Focal Radio was a commercial radio station based in the city of

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

and broadcasting to the two counties of

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

and

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week via the local DAB multiplex for the city as well as online. The station's entirely locally produced programming consisted of popular music from the past 40 years along with news, sport and speech features of general interest to the local population. A number of specialist music programmes were also provided. In February 2009, the station closed down having run out of cash after just four months on air and its parent company Trent Radio Station Limited was placed into liquidation. Several weeks later, the station resumed broadcasting having been acquired by local businessman

Mo Chaudry Mohammed Ishaq "Mo" Chaudry (born 21 September 1960) is a British Pakistani businessman. He spent his early years in Pakistan, before travelling to England and building an estimated fortune of more than £100m, confirming himself as one of the ...

. Chaudry pulled out of backing the station three months later, resulting in an on-air

pledge drive A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term "pledge" originates from the promise that a contributor makes to send in funding at regular interval ...

asking for listeners to buy a £10 stake in the station. Despite raising over £60,000 in a week, staff and management failed to raise another £20,000 in order to pay back the investment made by Chaudry. Focal Radio ceased transmission again at 1pm on Thursday 28 May 2009.Farewell, Focal Radio
, Radio Today, 28 May 2009

References

External links

Focal Radio
Mass media in Stoke-on-Trent Radio stations established in 2008 Focal Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom {{UK-radio-station-stub