Buzz FM’s studios were in the Jewellery Quarter, but the transmitter was located about one and half miles away at Metropolitan House at Five Ways.
Buzz FM was allocated 40 Watts of transmitting power using vertical polarisation. See Transmission Area for the intended coverage area.
The first engineering test transmissions began just after Christmas Day in 1989. Buzz FM was on air at a time before DAB was formally launched. Although Buzz FM didn’t broadcast Radio Data System (RDS) at launch in May 1990, it began to broadcast them later (1990? 1991?). The touchscreen desk in the studios allowed DJs to toggle the Traffic Announcement (TA) flag when travel reports were being broadcast. This meant that if you were tuned in to Buzz FM, or perhaps had a cassette playing, the receiver would increase the volume or interrupt the cassette player when traffic was being broadcast. Buzz also broadcast Enhanced Other Networks (EON) data for BBC Radio WM, mean an equipped radio would switch to BBC WM for travel broadcasts. A receiver in the Buzz FM studios was tuned in to BBC WM and would activate the EON-TA flag at the appropriate time.