Radio Mearns FM

Mearns FM is a community radio station with roots in Stonehaven and the surrounding Mearns area. Its history reaches back to a local radio initiative formed in 1993 and short-term broadcasts in July 1994. Further temporary broadcasts followed in 1996 and 1998, involving young volunteers and developing a local presenting team.

The Mearns FM service celebrated ten years on air in June 2019. After a period in temporary premises, flooding in August 2020 forced another move, and the station began broadcasting from its Ann Street studios in Stonehaven the following month. This history reflects a community project maintained through volunteer involvement and changes of home.

The schedule includes Knock John at breakfast and Ian Hunter's Mearns Magazine. Keith Mack and Sheila Hay are among the drive presenters. Paul Hayworth's Rock Your Blues Away gives rock and blues a specialist setting, while Keith Mack's Friday Night Dance Party shifts the musical emphasis towards dance records.

Those programmes sit within a service that combines general music with individual presenters' interests. The daytime magazine and drive shows provide a regular framework, while the evening selections offer more focused listening. Mearns FM's identity comes from both its local history and the people making its current programme: a Stonehaven-based community station with established daytime voices, specialist music and a long connection with radio participation in the Mearns. An early interviewee was Billy Connolly, interviewed by the then seventeen-year-old Ross Gilligan.