Buckie radio station to mark 50 years since launch

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

To understand Radio Buckie, a community radio station which began in the local school and went on to broadcast to hospitals and care homes across the region, one must first become acquainted with its founder - science teacher and former pirate disc jockey Jeff Jones.
Fraser, now in his sixties, remembers him fondly.
The Pirate Radio Scotland ship, the Comet, which transmitted for 20 months from 1966-67 (Image: NQ) He recalls: 'Back in the 1960s, there were a lot of ships in the North Sea which would broadcast music to Europe and the UK. Jeff was from Darlington and he broadcast from a ship called Radio 270.
'That is, until the Marine Offences bill came into force in 1967. His mum didn't want him to get arrested,' Fraser chuckles.
Jones emerged onshore in Aberdeen, where he was studying at the university, and became one of the city's most popular DJs.
He then moved to Paisley, where he took his broadcasting expertise to the local hospital radio and became a science teacher at St Aelred's High School.
In 1973, Jones moved north to the town of Buckie, 62 miles north-west of Aberdeen. There, he worked as a chemistry teacher at Buckie High School.
One day, Fraser says, Jones, who was known for his love of three-piece suits, made a rather interesting proposition to his teenaged charges.
'Jeff said: 'If anyone would like to get involved with broadcasting, come up after the lesson.' I was 15, so that really interested me.
'So I was part of the first group of pupils who set up the hospital radio in our classroom in Buckie High School. Jeff was the first to bring the idea of hospital radio to Buckie.'
A young Keith Fraser (right) along with engineer Innes Flett in 1975. (Image: Supplied) The station, which went live in February 1975, was met with widespread community support, Fraser remembers.
'There were 12 to 15 pupils involved. We were given a Wednesday afternoon each week to do programming. Before long, a local care home in Buckie and the community centre were keen to host our shows.
'You have to remember,' he tells me. 'This was 50 years ago. We had a very active community Rotary Club who fundraised for us, and raised thousands of pounds.'
Small-town set-up aside, the fledgling studio was run like a professional organisation. A landline connected the studio in Buckie High School to the nearby Seaforth Hospital.
'It introduced a group of young people to professional broadcasting. Jeff insisted that we do it professionally. We had a range of programming; country, Scottish music, easy-listening. We played Frank Sinatra and Perry Como.'
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1970s luminaries such as Tammy Wynette, David Essex, and The Corries were interviewed on the station, which was an early proponent of Bruce Springsteen, according to Fraser.
He adds: 'It was really quite a good grounding and a lot of people got very good experience in the industry.
'One of our broadcasters was Mike Holloway, who went on to work at Northsound in Aberdeen on their breakfast show, and was in charge of programming at Radio Clyde.'
The group gathered in 2000 to celebrate 25 years since the station began. (Image: Supplied) However, changing technology and rising costs finally caught up to the station.
Fraser explains: 'What really put the kibosh on the radio was our use of post office landlines to broadcast. It only cost £50 at first, but by the 1990s, it cost thousands every year.
'So the radio reverted back to its roots and provided music to kids at lunchtime for a few years."
Programming stopped before the community radio station was relaunched in 2015.
Looking back at the last 50 years, Fraser says the skills he learned as a part of Radio Buckie helped to set the stage for the rest of his life.
'We produced outside broadcasts and interviewed big stars. It was a good all-round grounding.
'I wasn't a shrinking violet, but radio gave me a lot more confidence in dealing with people. I brought a lot of that to my later career.'
In the early 1980s, Fraser was living in Aberdeen when he received a call from Jones, asking him to help a group of locals set up a hospital radio at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Fraser, who was in the midst of a degree programme at Robert Gordon Institute of Technology (now RGU), answered the call.
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'Grampian Hospital Radio was set up in 1981. I was the first chair,' he tells me, proudly adding: 'And it is still going today, broadcasting 24/7 over the internet.
Fraser, who worked in the records department at Robert Gordon University (RGU) for many years, has retained his love for community radio.
'I still do two programmes for Grampian, a Sunday morning breakfast show and a Sunday afternoon contemporary charts slot,' he tells me. 'Folks from as far away as Japan and Brazil listen in.'
Meanwhile, Jones had a long career as a part-time newsreader in north-east radio circles, where he could be heard across the decades on Moray Firth Radio, BBC Aberdeen, Northsound, and even BBC Radio 2.
Yet, time has taken its toll, and while the original members of Radio Buckie get together to reminisce every five or ten years, the group's founder is no longer among them.
The group, pictured in 2015 to celebrate 40 years. Jeff Jones is third from right. (Image: Supplied) Jones, who died in 2019, is remembered as a bastion of the Moray community. Over the years, he served as a chartered chemist, Girl Guide ambassador, newspaper contributor, and justice of the peace.
His absence makes Radio Buckie's 50 year reunion, which will be celebrated at a special reunion lunch in November, all the more poignant.
'This will likely be the last time the original group will be able to come together,' Fraser says, rather matter of factly.
'November 27th would have been Jeff's 80th birthday, so I felt it was fitting that we met up then.'
Indeed, as the gang gets together one last time, they will doubtless be toasting the pirate DJ who brought them all together, so many years ago.