Northsound Radio

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Northsound Radio was the name for the original Northsound Radio station that broadcast from Aberdeen, Scotland to the north-east area. In 1995, the station split to become two commercial local radio stations.

1 History
2 Free concerts
3 Notable DJ's
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

Up until summer 1981, the only local radio available to the listeners in the North East of Scotland was from the BBC at Beechgrove, who broadcast specialist music programmes for just a couple of hours a week. There was a real appetite for radio from the North East, so a group of local businessmen applied for a radio franchise to broadcast to Aberdeen, Peterhead and the surrounding areas, that was advertised by the then regulator – The IBA.

North of Scotland Radio Ltd won the franchise, and with a more user-friendly station name, Northsound Radio commenced broadcasting at 6am on the 27th of July 1981 from its original studios, which were in an old schoolhouse on Kings Gate, near Anderson Drive in the city. The original schedule only broadcast from 6am-8pm daily.

In 1995 the station split its services to become Northsound 1 and Northsound Two. Northsound 1 broadcasts on 96.9FM and plays popular music from the 80s right through to today's chart music. Northsound 2 broadcasts on 1035MW, and follows a 'classic gold' style, with music from the 50s to today. Both stations now also broadcast on DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting – i.e. Digital Radio). In 2007, Northsound faced commercial oppostion in Aberdeen for the first time with the launch of Original 106 (Aberdeen).

[edit] Free concerts

Since 1997, Northsound has held free music concerts in Aberdeen almost bi-annually. Northsound delivered its first major outdoor event when the Tall Ships arrived in Aberdeen, which called Free at the Quay. Following the success there was Free 2000 at the Queen’s Links, at Aberdeen Beach and then Free at the Dee was created and staged in Duthie Park. For 2007, Northsound Radio needed to find a different venue to accommodate a ticketed event, so after consideration, Hazlehead Park was picked, and the event was renamed to simply Free 2007.

[edit] Notable DJ's

Nicky Campbell, now a well-known BBC Journalist and TV Presenter. He launched the station, playing the record "We've Only Just Begun" by The Carpenters.
Robin Galloway, presenter on Northsound Radio, went on to read the news on Grampian TV, as well as being one of the in-vision continuity announcers. He currently presents the breakfast show on Real Radio Scotland.