Qualla: 102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire

102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Waterborough, CC BY-SA 3.0. Bethany Chapel in Pembroke is not the kind of building you would expect to launch a radio station. It is small, plain, and Welsh-Methodist in temperament. But in the summer of 1999, two men named Keri Jones and Stephen Cole carried equipment inside, hung up some banners reading Haven FM, and started broadcasting to anyone within range of a temporary 30-day trial licence. Pembrokeshire had never had a local commercial radio station of its own. Listeners noticed immediately - and when the test broadcast ended, Jones and Cole asked them to lobby the Radio Authority for a permanent licence. It worked. Three years later, 102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire went on the air.

Image: Waterborough | CC BY-SA 3.0

102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire: From Trial to Licence

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Restricted Service Licences in Britain are the broadcasting equivalent of pop-up shops: short-term, low-power, time-limited. Haven FM ran one in the summer of 1999, another in November and December of the same year, and two more during 2000. Each round built audience and politica...

Image: Public domain

102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire: Narberth, Not Haverfordwest

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The original plan was studios in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire's county town. But the founders could not find a suitable building, and the station ended up nine miles east, at the Old School Estate in Narberth - close enough to the Carmarthenshire border that it could share resour...

Image: Public domain

102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire: The Move East

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Ownership shifted in 2006 when the founders sold to Town and Country Broadcasting, the company that would later become Nation Broadcasting. The new owners ran the station from Narberth for another decade. Then, in September 2016, Nation Broadcasting announced it was consolidating...

Image: Public domain

102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire: What It Sounds Like Now

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Today the station broadcasts on 102.5 FM, 107.5 FM, and DAB, with most programming shared across Radio Pembrokeshire, Radio Carmarthenshire, and Bridge FM in Bridgend. The music is chart pop from the 1980s onward. Presenter-led shows run from 6 am to 7 pm on weekdays, with shorte...

Image: Public domain