Belfast Community Radio or BCR, was a

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

that broadcast to

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

between 1990 and 1996. The station broadcast from the basement of Russell Court Complex on

's Lisburn Road. It was replaced by

Belfast CityBeat Q Radio (formerly known as Citybeat and Belfast CityBeat) is a Northern Irish radio station. It broadcasts to Greater Belfast on 96.7 MHz FM and on DAB Digital Radio across all of Northern Ireland. From 5 April 2007, Citybeat became avail ...

History

BCR was launched at 7:30 a.m. on 6 April 1990 with Rick Nugent who was the first

presenter Presenter may refer to: People * News presenter, person who presents news during a news program * Sports commentator, an announcer who presents analysis of a sporting event * Radio personality, presenter or announcer on a radio show * Television ...

, the first song was "''Feet of a Dancer''" by Maira O'Connell. In 1992, in attempt to boost audience the station adopted a 'Classic Hits Format' and became known as Classic Trax BCR but by 1994 had reverted to 96.7 BCR. In 1995, the word 'community' in the title was replaced for 'city' in a further attempt to distance the station from its community roots which had failed to interest audience. During its final month on air the station simply became known as 96.7FM. BCR struggled to establish a listener base and was eventually relaunched as

in 1996. In contrast with its forerunner, Citybeat became a huge success and is now one of the most popular stations in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. Stuart Robinson presented the final programme on BCR on 30 September 1996. The last track played was

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

and "''Sacrifice''". At midnight BCR changed to Citybeat. At the time of its demise, BCR was pulling in little over 30,000 listeners.

Former presenters

BCR presenters prior to the 1996 relaunch included Rick Nugent, Maurice Jay,

Mary Johnston Mary Johnston (November 21, 1870 – May 9, 1936) was an American novelist and women's rights advocate from Virginia. She was one of America's best selling authors during her writing career and had three silent films adapted from her novels. Joh ...

, Eddie McDermott Davy Cunningham, Stuart Robinson, Owen Beers, Mal Reynolds, Noel Hyndman, Phil Doyle, Lawrence John,

David Johnston David Johnston or Dave Johnston may refer to: Politics *David Johnston (governor general) David Lloyd Johnston (born June 28, 1941) is a Canadian academic, author, and statesman who served as the 28th governor general of Canada from 2010 to ...

, Lisa Flavelle,

Olive Melville The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of subtropical evergreen tree in the family Oleaceae. Originating in Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean Basin, with wild subspecies in Africa ...

, Kenny Tosh, Paul Orr, Ricky K,

Stephen Nolan Stephen Raymond Nolan (born 20 August 1973) is a Northern Irish radio and television presenter for BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Radio 5 Live. Nolan is the highest earning BBC broadcaster in Northern Ireland. In the 2023–2024 financial year h ...

, Denise Watson and Davy Cash.

External links

transdiffusion.org
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- General details on the station. Radio stations in Northern Ireland Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom Mass media in Belfast Radio stations established in 1990 1990 establishments in Northern Ireland Radio stations disestablished in 1996 1996 disestablishments in Northern Ireland {{NorthernIreland-media-stub