Teessiders hope for new commercial radio station

Following the demise of Magic 1170 and TFM’s local output for the area a former TFM and BBC Radio 1 DJ is stepping in to attempt to lure the disgruntled listeners over to a new entirely local broadcaster for the area.

Mark Page has begun plans to establish a rival station to the ones owned by Bauer Media – the parent company who over the past few years have cut the former Great North Radio AM service down to a North East breakfast show only and hourly news. The rest of the – now Magic AM branded – output is spread across several stations which cover the North West, Yorkshire and the North East.

This year alone Teesside has lost its Magic 1170 breakfast show, with now a North East wide edition airing from Newcastle at Magic 1152, and its Teesside based news service has also met the chop. The ‘golden oldies’ station isn’t exclusive to the Bauer cull. Last month the modern hits music station TFM ditched all its regional programming with again programmes now transmitted from Newcastle’s Metro FM. The TFM name remains on air only in identity jingles around the advert breaks.

With listeners and businesses in the region left disgusted a former TFM presenter – Mark Page  – has plans to launch a rival bid for the FM licence to serve the neglected area. TFM currently has the contract until 2025 for the local frequency. In the mean time Page plans a temporary service to gauge public opinion.

Page told the Northern Echo, “I’ve been working on this since the TFM move to Newcastle… I’m hoping that with the excellent lobbying so far, Ofcom can see there is a demand.

“It can be met with an FM licence to cover this area, which numbers around 400,000 people and that’s a sizeable audience. A DAB (digital) licence would be unrealistic in terms of it producing only a small audience and would be completely unviable.”

He added that it is the first time in over thirty years the Tees Valley area had been without a local commercial station broadcast from its patch. Page joined TFM, when it was branded as Radio Tees, at its launch in 1975.

He told the newspaper: “We have already investigated transmitter sites, studio sites and have got everything we need to do a trial or indeed full time broadcasts. We need to show Ofcom we want a station in our own area, broadcasting from the heart of it, because BBC local aside, the whole area is only served by broadcasters on Tyneside.”

Listeners have left messages on ATV Today unhappy about the cut backs:

Janet Powell said: “After many years as a magic listener i find that we in Teeside no longer have a local radio broadcast. Alan Ross I hope that you enjoy your retirement. To the powers that be that made this decision, i expect that i am not the only listener you lost. Good bye to what used to be a great morning show….now to switch to a better presenter cos the new girl just ain’t got it.”

Steve Harrison added: “I agree with Janet Powell, I always listened to the Alan Ross show and liked the fact that when people rang in for the trivia he knew them all,local radio show, for local people. Listen to another station in the morning now. Best wishes to Alan enjoyed every minute.”

Another by Paul Dawson noted: “I cannot believe Magic has caused this to happen. Alan was a fantastic DJ whom I loved listening to on the morning. Sadly Magic appears to be losing touch with it’s local people and even more sadly, we appear to be losing our local station!”

And “My husband and I have listened to magic for years but we are now changing stations we have given the new girl every opportunity but feel she doesn’t cut the mustard. Enjoy your retirement Alan not the same without you.” said Susan Lawson.

Critic Vivian Summers told us that she believes it shows how out of touch the regulator is and that Ofcom are only catering to the interests of the multimillion pound making broadcasters and not the listeners. “Just look at regional ITV as a prime example” she said.