Marcher celebrates 25 years

GCap Media's Marcher Sound is celebrating 25 years of broadcasting to Wrexham, Deeside, Chester and Ellesmere Port this weekend with former staff joining as guest presenters.

Former presenters have been invited to share memories, which were broadcast on Friday (5th September). Ex TV duo Trevor and Simon (of Going Live fame) presented the breakfast show, former ‘Funhouse’ host Pat Sharp anchored the mid-morning show, the Duke of Westminster – an ex station director – is being interviewed and well known members of the community, like Wrexham boss Brian Little, have recorded congratulatory messages. On top of that, a time capsule buried under concrete at the studios was dug-up.
Marcher Sound launched on air at 6.30am on the 5th of September 1983, on the 238m (1260kHz) VHF 95.4 frequency. Cliff Richard’s ‘Wired for Sound’ was the first song broadcast and when the singer himself appeared at the Mold Road studios years later police had to control crowds of screaming women who queued from 5am even though he was arriving in the afternoon.
Over the years famous names who have presented shows on the station include Bruno Brookes, Steve Coogan and Jeremy Kyle, whilst Ken Dodd was once a director.
In 1989 the station changed to the 103.4 FM frequency and rebranded as MFM, however in September 2006 the station reverted back to its heritage name of Marcher Sound because listeners had never stopped calling it that and wanted the original name to return.
Current managing director Clive Douthwaite said: "We are very proud to have reached this milestone and we hope listeners enjoy the celebrations on air. It has been very interesting delving in to the past to put together our website content for this anniversary. We discovered an old photo of presenters with a gas fire that was given away. Recently we gave away a brand new car. How times have changed!"