Local radio is vital to communities and we need more of it, not less - Christa Ackroyd

For me and many of the friends I have made along the way, it represents the end of an era and probably the happiest time of my working life.

So forgive me but this week I am going to be nostalgic about the glory days – and this has nothing to do with football.

On August 31, just one day before its 39th birthday, Radio Aire will be no more. It is going the way of 50 local radio stations and joining forces to create one big super station, Greatest Hits Radio, albeit with a sop to listeners and regulators with one show a day broadcast from its Burley Road studio in Leeds.

All this because, according to owners Bauer, that’s what is best for its listeners. Well, may I remind those who have decided the name Radio Aire will be no more, bigger is not always better.

I was the very first voice on Radio Aire way back in 1982 when I read the 6am bulletin produced in a well-staffed newsroom whose occupants achieved great things. Two of them, Mark Mardell and Mark Easton, became senior television correspondents for the BBC.

Another became head of BBC news and our first news editor went on to become a senior executive for Yorkshire Television.

As for its presenters, many achieved national fame. Among them James Whale, Chris Moyles – who arrived as a fresh-faced teenager asking if he could help put away the records – and Stephanie Hirst, who is still broadcasting 30 years later. Martin Kelner and Alex Lester have also enjoyed successful careers and Paul Stead is now the owner of a successful TV production company.

So the reasoning from Bauer executives that listeners really want to hear nationally known names doesn’t hold water. Local radio is the training ground for most presenters and news broadcasters. It is where they learned their craft.

A record played in London sounds the same as it does played in Leeds or Manchester. It’s the bits in between that are important. Running radio into the ground will impact on the industry and its future growth. It also does a great disservice to its listeners.

The only way you can win the battle is by putting more effort into the output, making it more local, not less. I know. I was there when Radio Aire first fought for its survival and won.

I was only in my mid-20s when I took over as programme controller at Radio Aire. Its listening figures then, as now, were down. Confidence was low and that’s how it sounded on air.

I knew nothing about music formats. Fortunately the late, great Peter Tait did. Together, with the likes of Carl Kingston, Jon Hammond, Peter Levy and the wonderful Ray Stroud, we put together a radio station that would be a winner.

And we worked hard at the bits in between the records. We won national awards, beating Radio One for the best outside broadcast when we became the first to bring a show from Disney World in Florida, where we took disadvantaged children.

We were innovative and challenging. We raised millions for local charities and helped build family accommodation for sick children. We produced Say No to Strangers safety advice for young children which won our first Sony award.

More importantly, we had fun along the way. Above all, we rooted ourselves in the lives of our listeners. Whenever there was a major event, the Radio Aire roadshow was there.

We had the first sponsored programmes, which meant we had more money, some of which went towards programming. The newsroom broadcast live wherever events were unfolding. We were an information and entertainment lifeline for listeners the whole year round, not just when it snowed or flooded. And I would argue that local radio matters more now than ever before.

If the last few months has taught us anything, it is that community is everything.

So why, at a time when there is a call for decentralising the power of media and even politics, are we in danger of losing the very bedrock of our local identity... local radio?

Imagine the James Whale phone-in during these past few months of lockdown. Its listening figures would have been phenomenal. Consider how a simple helpline for those trapped at home would have provided comfort and information, or just a way of saying thank you to all those who have gone the extra mile.

Also, think how organisations or individuals needing help could have been connected and how radio once more would have become a valuable part of the community it once was.

Radio Aire is not the only one losing its identity. Other casualties include Ridings in Wakefield, Rother in Rotherham, Peak in Chesterfield, Stray in Harrogate, Dearne in Barnsley, Minster in York and Yorkshire Coast in Scarborough which, along with Aire, will now have most of their output coming from Manchester and London.

All this ironically in a week when Boris Johnson announced he was considering bringing Parliament up North to York for a while.

Well, I am sorry, radio bosses. It’s not good enough. It surely would have been possible to create at the very least a Yorkshire super station.

So RIP, Radio Aire, much as it pains me to say, soon gone but never forgotten. How I would love to get my hands on you again.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor