Welcome to Community Radio in the Scottish Highlands
Speysound Radio started life in 1993 as Ski FM, following which we shared air time with MFR in Inverness for a time. However, in 2009 we were granted our own Community Radio Licence by OFCOM, and began broadcasting on 107.1 FM as well as live on the internet. Our most recent development was the advent of 24 hour broadcasting which began in 2014.
Our transmitter is situated at the top of the funicular railway on Cairngorm Mountain, 1097 metres above sea level and, with MFR, shares the honour of having the highest FM radio transmitter in the UK. We cover the whole of Badenoch and Strathspey in the Scottish Highlands and you can either listen to us by tuning your radio locally to 107.1 FM or, if you would like to listen via your computer or are further afield, you can use our ‘Listen Live’ facility here on our website. If you would like a pop-out player so that you can continue to browse the internet, please use the button on the right of the player.
A Brief History of Speysound
In 1986 Eddie Orbell, who was later to become Speysound’s first chairman, learned of the Government’s new proposals which would allow for the introduction of Community Radio Stations, legislation that was not fully operational until 1991.
Eddie, a short-wave radio buff, along with a group of other enthusiasts formed a Steering Committee in September 1992, and four months later Speysound was ‘On Air’ for the first time.
That first broadcast was on the 25th January 1993 the station having been granted a 12 week experimental license (an RSL), with a ‘motley crew’ to quote the words of the first presenter Daphne Randerson, the only member at that time with previous broadcasting experience. She began by stating that “Speysound Radio will be what YOU make it”, a statement which still rings true today.
The first programme was made up of interviews with representatives of various funding bodies which had helped get Speysound get up and running. These included Thomas Prag, Managing Director of MFR (Moray Firth Radio) to whom was accorded the honour of selecting the first record to be played on Speysound. Appropriately, he chose “Help” by the Beatles. Others that appeared included Tim Whittome, Chairman of the Cairngorm Chairlift Company, Ron Stuart of Badenoch and Strathspey District Council, Jim Stout, Chairman of the Aviemore and Spey Valley Tourist Board and Dick Ruane, Chief Executive of the Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey Enterprise Company.
Their collective hopes and aspirations for Speysound were for a service in the area which would include the provision of an immediate channel for up to the minute information on a whole range of issues, improving the quality of life and prosperity of the community.
From little acorns………
That Speysound Radio, a Company Limited by Guarantee, is still thriving and broadcasts on its own Community Radio Licence, is due to all the hard work of very dedicated team of volunteers both past and present.
You could become one of us!
Speysound Radio’s original 1993 logo.
