Brothers’ book tells of battle for town airwaves
BROTHERS who founded Ashbourne Radio have launched a book telling the story of their battle to bring local radio to the town.
Broadcast Brothers – On The Radio was written by Steve and Paul Jenner, who secured a broadcast licence for the Peak District from the government in 2003 and founded the Windmill Lane-based station five years later.
The brothers tell how they fought with The Radio Authority to set up their stations, High Peak Radio and Ashbourne Radio; of a legal case which almost stopped them in their tracks and their time as “pirate” DJS.
Managing director Paul said: “The book concerns itself with how we got here. We start many years ago in the 1950s when Steve arrived on the scene and trace events through to 2003 – five years before Ashbourne Radio began – when the broadcast licence for the Peak District was finally decided.
“It’s a subjective account but we’ve tried to be as honest as we can. Having written the book between us, I can honestly say ‘you couldn’t make it up.’ So we haven’t.”
They explain how close the brothers came to winning a licence in another area before joining the race for a High Peak station – which would probably have meant that Ashbourne and the Derbyshire Dales would not have had a local radio station.
Ashbourne Radio founder and presenter Steve said: “We’ve been writing this for a while. It is almost 20 years since our first trial broadcast in the area, Radio Buxton.
“The licencing authority of the time has long since disappeared, to be replaced by Ofcom. Things are very different now from the way they were back then. I think our listeners will be genuinely surprised at what a hard road it was to get to air. It wasn’t so long ago that the Radio Authority regarded Derbyshire as not justifying a licence at all, only licencing Derby City as a sort of extension of Nottingham.
“Many radio pioneers spent a lot of time, skill and energy trying to change that view. This book is in part a tribute to them – and a thank-you to all those listeners who tuned in to little stations which came and, in many cases, went, in a very short time – but were crucial to the development of the media landscape here.”
The book costs £14.99 and was released earlier this month, published by Broadcast Brothers Publishing and is available from Ashbourne Radio’s studio, WH Smith in St John Street, The Picture Book in Leek, Bakewell Book and gift shop, The High Peak Bookstore at Brierlow Bar and by visiting www.broadcastbrothers.co.uk