The Sutton Coldfield transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility located in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England. In terms of population covered, it is the third most important transmitter in the UK, after Crystal Palace in London and Winter Hill near Bolton. History On 17 December 1949, it became the first television transmitter to broadcast outside London and the Home Counties, bringing BBC Television to viewers outside of the south-east of England for the first time. In 1949 the site housed Britain's first post-war Marconi-EMI band 1 405 line television transmitter. When it was taken out of service in 1981 it was the oldest working television transmitter in the world. For most of 1965, it had a low-power BBC2 service; this was turned onto full power on 4 October 1965; the East Midlands had no BBC2 service until Waltham began transmissions on 31 August 1968. A new mast was built around 1983 to replace the original structure, primarily to support new mixed-polarisation FM antennas. A 240.2m temporary mast was erected alongside the original mast in the spring of 2009 so that work could proceed in raising the height of the original mast by 31m (to a total height of 270.5m). After four years in service and almost a year after the completion of digital switch over, the temporary mast was removed during August 2013. All analogue TV transmissions ceased on 21 September 2011, as part of the digital switchover. This made it one of the oldest transmitters in the country to formally end analogue broadcasts. Services With a mast height of , it is one of the most powerful transmitters in England, powered at 200 kilowatts ERP for digital television and 250 kW for FM radio. The coverage extends as far south as Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire and as far north as Stoke-on-Trent. However, there are many relay transmitters around the Midlands that extend coverage even further. The transmitter broadcasts eight digital television multiplexes, as well as VHF or FM transmitters for the four BBC national stations; the BBC's local service BBC WM on FM and DAB; independent national station Classic FM and local commercial radio stations Free Radio Birmingham, Heart West Midlands, Greatest Hits West Midlands (previously Kerrang 105.2 until June 2013, Planet Rock until September 2015, and Absolute Radio until December 2018) and Smooth West Midlands. When opened as a UHF TV transmitter Sutton Coldfield was a B