Studios - Radio for Milton Keynes

In 1978 the Milton Keynes Development Corporation and British Telecom set up Co-Ax Cable Communications to run a public access cable TV station Channel 40 from two buildings in the Fishermead area of the new city.

Read about CRMK Studios >

The original studio facility came complete with studios, rehearsal room and a recording facility. There weren't enough original programmes broadcast from the station and it was closed down in 1979.

Rather than close everything down the idea of a local community radio station was born, a new station was named Community Radio Milton Keynes and moved into the Fishermead studios previously occupied by the Channel 40 TV station.

The station broadcast over the city's cable network on the frequency 90.6fm, from the Fishermead studios until the mid 1980s after which CRMK moved to temporary premises at the Inter-action Centre in Peartree Bridge. It remained there until 1989 when Horizon Radio arrived in Milton Keynes.

As part of their bid to win the broadcast franchise for the Milton Keynes area, they offered the community station a permanent home within their building on the Crownhill Industrial Estate, where it has aired shows ever since using the name Cable Radio Milton Keynes 89.8fm.

Due to the decline in use of the MK cable network by the public, it was decided in 2008 to broadcast via the internet only. This then enabled the station to access parts of the city that were not previously covered by the cable as well as the surrounding area and beyond, so in-effect it’s a 21st century cable radio station.

Now entering a fourth decade of broadcasting, where internet and traditional methods of broadcasting are getting closer, the station continues to broadcast from professional studios in Crownhill.