A CITY regains its own radio station today - more than 30 years after broadcasters last went off the airwaves.

Commercial radio station Durham FM goes on air at 6am, based at a former electrical engineering workshop off Framwelgate Peth, in Durham City.

The last time the city was home to its own radio station was 1973. In that year BBC Radio Durham, where young reporter Kate Adie cut her journalistic teeth during an 18-month stint straight from college, was closed down - its headquarters in Park House Road now home to St Cuthbert's Hospice.

Brian Lister, regional managing director of parent company The Local Radio Company, said: "Durham is unique - it's the only place in the country which had local radio and had it taken away. The idea of having a station based in Durham again just excites people."

Station manager and programme controller Peter Grant, who heads the 17-strong workforce at the station, added: "We have a proud, city and it has to swallow the fact its local radio comes from Newcastle and Middlesbrough."

The station, which will be able to reach most of County Durham's 490,000 residents, promises a broad mix of music, along with hourly news bulletins and local traffic and travel.

The station will broadcast from 6am to 1am, seven days a week, on 102.8FM in the north of the county and 106.8FM in the south.

It also plans a number of specialist shows including a three-hour Sunday night punk slot and a Sunday morning soccer phone-in by former Sunderland captain Richard Ord.

The Local Radio Company has invested around £500,000 in the venture after winning the franchise. The company already operates a number of local stations in the region, including the long-established Sun FM in Sunderland, Alpha in Darlington, Minster Radio in York and it is expected to open BTN radio in Northallerton soon.