Moray Firth Radio ... the early years - 1982-2000

Moray Firth Radio - popularly known as MFR - was originally launched as an Independent Local Radio Station on 23rd February 1982. Based in the Scorguie area of Inverness it began broadcasting to an area around the coast of the north east corner of Scotland, west from Fraserburgh and north around the Moray Firth to Thurso. It also reached communities to the south of Inverness as far as Aviemore.

Originally the plan was to have one Independent Local Radio station serving the north of Scotland and the radio franchise advertised by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was for a radio station to cover both the Aberdeen and Inverness areas, the two largest centres of population in the North East and Highlands of Scotland.

There were, however, groups in each of these locations who pointed out that these two communities had little in common, arguing that a joint station was not the way forward.

Two community groups were formed by groups of volunteers to produce a separate application for each area - Aberdeen Radio for the Community and the Moray Firth Community Radio Association. Each group prepared an application to the IBA to be considered by them along with applications from commercial companies.

In the end the IBA decided to award two separate franchises, the Aberdeen franchise going to a commercial company and the Inverness one going to the Moray Firth Community Radio Association who settled on the name Moray Firth Radio.

In Inverness the Community Association began the task of raising funds for the new station and in time, for practical and financial reasons, went into partnership with local businesses. The new Board of Directors consisted of people representing the financial backers along with three people elected by the Moray Firth Community Radio Association. They appointed Thomas Prag, who came from the BBC in Inverness, as Managing Director.

The foundation stone was laid by comedian Jimmy Logan (right) in October 1981 who said, "It gives me great pleasure to stand here with wet feet and mud all over my trousers," as he laid the first stone. The purpose-built studio and office building in the Scorguie area of Inverness, overlooking the Kessock Bridge and the Inverness Firth, cost £150,000 to build. Within a short time the building soon took shape - pictured below: Thomas Prag, MD, and Rod Webster, Head of Sales.

The station began broadcasting at 6.30am on Tuesday 23rd February 1982 with the playing of the Bagpipe theme. The first voice heard was that of Breakfast Show presenter, Dave Cochrane, followed by the first news headlines read by Isabel Fraser. The first advert was the voice of Isabel MacGillivray, advertising her financial services business in Inverness.

Within a year, the new the station was making a profit, much to the delight of everyone, and proving those who thought such a small radio station would never succeed, completely wrong.

Right from the beginning Moray Firth Radio had strong links with the local community from Wick and Thurso all the way round the coast to Fraserburgh. It its early days MFR had a high speech content and took great pride in the affection show to the station by people throughout its broadcast area. Soon MFRs radio listening figures were amongst the highest (population percentage wise) in the whole of the UK!

In the evenings and at weekends, Moray Firth Radio featured many specialist programs presented by volunteers who were experts in their own fields. The MFR Radio Car was also frequently seen 'dropping in' on villages and events throughout the area from Fraserburgh to Thurso, especially on Saturday mornings, visiting local events and talking to folk as they went about their every day lives ... "at work or at play" as one of the MFR jingles used to say.

Things began to change in 1997 when Moray Firth Radio was taken over by Scottish Radio Holdings which began life with Glasgow based station Radio Clyde in 1973. Over the years it had acquired most of Scotland's commercial radio stations - Northsound Radio in Aberdeen and Radio Forth in Edinburgh in 1988, Radio Tay in Dundee and Radio Borders in Tweedbank, just outside Galashiels, in 1992.

In 1996 Scottish Radio Holdings plc acquired West Sound Radio in Dumfries and in 1996, South West Sound Ayr and then, in 1997, Moray Firth Radio. Today, Moray Firth Radio, along with most of Scotland's radio stations, are owned by the Hamburg based Bauer Media Group whose policy is to centralise programming and even closing down studios which were once focus points for their local communities. So far, the MFR studio in Inverness is still in use.

In August 2014 the specialist programming aired in the evenings on weekdays and Sunday on Moray Firth Radio were axed and in February 2017 MFR launched a new slogan, proclaiming: All The Biggest Hits, All Day Long. Today Moray Firth Radio is owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK, a division of the Hamburg-based Bauer Media Group. Bauer Media Group owns several radio stations across Scotland and now almost nothing comes from the studios in Inverness with networked programming originating from Radio Clyde in Clydebank, Radio Forth in Edinburgh and Hits Radio in Manchester.

This website is a personal reflection offering a glimpse into those early MFR days between 1982 and 2000 from someone who was heavily involved with the station during those years ... and who enjoyed every moment of his time there!