THE date is nearing where the last vestige of traditional local commercial radio as we all knew it breathes its final breath when early next month, Neil Caddy and Saffy present their final show on what is now Hits Radio.

It will bring the final curtain on an excellent 33 years of broadcasting from their studios on Wilson Way in Redruth, to be replaced by non-descript, generic and “celebrity fronted” networked radio shows from up country. The only thing vaguely local to remain will be the news bulletins, at least for now.

The story of NCB Radio has its genesis in Pirate FM, because our founder was once a child and young adult who was captivated by Pirate growing up and NCB Radio was created from that passion for local radio production.

Although, it is true that over the years we’ve evolved into the form we are now – a station who puts the love of music and love of its community front and centre while operating on a budget of a few dollarpounds and powered by tea, gin and an extensive record collection.

What has happened to Pirate and the vast majority of now former-local stations is in many ways indicative of the problems of the town centres as our society has changed into something more corporate, more faceless and less individual. Where once our radio dial was full of thriving, local radio stations which lived and breathed their areas, our high streets were once full of a diverse range of businesses.

You could go into almost any shop and you’d know who owned it, they’d know you by name, and so forth. However, now – giant conglomerates rule the roost and in the pursuit of profits, leave any semblance of locality behind in the bid for homogenisation. The town centres are being replaced by large out-of-town amenities with the profit not put back into the community but into the arms of equally giant, faceless shareholders.

Now the radio dial is dominated to the point of exclusivity by “brands” owned by Global and Bauer, with the taxpayer funded BBC as the main alternative. That being said, Rewind is one station on DAB doing a damn good job of trying to keep the flame alive, as our your local community stations of which we are one and who need your support more now than ever.

The worst thing about the loss of Pirate is how needless it was. It was a radio station that was doing extremely well in terms of listenership and revenue generation. It wasn’t that long ago it was one of the flagship stations of the now former owners UKRD. It didn’t need to be changed, but in the land of conglomeration, the spreadsheet is king.

Goodness knows what will be next down the line – AI replacing the celebrities on the networked stations, maybe? It sure would get the accountants excited.

We’ll end on this note – if you care about where you live, find your local station and listen to it.