Radio Tees
Radio Tees was the original name of TFM (radio), the Independent Local Radio station broadcasting in the north east of England, serving Teesside and parts of County Durham and North Yorkshire.
Broadcasting on 257 metres medium wave from the converted Water Board buildings at 74 Dovecot Street, Stockton-on-Tees, Radio Tees was launched at 6am on 24th June 1975 by Les Ross. By the autumn of that year Radio Tees was also broadcasting on 95 VHF, the first radio station in the area to offer the clarity of FM transmissions.
Marketing itself as 'A Friend Who's Always Near' and 'The Sound of Home', Radio Tees offered unique and distinctive local output with a wide variety of programming and an emphasis on community involvement. Many of its presenters, such as Alastair Pirrie, Mark Page, John Simons, Mark Matthews and Graham Robb, came from the local area.
Alongside specialist Soul, Blues and Country music shows, Radio Tees programmes included the hi-fi show 'Sounds Superb', the motoring show 'Sidelight' and the holiday show 'Trains and Boats and Planes' where Radio Tees presenters would travel to destinations around the world and record reports interviewing local people and giving tourist advice and information. Radio Tees was also a presence at many local events, regularly broadcasting from the Cleveland and Darlington Shows, the Teesside Air Show and the Teesside Steel Family Gala. The station often organized its own outside broadcast events as well, many of which took place in John Walker Square, just off Stockton-on-Tees High Street. For a few months during 1985 Radio Tees even had its own traffic 'flying eye', a light aircraft kept at Teesside Airport (now re-named Durham Tees Valley Airport), from which Graham Robb reported on traffic conditions and which featured daily on John Simons' breakfast show.
One of the best remembered programmes from Radio Tees' 13 year history was 'Late On', presented by Graham Robb, which ran from 10pm to 1am every weekday evening in 1984. Featuring such colourful characters as Rita the cleaner, Mad Tom the handyman, Ginger Johnson (ex-RAF) and Superstar Cecil the proprietor of 'The Balloon and Feather' pub, the show gained a cult audience.
By the mid-1980's Radio Tees found itself in financial difficulties and in 1986 its parent company, Sound Broadcasting (Teesside) Ltd, was bought by Metropolitan Broadcasting, which also owned Metro Radio in Newcastle upon Tyne. In November 1986 Radio Tees moved its FM frequency to 96.6 in a direct swap with BBC Radio Cleveland. In 1988 the station was re-branded as 'TFM' in an attempt to provide it with a more modern image. In April 1989 its 257 metres, 1170 kHz medium wave frequency was split and this became Great North Radio (GNR). In 1992 TFM vacated its old Dovecot Street studios and moved to new, purpose-built studios in Thornaby-on-Tees. In 1998 Metropolitan Broadcasting was taken over by EMAP; 'TFM' was re-named '96.6 TFM' and brought into EMAP's north of England Independent Local Radio Big City Network.
Former Radio Tees presenters who have gone on to work in the UK national media include Mark Page, who briefly worked as a presenter for BBC Radio 1 in the 1980's, Roger Lewis, who was Head of Music at BBC Radio 1 and is now Managing Director of ITV Wales, and Alex Lester, who has presented the 3am-6am show on BBC Radio 2 since 1990. It is in the area of news and sport though, that Radio Tees has appeared on the CV's of some of the best known and also some of the most powerful figures in the UK broadcasting industry: Kim Barnes (BBC Television News reporter), Jeff Stelling (Sky Sports presenter), Helen Boaden (Director of BBC News) and Mark Mardell (BBC Europe Editor).