IT WAS a night to remember for the presenters of Forth Valley Radio station as they celebrated three years being on air.

The channel was founded on April 13 in 2020 as a way to combat lockdown, but has since grown into a huge station, attracting listeners from far beyond the Wee County.

The founders – Stephen “Steve Mac” McFarlane, Colin “CJ” Mills and Steve’s partner Llinos Williams – marked the occasion with a dinner at the Royal Oak Hotel on April 14, 2023.

Looking back on the past three years, Steve Mac reflected on the station’s humble beginnings to growing into an internationally listened channel.

“It started when we were in lockdown. CJ Mills and I, we were working with another radio station and CJ phoned me up and asked: ‘Do you want to start a radio station?”

“I told him: ‘Don’t be silly’. Next thing I knew, we had opened up Forth Valley Radio and we had secured the premises in Tillicoultry.

“The last three years have been fantastic – we’ve been going from strength to strength.”

Alongside being a founder of the station, Steve Mac presents Rollermania on a Friday night, which is three hours of Bay City Rollers, a proven hit with listeners.

“We reach over 100,000 listeners on a Friday night with my show,” Steve added. “Three hours about the Bay City Rollers and it reaches worldwide.

“The success of the station has just went through the roof – we have listeners from Japan every day of the week, listeners from America, all over the world.

“We’ve got digital audio broadcasting coming (DAB), which means you’ll be able to have us on in the car and not just as an online station.”

Despite being heard worldwide, Forth Valley Radio has remained firmly in its roots in the Wee County and has carried out a number of charitable appeals to help the community.

In January 2023, the Advertiser reported on the appeal Forth Valley Radio launched to help replace kitchen appliances and clothes for a family who lost everything in a house fire.

The station managed to fill 170 bags of clothes that went to Turkey and Syria and throughout lockdown, members of FV Radio delivered meals to the elderly.

They also succeeded in placing memorial benches dedicated to Alan Longmuir and Les McKeown, founder and bass guitarist and lead singer of the Bay City Rollers.

Forth Valley Radio can be found online at forthvalleyradio.co.uk.