This column is written for The Stray Ferret by Steve Parsley. Steve’s voice was the first heard on Stray FM almost 26 years ago. This week it was announced that StrayFM will be turned into a national radio station, Greatest Hits Radio. The journalist-turned-copywriter reflects on its history – and the future of local media:
Memories of that first broadcast on launch day on July 4 back in 1994 are not as clear as they might once have been – largely because there were plenty of other events at the station after that which were ultimately more challenging.
There were nerves on that first day of course – enough to convince us to record the first-ever news bulletin at 7am in advance. We were that determined that there shouldn’t be a single stutter, cough or blunder to mar a watershed moment which had been years in the planning.
But the rest that morning were done live and, once the pressure was off, we were already beginning to enjoy ourselves – and, indeed, that’s how I’ll remember the first few months that the station was on air.
Stray FM’s roots were as an amateur operation run on a part-time licence during the Harrogate International Festival from a Portakabin on the car park at St Aidan’s School.
But, within a few weeks after its full-time launch, it had already become a popular community service; there was no doubt about that. The station’s minute-by-minute coverage of the first snows of the winter, the dramatic story of the animal rights fire bomb attacks on a gaggle of town centre stores and its determination to include local folk in its programming saw to that.
The groundswell of support was tangible and the presenters – and even the news team – began to realise they even had a little local celebrity. They were definitely exciting times.
However, the euphoria began to wear a little thin when the inaugural team’s enthusiasm and relative inexperience ran up against the commercial realities of financing and running a radio station.
Within a year, a new management team had taken the helm, there were departures among stalwarts who had been with the Stray FM brand right from its very inception and even a sad and devastating suicide among the presenting team.
However, slowly but surely, the station put a rocky first anniversary behind it, remained true to its principles – if not its original format – and cemented a place for itself as a source of local entertainment and information and as a new cheerleader at many of the Harrogate district’s local events.
Run on a shoestring in years two and three and now focusing as much on sales as content, Stray FM shrugged off its reputation for an amateur but well-meaning approach to broadcasting to become a proper RAJAR contender.
Some established names from rival commercial stations in Leeds even began to appear in its presenter line-up. News too was revamped to include a half-hour drive-time programme and live Saturday coverage.
But, perhaps predictably, the station’s success was noticed eventually by the larger players and, in 1999, Stray FM was to be acquired by GWR – then the owners of Classic FM – for a cool £3m.
The purchase certainly offered a great return for shareholders who had invested in the early days of the station, helping to get it off the ground. I remember staff being assured their jobs were secure and glasses being raised to a job well done.
But, for me personally at least, the magic was over. Important decisions were no longer made in the meeting room in Harrogate but in a distant boardroom. The station was also expected to conform to the GWR format. However, the final straw was an instruction not to focus so much on news but “infotainment”. From that moment, my own departure was inevitable.
Nevertheless, I remained a supporter and was as pleased as anyone when, in 2008, Stray FM was given an Arqiva Award as the best station for its size. I claim no credit whatsoever, but I still remember hearing the news with some pride. It was the same too when the station appeared more than once on the Sunday Times Best Places To Work list.
I will always remember my six years on the team with fondness. Indeed, my parting gift – a framed montage of some of my favourite sayings (which, sadly, I can’t repeat here) and commemorating the weird way I wore my headphones – still hangs on the wall in our smallest room at home.
It is therefore with great sadness that I heard the news this week of the station’s demise. I‘ve grown used to seeing newspapers I worked for become shadows of their former selves in a world where information is now gathered mostly for free on the internet and on social media.
But, for me at least, commercial radio was somehow insulated from the ravages on the online world. I thought it was still a place we went in our cars, for local news and content or for music on Sunday mornings.
The decision made by Stray FM’s new owners suggests I’m wrong and I have no hesitation in admitting that is both a shock and source of considerable sadness. For me, it’s also another step towards a grey and uniform world where automation is more important than character and content. But that, perhaps, is the modern reality.
Read more about this week’s news story on Stray FM:
