HFM Radio

HARBOROUGH'S COMMUNITY STATION!

HFM, Market Harborough’s very own radio station, now has a licence to broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 102.3FM.
HFM plays music to suit all tastes which has proved so popular with listeners in the past.
Run and managed by a dedicated team of volunteers, the station will continue its famous mix of music, from the 1960’s to today, competitions and community event promotion, overseen by its unique mix of presenters.
To keep up to date with HFM news or to get in touch log onto www.harboroughfm.co.uk and anyone interested in finding out more about advertising on the station should call 01858 466984.

The First Broadcast

The original pioneer for local radio in Harborough was John Fitzpatric. In the autumn of 1994, a small group of people attended a meeting in the settling rooms to discuss the possibility of providing a radio station for the town. This resulted in the first broadcast, which was made in May 1995, from a small makeshift studio attached to the Six Packs Pub on the Leicester Road. The 28 day license came to a climax with coverage of the Harborough Carnival in June that year, finally closing at 10.00pm on Saturday 17th June 1995 with Chris Rea's "Fool If You Think It's Over", which left us in no doubt that they would soon return.
Since then, there have been a number of broadcasts over the years on a temporary basis, some by splinter groups with stations like Valley FM and Big Dial Radio. With the move to larger premises on the first floor of a building in St. Mary's Road, HFM was able to provide a much better service. With the use of two studios, the presenters used computers to tie in jingles and adverts along with sound mixers to produce the programmes.

Improving the signal

The very first track played on HFM was "Over My Shoulder", by Mike and the Mechanics. Written by Paul Carrack and Mike Rutherford, it went out at midday on May 21st 1995. It was also the last track played on Friday 11th May 2001, just before 10.00pm when it was thought that the station would close for the last time.

Market Harborough is in a notoriously bad location for receiving FM airwaves, due to it lying in the Welland Basin. In the early days, when the transmission was broadcast from the town, the signal was patchy and soon lost away from Harborough, or even in parts of the town itself. This was overcome with the introduction of a micro link with a transmitter at Dingley, which gave a good strong signal as far away as Leicester city centre. Later the micro link was with a transmitter at Little Oxendon Farm, boosting the signal to parts of the midlands as far away as Peterborough and Ashby -de-la-Zouch.

The Presenters


Ben Donahoe	Charles King	Chris Jones	Justin Case	Moley	Paul Moore
	Many presenters at HFM have entertained us over the years. Here is a small selection. You can write to: HFM Radio, PO Box 1055, Market Harborough Leicestershire LE16 7ZL. Or e-mail: CHRISHFM@aol.com Telephone:01858 464666 Fax: 01858 464678 Their website is currently unavailable.			Richard Simister
				Terry Law
				Darren Jackson
				Des Barber
				Steve Booth
				Cliff King
				David Harris
				Andy Pearce	Lianna Lawrence
Sarah Walker				Daniel Ross	Dave Irving
				Nick Shaw	Keith Williams
Mark Chambers				Peter Tee	Darren Jackson

Many thanks to Paul Moore for help with background research on this page.