Misplaced Pages

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Stray FM" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The topic of this article may not meet Misplaced Pages's notability guidelines for companies and organizations. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Stray FM" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Stray FM was an Independent Local Radio station serving the western half of North Yorkshire, and sections of West Yorkshire, to the north of Leeds and Bradford, England. The original licence covered the towns of Harrogate and Ripon and the surrounding areas.. From 1 February 2012 the station expanded to cover the Yorkshire Dales.

The station was folded into Greatest Hits Radio Harrogate & The Yorkshire Dales, as part of a rebrand, on 1 September 2020.

History

The station started broadcasting on 4 July 1994, eleven years to the day after BBC Radio York started transmitting and two years to the day after Minster FM first went on air. The station had previously operated a number of 28-day broadcasts in the Harrogate area.

In 2008, 97.2 Stray FM was awarded an Arqiva Award for "Station of the Year" (TSA under 300,000).

In 2012, UKRD bought Yorkshire Dales licensee Fresh Radio. Following agreement from Ofcom, the station announced plans to cede coverage of Richmond to Star Radio North East and to switch off the AM transmitters, rolling the remaining portions of the old Yorkshire Dales licence into an integrated and enlarged licence.

On 17 December 2014, Stray FM started broadcasting on DAB digital radio, under the name Stray Extra. It was broadcast on the North Yorkshire DAB multiplex from various locations within the county, including Bilsdale, Acklam Wold, Hildebrand Barracks and Oliver's Mount. Stray Extra carried Stray FM programmes in the morning and through the day, but during the evening the DAB schedule differed from the FM version, broadcasting its own dedicated programming. The DAB service was later merged with the FM service as Stray FM.

On 5 March 2019, Bauer announced agreement to purchase the UKRD Group. The whole UKRD Group, including Stray FM was placed into hold separate by the Competition and Markets Authority on 12 March 2019 subject to completion of a merger inquiry.

Bauer announced on 27 May 2020 that Stray FM would be rebranded as Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire from early September 2020.

References

1. Local DAB launches in North Yorkshire
2. Bauer Media UK to acquire UKRD Group
3. Bauer Radio/UKRD Group Merger inquiry]
4. "Most of acquired Bauer stations to become Greatest Hits Radio". 27 May 2020.

External links

• Official website

53°59′26″N 1°32′21″W / 53.990615°N 1.539112°W / 53.990615; -1.539112

1. Stray FM Hits The Airways In A New Way For The Great Yorkshire Show
2. Stray FM Named Best Radio Station
3. All the winners from the IRN Awards 2016

• Radio stations in Yorkshire
• Radio stations established in 1994
• Radio stations disestablished in 2020
• The Local Radio Company
• 1994 establishments in England
• 2020 disestablishments in England
• Greatest Hits Radio