Yorkshire Coast Radio - History

History

For many years several leading businessmen in the town campaigned for their own local radio station. When a licence was advertised in 1991, three groups formed. One was Yorkshire Coast Radio Limited, founded by Paul Rusling, a radio entrepreneur, who in turn recruited Wilf Proudfoot, owner of a chain of a local supermarkets, a former Conservative MP and the former Managing Director of the offshore radio ship Radio 270 that was based in Scarborough. in the 1960s. Yorkshire Coast Radio was then purchased by Minster Sound Plc, a York based local radio company, and the station was launched in November 1993, broadcasting locally from 6am until 10pm and simulcasting programming from Minster FM from 10pm until 6am. Paul Rusling continued as a director of the company until 2001, along with Chairman Tom Pindar, Barry Robinson, and other well known Scarborough figures. The station was originally to have broadcast from a trawler, the Heatherleigh, in the town's harbour where it later was used for a museum, but the plan was dropped when Minster Sound's team took over. YCR initially broadcast from Falsgrave Road in the town, but the station has since moved out of town to a purpose-built new building on Hopper Hill Road.

Former notable presenters on the station include Greg Scott (most famous for his television appearances on ITV's Quizmania), Joel Ross (now one half of JK and Joel, who later spent three years at BBC Radio 1), Howard Nurse (BBC Football Editor), and Global Radio network presenter, Neil Grayson. The initial line-up included Jerry Scott (now with the BBC), Mike Hammond and Barry Robinson.