The big switch on - 102.1 and 105.5FM

Yesterday was a very important step in the life of Radio Teesdale. We switched on the transmitter that extends the broadcast area to the Upper Dale of Teesdale. We are now broadcasting all across Teesdale on 102.1 and 105.5FM. The installation and testing of the steelwork, aerials and transmitter equipment on the mast went very well over the two days that it took. For the most part the weather was brilliant with clear blue skies (as you can see from the photographs) although this meant it was very very cold – at minus 5 degrees at times.

This “switch on” is the culmination of a lot of hard work by a great many people from the community of Teesdale over the last five years. Everyone who has played a part should be very proud.

We very much welcome listeners located in the Upper Dale and hope you will enjoy the broadcasts and, even more importantly, become actively involved in this fantastic community initiative. Switching on the upper dale is only the beginning. Now the fun begins!

This weekend we are launching our new car stickers promoting our two frequencies. As far as we know, these are the only car stickers currently available that mention the name Teesdale. They are available from several locations across the dale. Tune in to find out where. On Sunday the 16th December we will be at the Farmers’s Market at the Bowes Museum.

Progress on the upper dale transmitter

It has been a great day at Radio Teesdale. This morning was extremely busy with a whole variety of guests on the Morning Magazine programme. Many thanks to John Atkinson for his hard work on the Breakfast Show and the Business Programme, as well as managing some training activities.

The Christmas week schedule is looking brilliant. Several listeners have asked if we will be scaling things back during the holidays. Quite the reverse! I’m delighted that several of the presenters have given up their holiday time to do extra programmes. Maybe it’s the excuse they needed to get away from the turkey sandwiches and the “Mother-in-Law” who is coming to stay for the week!!

The long awaited steelwork which will support the aerials at the Upper Dale transmitter has been fixed. The Engineers will continue working tomorrow fixing the aerials and the transmitter equipment. We hope to have the work completed sometime during the day. If all continues to go to plan we will be broadcasting across Teesdale on 102.1FM (in addition to our current frequency of 105.5FM) by the end of Friday. There are a few photos of work carried out today on the web site photo gallery.

Lots going on at Radio Teesdale

There are exciting times ahead as we build up towards Christmas. Radio Teesdale was actively involved in all the various initiatives that were happening throughout Barnard Castle last Friday night – The Witham Hall Fair, late night shopping and the switching on of the Christmas Tree lights. We had live on the spot and in the studio interviews covering all events. Town Cryer Ian Kirkbride even hosted the Drive Time Show from 5pm to 6pm. Lunch Time show presenter Katey Wallace did a fabulous job keeping the crowd informed and excited throughout the light switch on as we waited for Santa to arrive – the kids (old and young) loved it. Later today we will be interviewing folks at the Middleton in Teesdale Lights switch on.

A lot has happened over the last month. A new training course has started - book now for the course starting in the new year! We have finished the infrastructure work to the two studio and all the acoustic work is complete….people have commented saying that it looks like an art installation from the Tate Modern! A great deal of work has been going on to sort out the installation of our main transmitter in the upper dale. We have high hopes that the work will be complete before the end of the year and we’ll be broadcasting across Teesdale on 102.1 and 105.5 FM. Watch this space for more news over the next few weeks.

It has been great to see all the members of the community visiting the studios in recent months contributing to programmes such as Drive Time, Morning Magazine, What’s On, Inside Out and many more. Have a look at the photo gallery – we now have over 300 photographs on there! We’ve also been speaking to a whole variety of performers who have been in the area or simply just wanted to get in touch. These have included up people from wide ranging genres including up coming musician Chris T-T, top band British Sea Power, harpist Clare Bakewell, folk legend Bob Fox and The Avison Ensemble. We have also interviewed John Altman (formerly Nick Cotton from Eastenders), Emma Atkins (formerly Charity Dingle of Emmerdale) and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics and these will be broadcast over the next week or so.