Rathergood Radio, formerly known as Star Radio (in County Durham), was 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, ...

station. It formerly broadcast in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

and surrounding areas on FM. The County Durham licences were owned and operated by

UKRD Group The UKRD Group Ltd was a British media company that owned 15 commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. The name originates from UK Radio Developments. Since its acquisition in March 2019, it has been run as a subsidiary of Bauer Radio. H ...

until 31 March 2017, when it was purchased and later rebranded by View TV Group. In July 2019 Helius Media Group purchased the FM licences from View TV Group and rebranded the County Durham frequencies as Durham Radio & Alpha Radio (now broadcasting as

Sun FM Sun FM is a radio station serving Sunderland and large parts of County Durham in England and owned by Nation Broadcasting. It is also available in Tyne and Wear. Sun FM broadcasts on FM, as well as online. The station plays a mix of contempor ...

as of March 2020).

History

Following

UKRD The UKRD Group Ltd was a British media company that owned 15 commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. The name originates from UK Radio Developments. Since its acquisition in March 2019, it has been run as a subsidiary of Bauer Radio. H ...

's takeover of

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 shar ...

, Star Radio North East was launched on 2 November 2009 by merging

Alpha 103.2 Alpha Radio (formerly 103.2 Alpha Radio), Alpha 103.2, 103.2 Alpha FM, Alpha Radio) was an Independent Local Radio station based in Darlington, County Durham, England. History When launched in 1995, Alpha was owned by Radio Investments Ltd whi ...

Minster Northallerton Minster Northallerton was an Independent Local Radio station based in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, England. History Prior to launch, Minster Northallerton was originally known as BTN FM, after the principal towns of the area - Bedale, Thirs ...

and

Durham FM Durham FM was an Independent Local Radio station based in Durham, County Durham, England. History Since its launch in 2005, Durham FM was owned and operated by TLRC. In December 2008, Durham FM submitted an application to Ofcom to co-locate w ...

into one station. Originally, the Alpha name was to be used making the stations Alpha Northallerton and Alpha Durham. On 29 March 2017 UKRD announced that it would hand back the Star Radio licences to the regulator

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

and cease broadcasting two days after that. It also asked Ofcom to transfer the Northallerton licence to sister station Minster FM . Ofcom Confirmed the transfer of the Northallerton licence to Minster on 4 April 2017. On 31 March UKRD's chief executive officer William Rogers confirmed a deal had been reached with View TV to secure the future of the station effective immediately. It rebranded on 1 August. In March 2018, Rathergood Radio was found in breach of its licence by Ofcom for failing to broadcast from two of its FM transmitters between 7 December 2017 and 8 February 2018. Telecommunications company Arqiva, which provided transmission services to the station's licence holder Alpha Radio Ltd, said it had terminated the services due to "nonpayment of fees". In April 2019, it was announced that

Helius Media Group In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Helios (; grc, , , Sun; Homeric Greek: ) is the god and personification of the Sun ( Solar deity). His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion ("the one above" ...

had acquired the Durham Radio & Alpha Radio names and would be launching two new local stations on 1 July 2019 using the Rathergood Radio frequencies. Durham Radio was broadcast on the 102.8 & 106.8 frequencies to Durham City and the surrounding areas and Alpha Radio was broadcast on the 102.6 & 103.2 frequencies to Darlington and surrounding areas. The stations were sold to

Nation Broadcasting Nation Broadcasting is a British media company headquartered in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It currently owns and operates twelve Independent Local Radio stations across the United Kingdom. History Originally known as Town and Country Broa ...

in March 2020 and were merged with neighbouring station

which broadcasts from studios in Sunderland.

Programming

All output is automated.Rathergood Radio public file
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News

National bulletins from

Radio News Hub Radio News Hub is a provider of news bulletins for radio stations based in the United Kingdom. The company, which has its head office in Leeds, West Yorkshire, provides 60 second and 120 second bulletins for English speaking radio stations both in ...

are carried every hour.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rathergood Radio The Local Radio Company Radio stations in Yorkshire Radio stations in North East England