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Local radio for the Amber
Valley was conceived over 20 years ago when two youngsters decided
they would play around with an electronics kit in one of the parents
garage. They looked at the design of a small circuit which could be made
up on an electronics kit by connecting wires to springs to make the
circuit. The 2 said youngsters were 15 year old founder of Valley Radio (the first RSL in
the Amber Valley) Glyn Williams & the 14 year old founder of Amber Sound
FM (The second RSL in the Amber Valley) Chris Knight. To cut a long
story short the 2 youngsters were going to run their own radio station
one day.
Chris & Glyn had been
friends for a long time. A few years past when Chris
got a call from Glyn to come over to his house to have a chat about
something. When Chris got there Glyn had been reading something about
The Radio Authority (now Ofcom) had information that they would be
issuing licences to groups in areas of the UK to broadcast their own
service to the local area they lived in. Glyn went to work on the
application and sent it into The Radio Authority to apply to broadcast
Valley Radio's first service in October 1994.
The original Amber Sound FM
was on air over 10 years ago with 2 restricted service licences back in
October 1995 and the second broadcast August 1996.The station was ran by
local DJ Chris Knight and Local business man Alan Farrar. They both were
originally part of the team of the first local station in the Amber
Valley called Valley Radio who did there first broadcast from a railway
carriage at the Midland Railway Centre in Ripley Derbyshire in October
1994.
They did 3 other broadcasts
in April 1995, January 1996 and November 1996. The 2 groups felt that
the Amber Valley was not being covered by the other local stations in
area. So went to work to give the Amber Valley a station of its own.
After the amount of radio activity in the area the 2 groups called it a
day back in 1996.
Meanwhile over the last few
years Ofcom (The Office Of Communications) have been awarding community
radio licences around the country. Amber Sound FM still believe there is
a market for another radio station in the amber valley area to cover the
musical tastes that are not covered by other local services.
Chris has been working on
his studios in Ripley for the last 5 years and is just about ready to put Amber Sound
FM back
on air.
In December 2006 a station
with the name Amber FM surfaced in the area broadcasting from Heanor in
Derbyshire. This gave Chris the radio bug back and prompted him to bring
back the prehistoric animal from 10 years ago which was the sound of the
Amber Valley "Amber Sound FM".
The aim is the same as it
was 10 years ago. The Amber Valley is still not covered by other local
stations in the way that it should be.
But now Chris is bringing a
few of his old team back with some new voices. The
team are working on a licence application for Amber Sound FM to return
to the airwaves sometime in 2007. |