Meadowhall Radio - Live from Sheffield

The History & Concept...

It all started when Pete a friend of mine had the idea to do an RSL in Sheffield. Having decided on the format of the station a demo was sent to the Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield and the history of Meadowhall Information Radio began.

The idea was to provide a traffic and travel service for visitors to Europe's largest shopping centre. This was to alleviate the congestion experienced during the Christmas shopping period. The service was so successful that we were given the opportunity to provide summer broadcasts in the school holidays as well as the Christmas broadcasts.

Our first broadcast was Christmas 1994 and subsequent broadcasts were as listed below.

The station format included traffic bulletins every 12 minutes which meant that traffic news was constantly updated 5 times per hour. As well as travel news, weather information was broadcast at the same time. News on top of the hour was provided by Independent Radio News via satellite from London.

The station broadcast regular features such as the entertainment guide and ran many competitions. We gave away hundreds of pairs of cinema tickets to see movies at Meadowhall's Warner Village Cinema. We even had the exclusive use of a screen on New Years Day to show a preview of Disney's 101 Dalmatians. We easily FILLED the cinema with listeners!!!!!!

Each broadcast ran for 28 days and provided output 24 hours a day. We were the first RSL to have RDS traffic flags on our travel bulletins. Eventually the information was dropped from the name to make it Meadowhall Radio.

It all ended in 1998 when Meadowhall appointed a new marketing manager :o(

The Management Team....

Pete Brettle - Programme Director
Paul Denton - Administration & Finance Director
Andrew Deprez - Personnel Director
Paul Godley - Technical Director
Nick Sanders - Facilities Director
Marie Godley - Director
Claire Brettle - Director

The Presenting Team...

Paul Denton Pete Brettle Paul Godley Steve Flowers David Bell Marcus Langreiter Scott Marshall Andy Painten Richard McCourt Andrew Deprez Nick Sanders Sarah Major Simon Walker Lee Glasby Chris Sandham Jamie Banton

Clive Lingwood David Poole James Marson James Bower Laura Craig Lorraine Plummer Peter Stringfellow Mike Bargh Doug Young Debbie Miller Alison Belk Chris Marsden Pamela Bennett Robert Smith Mike Smith

The presenters, where are
they now?

Paul Denton - The Post Office (Supply Chain Manager)
Paul Godley - Real Radio Leeds engineer and presenter + Trax FM Doncaster
Andrew Deprez - The Pulse
Andy Painten - BBC Birmingham (TV)
Richard McCourt - Children's BBC (TV) Now at Radio 1
Mike Bargh - Trax Fm Doncaster
Steve Flowers - Sheffield Hallam University
Nick Sanders - Yorkshire TV
David Bell - Royal Hallamshire Hospital
Chris Marsden - Fresh and Radio Leeds
Pete Brettle - Canalside Community Radio FM 87.8
Sarah Major - Radio Sheffield
Marcus Langreiter - G Cap Media
Scott Marshall - Nottingham Crime & Drugs Partnership
Rob Smith - GWR / G Cap Media

The rest who knows....Do you?

Who did the Jingles and stuff?

The sung jingles were made by Thompson Creative and the station voice overs were Nick Jackson who did all the station promos and Nick Coady who did all the station id's

Poster that was displayed around the centre

Article from Meadowhall's Magazine "The Messenger" from Christmas 1996

Advert from Meadowhall's Mall Guide August 1996

Paul Godley at the controls from December 1997