Happy 40th birthday to us! But how did it all begin?
MFR's first managing director comes back to his old stomping ground for a trip down memory lane
Last updated 23rd Feb 2022
MFR is celebrating 40 years of broadcasting, having started life on the 23rd of February 1982.
Looking back at the genesis of a station covering the North of Scotland, there was a lot of work long before day one itself at 6:30am.
The first Managing Director of Moray Firth Radio was Thomas Prag, with his involvement from the early days ahead of MFR's incarnation. As Thomas recalled, by 1982 there was an idea of an independent radio franchise for Inverness.
"Before then, all you had to listen to was the BBC, and the reason I was here was BBC Highland which I'd helped set up in 1976"
"People still thought of it as a very complicated technical operation. I hate to say it, but radio really isn't very complicated, and nowadays that's more obvious because people are doing that kind of thing at home"
However, the initial period in meeting all the regulatory checks-and-balances in broadcasting was fraught, given the paperwork and challenges.
As Thomas explained, "There was a community group that got the franchise and they had to raise the money. There were only traditional methods back then, whereas nowadays it would probably be a social enterprise"
"That took a long time, trying to convince people to buy shares, but once that happened it got into a different phase where it was a mad rush to get everything together"
Thomas said with a wry smile, "It was stressful, but very entertaining"
"The complication was the IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority) in that we had to run everything past them; are our studios alright, are our broadcasting hours alright, are we doing the right kind of programming?"
Once the station received the green light, then came the issue of the actual on-air content and what MFR would actually broadcast.
"If I can claim any success in the early days, it was finding good people", said Thomas.
"A vital piece of this was the sales operation - nobody knew if it could make enough money through advertising"
"The one man who believed it was Rod Webster, our first head of sales, he'd been involved in the community group"
"Head of Programming, Head of News and Chief Engineer was a little less straight-forward", added Thomas.
"Ex-BBC engineer Brian Smith had also been involved with the community group and MFR's layout is largely his design"
"Programming went to Brian Anderson, he was extreme in so many ways, but we got on really well despite being completely different personalities"
"Alan Saunby was Head of News; so much energy, pushed things a lot and didn't see any barriers, just got on with it"
"There was no shortage of people who came forward, because there weren't that many radio stations in the UK, perhaps around 20 BBC local stations and 20 independents at that time"
"I had a boxful of people wanting jobs - finding people who had the right attitude and were crazy enough to do it was much more interesting - I enjoyed that", said Thomas.
Over 100,000 listeners still tune-in regularly to MFR every week, with a strong place within the local community.
But how sure was Thomas that the passion for people to participate on-air would be mirrored by regular listeners day-in, day-out?
"I don't think we had any doubts about people taking to it, because this was an area that had been ignored by everyone else", said Thomas.
"There was a bit from the BBC (Highland) but the rest were all national broadcasters"
"Anything local was going to work - but we weren't sure about the Moray Firth area - because that was where the transmitters would reach"
"It wasn't an actual community that had existed before - so that was an unknown"
"Place-names were terribly important and we invested in a second-hand vehicle fitting it with a radio-mast and took that on-the-road as soon as we could afford it"
"It was a vital part of our marketing and programming to get it out to every gala and fete and they'd feel it was part of their community"
Overall, 40 years is a milestone not to be overlooked, and as Thomas explained many radio stations have come-and-gone over the years.
That said, and perhaps with the benefit of hindsight, he feels success was never in doubt given the initial foundation within the community.
"The greatest success from the early days was survival, because most people thought we wouldn't"
"There was a similar radio station in Wales (in Cardiff) which hadn't - and it was larger"
"The sigh of relief at our survival from our masters the IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority) following the first six months was audible all the way from London"
"We proved it could be done"