The Lincs FM group was formed in the early 1990s with the winning of the ILR licence for Lincolnshire. Lincs FM started broadcasting in 1992 and since then the Lincs FM Group has won and acquired licences to operate other local radio stations across the UK's Midlands and Yorkshire regions. Lincs FM Group was purchased by Bauer Radio in February 2019; Bauer also purchased the stations of Celador Radio at the same time. KCFM was sold to Nation Broadcasting due to overlapping with existing Bauer asset Viking FM; the other Lincs stations remained with Bauer. Due to further potential competition issues with Bauer's existing stations and their new purchases the group has been operating in 'hold separate' pending investigation of the sale by the Competition and Markets Authority. The Lincs FM Group also have a 33% share in Ipswich 102 and a 51% share in the digital radio multiplexes operating DAB services in Lincolnshire and Suffolk.
Each station's logo is green and purple as these are the company colours; these logos feature heavily in each stations merchandise. The group runs three music formats across its stations. "Hits & Memories" stations are the staple of the group, playing a wide variety of popular music from the 1960s to the present day. "Music You Love" stations lean older, with a greater percentage of songs released pre-1990 played. "Country music and more" is the format of the digital-only station Suffolk First, which plays a mixture of country music and pop music.
Acquisitions
Until October 2007 the group was unique in the United Kingdom in that it had grown organically through licence awards, rather than by acquisition of existing stations. As FM licences ceased advertising in the late 2000s, the group, with a desire to continue growing, made their first acquisition with Oak 107 FM in October 2007. This station was sold on a few years later to rejoin its former network. This was followed by the acquisition of KCFM in June 2009, previously owned by Planet Broadcasting.
Disposals
Oak FM, comprising the Hinckley and Loughborough licences, was sold to Quidem in 2012. It was rebranded as Fosse 107 following the insolvency of the station
KCFM was sold to Nation Broadcasting in February 2019
Licence bid failure
In 2006, the group made a bid to win the Hull licence along with six other groups. The format for the Lincs bid was the same of that of Compass FM; this is thought to be because Lincs FM already overlaps the North East Lincolnshire area. The station went under the working title of "White Rose Radio" to reflect the white rose of Yorkshire. The group did not win the licence and lost out to Kingston upon Hull-based KCFM. However, KCFM became part of the Lincs FM group in June 2009.
