As Radio Haldon Limited it won the franchise on June 16th 1979. The Secretary of State approved a change of company name to DevonAir Radio Limited on the 4th October 1979.
On
the completion of its Exeter studios DevonAir started
broadcasts to the East Devon region on the 7th November 1980
between 06.00 hrs - 21.00 hrs. Transmissions to the South
Devon area which included output from the Torquay studios,
the provision of the world's first regular split broadcasts
and the extension of hours to midnight commenced on December
12th 1980.
The station lost its franchise in 1993 and closed down at the end of 1994.
"The momentary silence and atmospheric crackle was deafening as an English county drew its breath to savour the moment. When that moment was over - so was DevonAir Radio." What The Papers Said
These web pages provide an interesting account of DevonAir through its extra ordinary popularity as a local talks with music station into the fight for survival, the sell-out and finally the loss of the franchise.
(Picture: Engineer Howard Pelling in Control Two at the DevonAir Studio Centre in Exeter driving a live edition of the weekday news programme DevonDay, presented on this occasion from Studio Two (circa 1981) - image: © Nick Johnson).
I am extremely grateful to those who have kindly given their permission for certain material to be published on this website. Without their co-operation this work could not have been possible (click here).
If you have any memories of DevonAir please click here and let's read them!
"I have many memories of my seven years with DevonAir, many of them happy and joyful. Above all it was a real pleasure and privilege to be able to work with such a talented team and to broadcast to the English county I was brought in and the region I was born - hence this website" [Ian Waugh, Presenter and Head of Presentation, 1980 - 1987].
Join
the DevonAir Radio facebook group
here