At six a.m. on a cold, dark winter's morning - January 22, 1975 to be precise - when a new sound was launched to radio listeners living in East Central Scotland, now affectionately known as Forth Country, it was the sound of Radio Forth 194 and the voice of Richard Findlay, Radio Forth's first Programme Controller, spoke to an anticipating audience with the words "This, for the very first time is Radio Forth".  (You can listen to opening speech by clicking here.)  Steve Hamilton was the first presenter on-air and 'January' by Edinburgh band, Pilot, was the first disc played.  Steve's engineer on the opening day was Sandy Wilkie, former Managing Director of Radio Forth.

That was over 31 years ago and Radio Forth is established as an essential part of life for the people of East Central Scotland.  Radio Forth has undergone changes over the years, matching the needs of listeners and adapting to market conditions, but throughout has always remained a popular service with the audience it serves.  Radio Forth has always remained in touch with the social and political changes that have occurred within its transmission area over the past 31 years and by so doing has remained on top of the game.

The first and potentially the most major change came about in 1990 when Radio Forth split frequencies and offered listeners two very distinct and different services.  Pre-1990, Radio Forth was simulcast on AM and FM frequencies. However, faced with the challenge arising from the Radio Authority requirement, the station split to offer two services:  Forth FM and Max AM.

Forth FM was conceived primarily as a chart based radio station targeted at the 15-35 age group with a range of specialist music programmes.  Max AM was designed to target the 35+ age demographic, and musically concentrated on the classic hits from the 60s, 70s and 80s, again with a range of specialist late night music shows including Pure Scotch, Barrie Country and Ken's Den.

In 2000 Radio Forth addressed a second challenge, that of re-branding and marketing the existing stations and after much consultation 1548 FORTH2 and 97.3 Forth One were conceived.

1548 FORTH2 moved towards playing more 'adult contemporary' music and incorporating 'intelligent speech' concentrating very much on local input.  News and sport featured more in the general programme mix.  You can check out Forth 2's sister-station, 97.3 Forth One, by clicking here

97.3 Forth One has re-asserted itself in the market as the chart station featuring the best hits as well as a few 90s and 80s classics strategically placed in the playlist, plus all the news, sport, traffic, showbiz and local information that the listeners had come to expect and need from their local radio station.

Forth One and FORTH2 have come a long way in four years and remain the market leaders. 

There have been many voices along the way.  However, the key to the success of Radio Forth has been that these voices have been unified in giving the people of East Central Scotland what they want:  quality information, first class entertainment and most importantly, LOCALNESS.

You can hear some of the most memorable Radio Forth jingles from the full 30 years by clicking here.