Cheshire's Silk 106.9 is 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 2003, ...

serving

Macclesfield Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Bollin in the east of the county, on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east ...

and parts of East Cheshire, owned and operated by neighbouring station Chester's Dee Radio. It broadcasts a mix of current and classic hits alongside local news and sport. As of September 2022, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 7,000, according to

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was calle ...

History

Silk FM launched on 25 May 1998 with special guest Sammy McIlroy, then manager of Macclesfield Town Football Club. Past presenters have included Nick Wright, Jeff Cooper, Guy Morris, Paul Allen and Trevor Thomas. The station was previously owned by

The Local Radio Company The Local Radio Company was a British media company, based in Redruth, Cornwall, that owned ten independent local radio stations in the UK. After takeover talks with UTV Media, UKRD Group and Hallwood Financial, UKRD acquired the majority sha ...

before being sold to the owners of Dee 106.3 in June 2009. In January 2017 the station moved into a new studio complex at Adelaide House, Adelaide Street in Macclesfield. In November 2012, the station was granted a significant transmitter power increase, partly to combat co-channel interference from the

Heart North and Mid Wales Heart North and Mid Wales is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to North and Mid Wales from studios in Gwersyllt, near Wrexham.< ...

transmitter at the

Moel-y-Parc transmitting station The Moel-y-Parc transmitting station is situated on Moel y Parc, a hill in north-east Wales at the northern end of the Clwydian range, close to the town of Caerwys and several miles (kilometres) north-east of Denbigh. It was built in 1962/1963 by ...

, also broadcasting on 106.9 MHz FM. The transmitter site at

Sutton Common BT Tower Sutton Common BT Tower is a 72-metre (238-foot) radio tower built of reinforced concrete at Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. Sutton Common was originally conceived as part of the 1950s 'Backbone' chain designed to provide the UK and NATO with ...

offers a line of sight across the Cheshire plain, meaning the signal can be heard into Lancashire, Shropshire and Merseyside with transmissions going as far east as Greater Manchester and Derbyshire.

Community

The station awards the title School of the Week to schools within its broadcast area. Perhaps the most important awards it gives are the "Local Hero awards" which have been awarded since the stations inception. The annual

Cheshire Show The Royal Cheshire County Show (simply referred to as 'Royal Cheshire County Show' and 'Royal Cheshire Show', and formerly Cheshire County Show) is a county agricultural show that is held on two days in June each year on land west of Flittogate ...

is one of the highlights in the Silk calendar, of which the station offers extensive coverage.

Awards

In 2008, having been short-listed for the award in the previous year, Silk won Radio Station of the Year (under 300,000) at the Sony Radio Awards. It is again short-listed for the 2009 award. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, Silk was named Radio Academy North West Station of the Year.

Programming

Some of Silk 106.9's programming is produced and broadcast from its Macclesfield studios. Live programming airs from 6am-7pm on weekdays, 8am-6pm on Saturdays and 8am-8pm on Sundays. Other output is automated or networked from Riverside Innovation Centre in Chester - Chester's Dee Radio.Silk 106.9 public file
/ref> Silk 106.9 broadcasts hourly local news bulletins from 6am–6pm on weekdays and 10am–2pm at weekends. 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 ar ...

are carried every hour at all other times. The station also airs weekly sports programming and Saturday afternoons, including regular coverage of Macclesfield FC and Congleton Town.

References

External links

Silk FM official site
Radio stations in Cheshire Radio stations established in 1998 {{UK-radio-station-stub