Meanwhile on the other MFM

There is a lot debate and discussion over radio networking, especially topical at the moment with the recent expansion of the “Heart” brand here in the UK.

An often criticism of much networking over the last decade or so seems to be aimed at stations who seem they don’t want to admit that some of the programming is not coming from the local studio, but rather some syndicated sudo-national or regional service.

Last weekend I looked at what was happening in “marcher land” in 2014, for this week’s ‘Sound Archive’ we’re tuning into the same service nearly two decades ago in May 1995.

I’m picking this out as an example of “honest” networking common on the Marcher group stations of this era. MFM’s two frequencies of 103.4 and 97.1, along with the AM and the North Wales coast 96.3 services at various times had various permutations of shared programming. The one thing in common was they were generally very open at the spilt points and in general promotion of what programmes were shared.

May 1995 saw a schedule shuffle on the two MFM services, so our first recording clip features Brett Harley explaining the spilt programming. Then we’ve got clips from through the day on the 97.1 “Wirral” daytime version of MFM on 2nd May 1995 with clips of Gary Wilkinson on Breakfast with Helen Wilkinson as newsreader,  then David Peerpoint on mid-morning show, finally Ben Weston on Drivetime.

The second clip from earlier on the same cassette features some jingles and more clips of Brett Harley and spot the Peter Morgan “in house” produced voice-over one of MFM’s Jam/Alfasound jingles

This is another item in my ‘Sound Archive’ series.