Country 1035
| Broadcast area | London |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 1035kHz Medium Wave |
| Programming | |
| Format | Country music |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | various |
| History | |
First air date | 1st September 1994 |
Country 1035 was a country music based Independent Local Radio station based in London, England.
History
After airing test transmissions the first voice officially heard on air was the stations chairman John Wellington. In his opening words he noted that the station will "fulfill a long awaited need". It was the first terrestrial station in the country to broadcast Country music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (although TV and Radio stations had been broadcasting the genre daily for sometime). Garth Brooks, who was at the peak of his fame, officially opened the station after Wellington's speech with the words "On behalf of all the Country music artists and Country music fans. Hi folks, this is Garth Brooks and you've got it tuned to the newest radio station in London. It's Country 1035 and I officially declare it open. I wish you guys a long success and a lot of happiness, cause that's the true measure of success".
The first song played was Brooks' Friends in Low Places (which was voted #1 country song ever by listeners of the station a few months later), the second was another Brooks song The Dance. The station's early line up included such well-known presenters such as Jon Scragg, Randall Lee Rose, Paul Hollingdale, David Allan and Bryan Chalker. Chalker was fired from the station not, as has been suggested, for playing songs that were too old but for disciplinary reasons. David Allan left the station, going back to BBC Radio 2 and in an article for Country Music People magazine he criticized the station for not playing enough true country music.
As presenters and managers alike bickered about what was "true" Country music, the operation began to run out of money and Country 1035 faced closure. After much heart-searching, the station was sold to media giant RTL who made attempts for nearly three years to turn it around. An initial over-formulaic, heavy-rotation playlist cut ratings, but a subsequent, more audience-friendly format saw station share rise, and at one time, even exceed its competitor Jazz FM.
In order to save the station its owners decided to automate the presentation and broadcast from the studios of Talk Radio in London's West End, featuring Andy Beeley,Tina Stewart, Keith Francis, Randall Lee Rose, Miles Long and Mark Hagen. RTL sold RTL Country 1035 as it had become known to Ritz Records, at one time the UK record label for Daniel O'Donnell, but internal squabbles within the RMG group resulted in the mother company becoming close to bankruptcy. By 2002 the audience had been reduced from over 250,000 listeners a week to only 75,000 listeners. Ritz sold it on to Mean Radio, part of Vince Power's Mean Fiddler group. It was then purchased, in turn by Asian radio tycoon Avtar Lit, owner of Sunrise Radio, who re-named it Easy 1035. After a year or so of broadcasting a mixed easy listening/country format, Mr Lit applied to Ofcom to transfer Easy to a digital platform, thus freeing the 1035 frequency for Kismat Radio, a further Asian language station. "Easy 1035" stopped broadcasting on the terrestrial AM service in 2003 but is still broadcasting (now called Easy Radio London) via its digital frequency.
Another country music station 3C in Great Britain was also closed in 2007, and the advent of digital platforms means it is unlikely that such a station would ever again be licensed on a terrestrial frequency.