A station led by BBC local radio presenter Tony Gillham is going live on FM in the Cambridgeshire town of St Neots this week as part of an attempt to get a full-time community radio licence in the next round of Ofcom licensing.
Black Cat Radio, which missed out to Huntingdon Community Radio in the last set of licence awards for the area, is launching a month-long RSL on Thursday (1st December).
Tony has worked at countless stations during thirty-odd years in radio – including Chiltern, Mercia, Orwell, Broadland, GWR, Classic Gold and several BBC Local Radio stations – including BBC Radio Cambridgeshire where he still does a weekend ‘Gillham Gold’ show.
He told us: “The aim of Black Cat Radio is uniquely to provide a full service for St Neots and nearby parts of Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. There’s an amazing amount of enthusiasm to get involved. We have a cross section of people from students to the arts.”
Among those presenting shows on the station are Mark Hansard, Graham Hughes and Pete Revell, who previously worked at local stations Hereward, Chiltern and Classic Gold. Tony Gillham will do the station’s weekday breakfast show.
It’s understood the station are in talks about going on the North Cambridgeshire/Peterborough DAB multiplex full time from early 2012.
Tony previously ran Black Cat Radio RSLs from his home in Buckden near St Neots – with a story about his transmitter having previously enabled us to use the smutty headline ‘Objection to BBC DJ’s erection’. The station has now moved into new studios in Huntingdon Street, St Neots.