The first produced audio transmitted on the new East Devon transmitters was a pre-scripted IBA announcement read by Ian Waugh. This was followed by DevonAir Radio programme promotions (see below) and a selection of music. These were packaged up on reels of tape broadcast from the racks room at the St. Davids Hill studios to the MF (450 metres) and VHF (95.8 mHz) transmitters. Called ‘test transmissions’, these were endlessly rotated during the daytime and early evenings from about the 18th October 1980 until the 6th November 1980.

Independent Broadcasting Authority announcement:

Here are some programmes and items produced by DevonAir Radio.

Station theme (short), Bob Kingsley, DevonAir ‘Memories’ ident:

DevonAir ‘Music the Morning’ ident, Paul Owens, DevonAir ‘Friendly Place’ ident:

DevonAir ‘Cold and Windy’ ident, Travis Baxter, DevonAir ‘Beautiful Devon’ instrumental ident:

DevonAir ‘Shot Gun’ ident, John Pierce, DevonAir ‘Sound of Devon’ ident:

The test transmissions ceased on the evening of the 6th November 1980. Live broadcasting from the St. David’s Hill studios (Control One) began at 0600 Friday 7th November 1980. It included the main station theme with a voice-over by Bob Kingsley, the DevonAir Radio news ident, a bulletin of news from Independent Radio News in London read by Douglas Cameron, DevonAir ‘Part of Devon’ ident, station and ‘DevonDawn’ introduction from Bob Kingsley, ‘Here Comes The Sun’ George Harrison, ‘DevonDawn’ programme start:

‘DevonDawn’ came off-air at 0900 and was followed by a bulletin of news from Independent Radio News in London read by Douglas Cameron, a bulletin of local news read by Keith Cooper of the DevonAir Radio news team and then the beginning of the ‘Paul Owens Show’:

DevonAir continued it’s first day with an extended lunchtime local news programme, ‘The Travis Baxter Show’ in the afternoon, ‘DevonDay’ the evening local news magazine and finally ‘The Kids Are Alright’ presented by John Pierce. In the first few weeks the station was only licenced to broadcast 0600-2100 weekdays, 0600-2200 Saturdays and 0700-2100 Sundays. The specialist music weekday programmes and ‘NightWatch’ with Ian Waugh began in early December 1980 to coincide with the start of transmissions from the South Devon transmitters and live broadcasting from the Torquay, Harbour Point studios.

The station closedown sequence consisted of the main station theme, a voice over by Ian Waugh followed by a pause before the -3db tone transmitted during the night. Here the sequence is captured off-air, broadcast before 1984:

The station closure in 1994:

 

 Original Station Idents and themes:

The original DevonAir on-air identity package (featured on this page) was produced by Steve England at Alphasound (now S2blue). I obtained clearance from Steve to use his work online in 2005. If you wish to do the same, please contact him here: info@steveengland.com and here:  info@s2blue.com. You do not have permission to copy or extract material from this website, please contact the original producers direct. I am sorry if that sounds harsh, but I have had to seek individual permission from several sources (and, with some, enter into an ‘agreement’) to reproduce material on this website – I promised them all I would protect material as best as I could. Terms and clearance arrangements here.