases providing superior reception to Waltham. With the correct aerial it is also possible to pick up Granada Television from Winter Hill, though the picture is usually very poor quality.

During an episode of CBBC's 'Dick n Dom in Da Bungalow', one of their games which consisted of sticking pictures of themselves on the backs of members of the public, was broadcast from West Gate in Mansfield.