Radio Borders to close local studios and move to Edinburgh

Bauer is closing the Radio Borders studio facilities in Galashiels with broadcasting moving to Radio Forth’s new HQ at St James Quarter in Edinburgh.

Local news, sport and travel will continue to be broadcast, along with Gregor & Lynsey ot Breakfast, but from outside the Borders region from October 24th.

Elsewhere in Scotland, three new presenters have been announced as part of changes across Bauer local stations in the country.

At West FM, Billy Kirkwood is leaving breakfast, with co-host Ali Wright taking over as main presenter of the show with Michael Smith joining her as co-host from Monday 31st October.

Billy has commented on social media that he is now looking for work.

Ali Wright said: “I can’t wait to get started with Michael and have our fantastic Ayrshire listeners join us each weekday for loads of brilliant music and throwbacks, life changing competitions and of course plenty of laughs and nonsense too!

“A massive thank you to Billy Kirkwood who I have learnt so much from over the last six years and really enjoyed working with.”

And on the network, the late evening show is now hosted by Amber Livingstone, following Meg McHugh’s departure earlier this month.

Speaking about her new show, Amber Livingstone said: “I am over the moon to return to the Hits Radio Network with my own show. I love late night radio and I particularly love our throwbacks, because I can sing and dance in the studio every night to the biggest tunes!”

Victoria Easton-Riley, Content Director for the Hits Radio Network across Scotland said: “We’re delighted to secure three such brilliant presenters for our stations with Ali, Michael and Amber all bringing so much experience, passion, energy and enthusiasm to these shows. I would also like to thank Billy Kirkwood for his fantastic 6 years on West FM Breakfast and wish him all the very best as he leaves us to take on new and exciting opportunities and projects.”

Speaking on the Radio Borders move into its new studio, Victoria said: “We are committed to providing the best quality in radio content and having recently launched our brand-new state of the art studios in Edinburgh, our team in Galashiels have jumped at the chance to use them and be close to their colleagues in Forth 1 and 2, so making this switch full time made sense.

“There’ll be no noticeable change for listeners as we’ll continue to provide our listeners with the best local news and entertainment, life-changing competitions and of course the biggest hits and the biggest throwbacks too.”

Current legislation allows Ofcom to give permission for local radio stations in Scotland to broadcast their three hours a day of local programming from anywhere in their region (currently either South of Scotland or North of Scotland) in return for providing an enhanced news service (local news at least hourly).

This story first appeared on radiotoday.co.uk