University Radio York (commonly known as URY) is a student radio station covering the campus of the University of York, UK. URY began broadcasting in 1967, and was the first independent radio station in the UK. The station broadcasts on 1350AM, and also has a live stream on the station's website. Like most student radio stations, it is run entirely by volunteers, mainly from the students studying at the university. The first person to speak on URY was the late John Peel.
The station broadcasts 24 hours a day during the university term times (a total of around 30 weeks a year).
URY won the BBC Radio 1Student Radio Association (SRA) Student Radio Station of the Year Award for the first time in its history in 2005. This was also the first time the station had even been nominated for a SRA award. (URY's Programme Controller at the time, Matt Wareham, was also nominated for the Best Station Sound category in the same year, but did not receive an award). URY has also featured live broadcasts from the USA, and has listeners as far afield as Canada and Norway.
As part of the prize for winning Student Radio Station of the Year, on May 29th 2006 URY was broadcast on BBC Radio 1, taking over the 3 hour Early Breakfast slot usually occupied by JK and Joel. The show was broadcast nationally on 97-99 FM and DAB, across the USA on Sirius Satellite Radio and online through the BBC Radio 1 website. It was also made available by both URY and Radio 1 on their respective listen again webpages.
URY was set up in 1967 by Mike Greasley, a student of the university. The station broadcast for the first time as Radio York under a test licence, and was the first station independent of the BBC to broadcast in the UK. The station was relaunched as University Radio York in 1969 with a guest broadcast by legendary DJ John Peel.
The station switched from its original 999KHz induction loop system to a LPAM licence in 1999, and now broadcasts across the whole of York University's Heslington campus on 1350AM. The station has also conducted Restricted Service Licence (RSL) FM broadcasts across the whole of the city (the last of these being in 1998).
Initially the station was to broadcast lectures and educational material (as well as popular music), however the station is now mainly entertainment based, with some arts and speech programming.
