Moorlands Radio is a community radio station

Community radio in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Community Radio refers to a system of licensing small, micro-local, non-profit radio stations, which started in 2002. In its early days, the pilot scheme was known as Access Radio.-History:...

 based in Leek

Leek, Staffordshire

Leek is a market town in the county of Staffordshire, England, on the River Churnet. It is an ancient borough and was granted its royal charter in 1214.It is the administrative centre for the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council...

 in the Staffordshire Moorlands

Staffordshire Moorlands

Staffordshire Moorlands is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. Its council, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, is based in Leek and is located between the city of Stoke-on-Trent and the Peak District National Park. The 2001 census recorded the population as...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It was granted the full time licence in the second round of community radio licensing by broadcast regulator Ofcom

Ofcom

Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...

 in February 2008. The station is now on air serving the rural Staffordshire Moorlands and covering the main towns of Leek and Biddulph

Biddulph

Biddulph is a town in Staffordshire, England, north of Stoke-on-Trent and south east of Congleton, Cheshire.-Origin of the name:Biddulph's name may come from Anglo-Saxon bī dylfe = "beside the pit or quarry"...

.

It is funded through a combination of grant funding from local authorities and charities; and revenue from the sale of advertising to local businesses.

History

The Moorlands Radio project was founded by a group of local enthusiasts in 2003, led by established presenter Tony Mullins. From 2003 to 2007, the station undertook three Restricted Service Licence

Restricted Service Licence

A UK Restricted Service Licence , is typically granted to radio stations and television stations broadcasting within the UK to serve a local community or a special event...

 broadcasts of 28 days each in duration.

The full-time station came on air on 7 November 2009 and has a five-year community radio licence. In early 2010, Verity Hilton was appointed Station Manager.

Programming

Moorlands Radio broadcasts a full daytime and evening schedule of programmes 7 days a week. Daytime programming is generally aimed at a mainstream audience and features popular music from the 1960s to today with local news, interviews with local personalities and interactive features.

Evening programmes are specialist in nature, and include shows focusing on Northern Soul

Northern soul

Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...

, classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

, dance music

Dance music

Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...

 and folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

. Presenters of these shows, along with most of the staff of the station, are volunteers.

Notable presenters

From the station's launch in 2009 until a few months before his death from cancer in early 2011, a daily programme was presented by local radio stalwart Sam Plank

Sam Plank

Terry Hilton was a British local radio broadcaster, known for his talk-based radio programmes in Staffordshire, The Potteries and Stoke-on-Trent on BBC Radio Stoke and Signal 2....

.

The breakfast programme is presented by Doug Wood

Doug Wood

Dougie Wood was a Scottish footballer who played for eleven seasons with Derry City from 1961-1972 in the Irish League. He won six inter-league caps for the Irish League between 1964 and 1967, and won the Irish Cup in 1963/64, the Irish League championship and the Gold Cup in 1964/65. He was the...

, a local personality with over thirty years of radio experience on Signal Radio among other stations.