Amber Sound FM is a

Community Radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popular ...

station based in the

Amber Valley Amber Valley is a local government district and borough in the east of Derbyshire, England, taking its name from the River Amber. It covers a semi-rural zone with four main towns whose economy was based on coal mining and remains to some extent ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

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 ...

. It was awarded a five-year community licence by

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 ...

in 2008 after several Restricted Service Licence broadcasts. Amber Sound said it would "encourage local people, young and old, to become part of the station".

History

Local radio first appeared in Amber Valley in 1994 when Glyn Williams began Valley Radio. Backed by the local MP the station broadcast from a railway carriage at the Midland Railway Centre (now

Midland Railway - Butterley Midland may refer to: Places Australia * Midland, Western Australia Canada * Midland, Albert County, New Brunswick * Midland, Kings County, New Brunswick * Midland, Newfoundland and Labrador * Midland, Ontario India * Midland Ward, Kohima, Naga ...

) in Ripley,

. This was followed by three FM licences broadcast from office space located in Oxford St, Ripley. Following the group's second broadcast, musical differences caused a split. Amber Sound FM was born and ran alongside Valley Radio. Ran by local DJ Chris Smelt and local businessman Alan Farrar, Amber Sound FM held two restricted service licences in October 1995 and August 1996. Both stations felt that

was underserved by other local stations in the area. The team went to work to give

a station of its own. The two groups ceased in 1996 when it seemed the Radio Authority were not willing to grant licences in the area. Meanwhile the first rounds of community licences had been awarded to stations around the UK when in 2006 another station 'Amber FM' started. The station, ran by Eddie Fowler, prompted Chris Knight to get interested again and Eddie and Chris reformed under the name of Amber Sound FM in 2007 and performed two further RSL broadcasts. During these broadcasts Glyn Williams joined the group and so all three radio groups were now united under one banner. In late 2007

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 ...

the new licensing authority advertised for applicants for a new tier of community radio in the East Midlands. Amber Sound FM got their licence in May 2008. In October 2008 the station began broadcasting. The first ever song to be played on Amber Sound was " Easy" by

Commodores Commodores are an American funk and soul band, which were at their peak in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in ...

. The station also ran a fortnightly show produced by local students of Mill Hill School, Ripley and Alfreton Grange, Alfreton. This was known as the "Teatime Takeover" and ran on Sundays from 17:00-19:00. The show ran for approximately seven months until it was replaced by AT40 with Ryan Seacrest. The station is on 107.2 and 98.4 FM in the Amber Valley and online via their website.

References

External links

Amber Sound FM
- Station website {{coord, 53.048814, N, 1.403943, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Radio stations in Derbyshire