‘Proper radio’ is back with Your Harrogate says broadcaster Nick Hancock

The show will go on: Harrogate Theatre reopens with panto after storm batters roof

Nick Hancock, Creative Director of Your Harrogate, said the independent radio station has now set a timetable for moving onto DAB digital radio in a matter of a few months.

After launching the station as a digital channel in March, Mr Hancock said he was responding to the overwhelming demand of local listeners.

He said: “Since Your Harrogate launched, we’ve been overwhelmed by the support from both listeners and advertisers. But people do keep saying ‘when are you going to be back on proper radio’ so we’ve brought forward our DAB timetable to get on DAB by February 2022”.

The popular presenter dominated the airwaves on the Harrogate-founded Stray FM for 11 years before its demise last year.

Having launched Your Harrogate earlier in the year, listners have been able to access it online, as an app and as a smart speaker station.

But Nick says Harrogate needs and deserves a ‘proper local radio station’.

He said: “We need a local station like Your Harrogate as nobody else is going to talk about Helter Skelters and Leadhall Lane!

“National radio presenters are great but they have never heard of Saint Michael’s Hospice or the Stray bonfire and they don’t connect with radio listeners who want to know about Harrogate.”

Director of Your Harrogate, Adam Daniel says there has been a big demand for DAB: “People like Your Harrogate because it’s positive and supportive of everyone in Harrogate and I think the community needs that now more than ever.”

Mr Hancock added that Your Harrogate would be available on the North Yorkshire DAB multiplex from February 3, 2022 while station bosses wait for Ofcom to advertise a specific licence just for Harrogate and Wetherby.

All local digital radio (DAB) multiplex services, which usually carry both commercial radio services and BBC local or national services, have a specified licensed area under terms set by Ofcom as part of the Government’s Digital Radio Action Plan announced in 2010.

The latest news is another boost for the Harrogate’s broadcasting landscape.

Online Harrogate radio service HG1 Radio may have closed earlier this year but Harrogate listeners are still enjoying something of a local radio boom since the demise last year of Stray FM.

As well as the town's longest-running station, Harrogate Hospital Radio, which has been going strong since 1977, other local broadcasters include Harrogate Community Radio which was launched in

August 2019.

For full details of how to retune your radio for Your Harrogate, visit www.yourharrogate.co.uk

Harrogate to host world premiere of Howard Blake’s The Snowman Symphony