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1987 Capital
Radio Takes Over
In 1987 the station was aquired by London based Capital
Radio.
July 4th 1989 -
Independence day for East Devon and West Dorset
July 4th 1989 - South West 103 frequency launched taking
DevonAir into East Devon, West Dorset and South
Somerset.
1991 GWR
Group buys a stake in DevonAir
1992 Station
Relaunched as the New DevonAir
On 9th November 1992 the Station was relaunched as the
New DevonAir FM with the slogan - "Devon's Better
Music Station". There was a notable change in
direction with a number of DJ's parting company with the
station.
1993 Devonair
loses licence to broadcast
DevonAir's licence was up for renewal in 1993. They
faced tough competition from 3 other applicants. Gemini
Radio (part of Orchard Media), Bay City Radio and Wild
West Radio. The Radio Authority deliberated for some
time and in an unprecedented move asked for more time to
make its decision.
In the end the choice was between Gemini and DevonAir In
November 1993 a decision was made. The new licence,
starting from January 1st 1995, was awarded to Gemini
Radio. The main difference between the two bids was that
Gemini Radio proposed to broadcast a separate output on
the MW and FM frequencies whilst Devonair proposed to
continue with its simultaneous output, claiming this had
been behind its 80000 listener success.
Originally DevonAir Radio thought they had won the
license to broadcast in Devon until at 8.15am on the 8th
of October 1993 a brief four paragraph statement from
the Radio Authority left DevonAir and its listeners
stunned. All the staff and bosses at the station were
shocked. "There's no other way to describe how we
feel shocked really shocked" was all Chief
Executive Paul Angus had to say at a press conference
outside the St Davids Hill studios on the 8th of
October. Dave Bowen the programme controller, admitted
keeping the spirits up among the presenters would not be
easy he said: "They are a dedicated team who love
the station and love the area. This is not the kind of
job you can do unless you care about the listeners. They
will give their best until the last."
The license was awarded to Gemini Radio and its seems
this was due to the Radio Authority's liking for
Gemini's plans to broadcast separate output on MW and
FM.
December 31st 1994
The last day
December 31st 1994 DevonAir's last day of broadcasting.
The final show commenced at 12pm and was an hour look
back at the stations history. Presented by Paul
Saunders, the show featured some of the current
presenters including Chris Dinnis and Kevin Kane and
included lots of nostalgia, old jingles and memories
from listeners.
Chief Executive Paul Angus remarked "You have to
seriously question a system where listeners have had
their choice taken away by an unelected, unaccountable
quango in London. A lot of people have asked how this
could happen and everywhere our staff have gone in the
last 12 months people have said the decision was wrong
and they love DevonAir."
"I am sure there will be a few quivering lips, but
we will be drinking a champagne celebration of our
achievements. We will be running normal programming
until mid-day and then doing a one hour retrospective of
some things that have gone before. We have chosen all
the music, including the final record. Paul Saunders
will be hosting the programme and will be joined by
other members of the team. We did not want to any danger
of the day slipping into a wake and we will finish at
1PM on a high. We will then run a taped output for the
last 11 hours."
The station went off air at 1PM and the final record was
"The Sun Ain't Going To Shine Anymore" by the
Walker Brothers and was very fitting considering the
first song "Here Comes The Sun" by the
Beatles.
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