Wrekin transmitting station marks 50 years of broadcasting across Shropshire

The Wrekin transmitting station, one of the region’s most familiar broadcast landmarks, is marking 50 years of continuous service to communities across Shropshire, the West Midlands and parts of Wales.

Standing high on the summit of The Wrekin, near Telford, the station was brought into service in December 1975, completing the country’s original television network and becoming the last main high-power analogue transmitter to be built in England and Wales.

Its arrival transformed television reception across the region, replacing a patchwork of smaller relay sites with a single, powerful transmitter serving hundreds of thousands of homes.

Today, The Wrekin transmitter continues to deliver Freeview television, FM and DAB radio services, as well as supporting national communications and resilience networks operated by Arqiva.

From the earliest analogue broadcasts to today’s digital services, the site has played a constant role in keeping people connected.

Over the decades, The Wrekin has been part of every major change and upgrade in broadcasting. It carried the first colour television services for the county, switched fully to digital in 2011, and was later upgraded to meet the UK’s 700 MHz spectrum clearance programme

Regular investment has kept it operating efficiently and reliably, supported by modern remote-monitoring systems and low-energy transmitters.

Mark Steele, Chief of Operations at Arqiva, said: “For fifty years, The Wrekin has been a trusted part of life in Shropshire. It connects communities, carries vital information, and continues to stand as a symbol of progress. The engineers who built it could hardly have imagined the technologies it supports today, but its purpose remains the same, to keep people informed, entertained and connected.”