The Kintyre Forum

What a station - was driving back up the road last night - made me smile all the way till I lost reception (at furnace?) Great eclectic mixture of music from Status Quo straight in to Play Misty for me, Mull of Kintyre to Musical Youth, bit of everything - the fermers reading their diaries, now that is classic "...on this day in 1982 I was fixing the mucker chain.., sold a calf at Tarbert, St Mirren beat Rangers at home 2-1 !" - can relate to all that too!, the brass band show, sports show, others too but maybe not at weekends when I'm usually down.

Thank you to everyone involved at Argyll FM, hope all is well with licences, finances and leases - look forward to tuning in again soon.

Great station,always have it tuned in when home.Especially enjoy the "two mad fermers"

bill wrote:Great station,always have it tuned in when home.Especially enjoy the "two mad fermers"

Is that the "blue stoor 'oor"?

Thanks Tom B,

1982………My granny used to reminisce about that year.


As with all local radio stations this year will be a tough one for us.

The big drain on our finances is the transmitter sites. They are around £5k each a year to lease. Add to that our 5 electric bills, which have increased dramatically over the last year, and our various licence fees, it all mounts up. Luckily we now own the building so that saves us a few thousand.

We will have to do some major fundraising soon. Most of our equipment is the original gear and has been running 24/7 for almost 10 years!

Is it possible to listen to Argyll FM over the internet?

No not at the moment.

We have been looking at ways of doing this for some time now.

The problem is that if we broadcast over the internet we have to pay more fees to PPL/PRS for music licenses. Some radio stations in the UK are doing this without paying these fees, hoping that they will be too small for the agencies to be bothered chasing. But in the last couple of years, as many hairdresser/small offices/shops etc will tell you, they call you up and ask about the music/tv/radio playing in the premises and then send the bill.

Our remit has always been to broadcast to the ‘local area’. The internet can be low-cost to broadcast over if you cheat the system. To be honest we struggle to broadcast on our three frequencies as it is. If we diverted precious funds away from terrestrial broadcasting to the internet it would have a detrimental effect on our direct business.

We could have the internet sponsored, but at present we are finding that sponsors/advertisers are cutting back and at the end of the day we are a community radio station for the local community. Yes it would be great if we were on the web but funding is the issue. No sense putting the cart before the horse.

Hope this helps.

I have been listening to the station while staying in Campbeltown and I think its great. A good selection of music is played and its a pleasure on the ears. I hope you get the funding you need to keep it going. Good Luck

Radio, I hope your avatar,the dancing bear,is listening to Argyll FM