Minster FM was a local radio station serving

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

and the surrounding areas such as

Selby Selby is a market town and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse, with a population at the 2011 census of 14,731. The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until ...

, Tadcaster,

Thirsk Thirsk is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England known for its racecourse; quirky yarnbomber displays, and depiction as local author James Herriot's fictional Darrowby. History Archeological ...

Northallerton Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It had a population of 16,832 in the 2011 census, an increa ...

and

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. According to the 2011 UK census, Goole parish had a population of 19,518, an increa ...

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

Yorkshire Wolds The Yorkshire Wolds are low hills in the counties of the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire in north-eastern England. The name also applies to the district in which the hills lie. On the western edge, the Wolds rise to an escarpment wh ...

History

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

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Arch ...

, launched at 6am on Saturday 4 July 1992. This was nine years, to the day, after

BBC Radio York BBC Radio York is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of North Yorkshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Bootham area of York. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience o ...

started to broadcast. The first presenter to air on Minster FM was Daragh Corcoran and the first song played was 'Saturday in the Park' by

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and at the time of launch it had 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

and

area using a signal on 102.3 FM from Calvert's Carpets in

. 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 and

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

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, Acklam Wold, Hildebrand Barracks and Oliver's Mount. 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 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 Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquart ...

Station of the Year (under 300,000 listeners in TSA) - the station lost out to Lincs FM 102.2 in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. 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, 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. During the station's early years, Minster FM's local news output was not produced in-house but 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''. At all other times, syndicated national bulletins from

Sky News Radio Sky News Radio is the radio arm of Sky News, owned by Sky UK. It has been operating since June 1999, providing a news bulletin service for UK commercial radio stations operators across the UK and for a number of English-speaking radio stations aro ...

were broadcast on the hour.

Notable former presenters

Stephanie Hirst Stephanie Hirst is an English radio & TV presenter currently heard on Hits Radio. She has hosted '' Hit40UK'' and the weekday breakfast show on Capital Yorkshire '' Hirsty's Daily Dose''. Career Hirst started her career at age 12 at 96.3 R ...

Roxanne Pallett Roxanne Carrion (born Roxanne Kaboli-Nejad, later Roxanne Pallett; 26 December 1982) is an English actress, television personality, and broadcaster. She played Jo Stiles in the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale'' (2005–2008), and has appeared in th ...

* 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