By Chris Wilson

Moorlands Radio began in 2003, when local businessman Tony Mullins got together a group of like-minded people who had responded to his advertisements in the local papers, to form a radio station for the Staffordshire Moorlands. This first meeting on 30th April 2003 included experienced broadcasters, technical wizards, salesmen, engineers, born talkers, musicians and music lovers and those merely interested and intrigued.

So Moorlands Radio was born, and was on the air by the end of the year. The Radio Authority (now Ofcom) issued the station with a 28 day Restricted Service Licence – or RSL – and the broadcast was a huge success.

Run from an empty building in Getliffe’s Yard in Leek, the broadcast was the culmination of months of hard work fuelled by the enthusiasm of the group’s members to provide a radio station with a truly local feel and content for the local people. Funding was mainly gathered through the selling of advertising, with the adverts professionally produced in Leek at a top class production company owned by one of the group. The studio was built using equipment loaned by members; the music played collated from members’ own collections; everyone helped to decorate the place and distribute thousands of leaflets and it all paid off.

As a test broadcast to gauge the need for and viability of a radio station purely for the Staffordshire Moorlands, it was greatly successful. No sooner was Moorlands Radio off air than people were asking for it back, but by law the station could only run 28 day RSLs no more than twice in a twelve month period, and there was a lot of work involved.

To apply for a licence to run a full-time station, for which there was obviously a need, the group had to wait for Ofcom to issue a window for applications and, having under-estimated the number of applications received for its new Community Radio licences in the first round and the work involved, this was a long time coming.

In the meantime, Moorlands Radio began to keep up its profile by building up the number of roadshows that it does around the area, providing PA and music at various events around the area for the benefit of the community. These were run from a gazebo to begin with and examples included triple gold medal winner Lee Pearson’s homecoming, school fetes, Christmas Lights switch-ons and many more.

Later in 2004, Moorlands Radio ran its 2nd 28 day RSL which was even more successful than the 1st. The group was offered studio premises within the Leek Post & Times building, which were luxurious compared to those of the previous year, and due to a re-positioning of the broadcast mast the signal reached Biddulph as well as Leek, and also some places further afield!

In 2005, because of the work involved preparing the full-time licence application and looking at methods of funding while waiting for the window for new applications to be announced, it was decided not to run a RSL. The group continued to meet regularly and organised social occasions, as well as increasing the number of roadshows – some were return bookings as Moorlands Radio’s name and reputation became more well-known.

By 2006, with the application almost complete and just waiting for a date from Ofcom, the demand from both the members and the public for another broadcast grew so it was decided to do ‘one final push’. This was expected to be the last RSL that Moorlands Radio did and it needed to be a showcase for the full-time station, trialling new programmes/presenters and new technology and ironing out any glitches from the previous 2 RSLs. Once again the studios were in the Leek Post & Times, and the group had by then acquired a roadshow vehicle with a stage, sign-written with the Moorlands Radio insignia, which advertised the station wherever it went. This time popular North Staffordshire radio presenter Sam Plank came on board, bringing yet more listeners with him to the Saturday morning phone-in show, and increasing the profile of the station yet more.

2007 brought more roadshows, mostly in the rain, more work towards the full-time licence application (the format of which had now been changed) and more new members as everyone waited for a date from Ofcom.

Eventually, after more work than was ever envisioned on the new application form and many sleepless nights for those involved in its preparation, the completed document was submitted to Ofcom for its consideration in mid-January 2008. Having been assured that a reply would not be forthcoming for up to six months everyone was resigned to yet another long wait when in February, without warning, a telephone call to Tony Mullins from Ofcom amazed and delighted all involved. The application had impressed the licensing authority and it was issuing Moorlands Radio with a full-time licence immediately.

With plans to be on air in 2009 there is still a lot to do. Moorlands Radio needs to acquire permanent premises from which to broadcast and build a studio; raise funding, as only half of the cost of running the station can be obtained from advertising; apply for various planning permissions; as well as other work needed to ensure that it complies with what was promised in the application. This, as well as running the many roadshows already booked, keeping the public updated with the latest information about the station, recruitment of members and a listener panel and, of course, having fun along the way.