Minster FM was an

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2 ...

station serving

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

and the surrounding areas such as

Selby Selby is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse. At the 2021 Census, it had a population of 17,193. The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire; from 1974 until 2023, ...

Tadcaster Tadcaster is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, north-east of Leeds and south-west of York. Its historical importance from Roman times onward was largely as the lowest road crossing-point o ...

, Thirsk,

Northallerton Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the River Wiske in the Vale of Mowbray and had a population of 16,832 in 2011. Northallerton is an administrative centre for York and North Yorkshire ...

and

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse, Yorkshire, River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's Historic counties of England, historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom censu ...

. The station closed on 31 August 2020 and its frequency is now a relay of Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire. It broadcast on 104.7 FM from the Acklam Wold transmitter, near Leavening, on the

Yorkshire Wolds The Yorkshire Wolds are hills in the counties of the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire in Northern England. They are the northernmost chalk hills in the UK and within lies the northernmost chalk stream in Europe, the Gypsey Race. ...

History

Former logo used until Rebranding in 2020 Minster FM, named after

York Minster York Minster, formally the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. The minster is the seat of the archbishop of York, the second-highest of ...

, launched at 6am on Saturday 4 July 1992. This was nine years to the day after BBC Radio York had started to broadcast. The first presenter to air was Daragh Corcoran and the first song played was 'Saturday in the Park' by

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Minster FM launched with a live locally presented schedule 24 hours a day. This continued until the launch of Yorkshire Coast Radio in November 1993 when programmes between 10pm and 6am were broadcast (or networked) on both stations. In 1996 the station added a transmitter to cover the Thirsk and

area using a signal on 102.3 FM from Calvert's Carpets in Thirsk. In 2005, station owners The Local Radio Company (TLRC) secured a specific licence for the area and launched Minster Northallerton on that frequency. TLRC was later taken over by UKRD, and in 2009, the new owners merged this station with its stations based in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

and Durham to form Star Radio. On 17 December 2014, Minster FM started broadcasting on DAB digital radio, under the name More Minster. It is broadcast on the North Yorkshire DAB multiplex from various locations within Yorkshire, including

Bilsdale Bilsdale is a Dale (landform), dale in the western part of the North York Moors in North Yorkshire, England. The head of the dale is at Hasty Bank, and the dale extends south to meet Rye Dale near Hawnby. The dale is the valley of the River ...

, Acklam Wold, Hildebrand Barracks and

Oliver's Mount Oliver's Mount is an area of high ground overlooking Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. It offers views over the town, a tribute monument to the war dead, camping and caravanning at selected times of the year, 10 football pitches, 1 rugby l ...

. More Minster carried Minster FM programmes in the morning and through the day. During the evening, the DAB schedule differed from the FM version, broadcasting its own dedicated programming. In 2017, UKRD announced that it would give back Star Radio licences to the regulator

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

in return for the transfer of the Northallerton licence to Minster FM. This was confirmed on 4 April 2017. 102.3 FM once again began broadcasting Minster FM along with a transmitter covering the Northallerton area on 103.5 FM. UKRD local radio stations were bought by Bauer Radio in 2019, along with many other local radio stations in England. On 1 September 2020 it became a part of Bauer Radio's Greatest Hits radio network with music from the 70s, 80s & 90s – this type of music having been phased in since its takeover. In January 2021, a number of former presenters and staff from Minster FM launched a new digital radio station for the region, YorkMix Radio.

Awards

In 2009, Minster FM was one of three stations to be nominated for The Arqiva Station of the Year (under 300,000 listeners in TSA), but lost out to Lincs FM 102.2. In 2017, drivetime presenter Harry Whittaker received a nomination for 'Best New Show' at the UK ARIAS and 'Best Entertainment Programming' at the 2018 O2 media Awards In 2019, Minster FM won the 'Charitable Business Award' at the Yorkshire Choice Awards 2019.

Programming before rebrand

The majority of Minster FM's programmings were produced and broadcast from its York studios. Live presenter-led programming aired from 4 am to 10 pm on weekdays, 6 am to 8 pm on Saturdays and 6 am to 7 pm on Sundays, with automated non-stop music broadcast overnight. The sole syndicated programme on the station, produced by Salford-based Chris Country Radio, aired on Sunday evenings.

News

Minster FM broadcast hourly local news bulletins from 6 am to 6 pm on weekdays and from 8 am to 1 pm at weekends. On weekdays, headlines and sports bulletins were broadcast on the half-hour during breakfast and drivetime shows. At all other times, syndicated national bulletins from Sky News Radio were broadcast on the hour. Originally, Minster FM's local news provision had been contracted out to

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

's regional news service ''

Calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

''. However, it was later brought in-house.

Notable former presenters

* Stephanie Hirst * Roxanne Pallett * Ryan Swain

References

External links

*
The Local Radio Company

Jingles

Acklam Wold transmitter

Minster FM Public File
{{Bauer Media Group Bauer Radio Radio stations in Yorkshire Mass media in York Radio stations established in 1992 Radio stations disestablished in 2020 Greatest Hits Radio Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom