Radio station celebrates 40 years

Princess Margaret officially opened the station History of Radio Stoke

One of the country's first local radio stations, BBC Radio Stoke, is celebrating 40 years of broadcasting.

It went on the air on 14 March 1968 to the tinkling sound of teacups, the station's first jingle, representing the local pottery industry.

The station began operating a month later than planned after foot-and-mouth prevented access to the transmitter.

Radio Stoke has always had its base in Hanley town centre and has moved only once, just 100 yards to a new site.

The first two years of the station's life were paid for not by the licence-fee payers but by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

The council wanted a way of raising the city's expectations of itself.

While the BBC paid for capital equipment, the council paid the station's running costs.

The pioneers from 1968 set a high standard in terms of localness, innovation and enthusiasm Sue Owen, Radio Stoke's managing editor

Programme makers at Stoke were among the first to introduce phone-in programmes and consumer-related shows - now the staple fare of many radio stations.

A host of broadcasters went on to bigger things over the intervening years.

Bruno Brooks became a top national DJ, Gordon Astley became a presenter of the hugely-popular ITV children's show Tiswas, and Tony Maddox, a reporter in the 80s, became vice-president of European Operations for the international newsgathering TV operation, CNN.

Many other Radio Stoke broadcasters and managers have gone on to senior posts within the BBC and the broadcasting industry.

Sue Owen, the station's managing editor, said: "The pioneers from 1968 set a high standard in terms of localness, innovation and enthusiasm.

"Those standards have continued over the last four decades which is why we have some of the highest listening figures in the country."