This week’s column isn’t so much a column as it is a collection of words, describing the tale of NCB Radio in nearly 13 years of broadcasting. 

I can be absolutely certain that the majority of you reading this may not have heard the radio that NCB Radio has produced, free of charge, since its launch at 6pm on January 7, 2011. I can only hope you do so at some point in the future, hopefully there’s something we do that you’ll like. 

But away from your gaze, a growing, changing group of people have celebrated and shared their love of music with the world through the power of the internet. Along the way, some have moved onto other things, other stations or indeed different formats of sharing their love for music, but the spark was lit at NCB Radio. Unless you’re Vincent Vega, whose spark is an inferno rather than a tiny flame you can hear every Wednesday and Saturday. 

It’s only when we look back that we see how much has changed in the near 13-years since we first turned the encoder on and greeted listeners with our very first track ‘Alive and Kicking’ by Simple Minds. 

When we launched, David Cameron was Prime Minister, Rihanna was having something of an identity crisis by asking listeners what her name is at the top of the charts and it could be argued the world was something of a different place. Although, perhaps pertinently this is written just after the aforementioned David Cameron made his return as foreign secretary. 

But what of the music? Or as Justice H Keystone would have put it in his much missed show from the early years, ‘the muuuuuuusic’. 

One of the things that inspired NCB Radio was the idea that we would not be like other stations. This manifests itself in various ways, including our long held ban on U2, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber to name a few. Mainly because they’re rubbish and you can hear them everywhere else. 

On NCB Radio, the presenter drives the music, and we have a diverse range of tastes and formats to suit the majority of those who listen, and, contrary to rumours it’s not just our parents and best friend, and to our knowledge, no one is tied up by any of our presenters and forced to listen. 

Why not give us a go? The station broadcasts from the early hours until midnight each night, with live and specially curated shows each weekday evening and throughout the weekend, completely free of charge and for the simple reason because we love sharing the music that matters to us, and hopefully, you. 

www.ncbradio.co.uk or by asking your smart speaker to ‘play NCB Radio’. 

And finally, a special thanks to everyone on and off air who have shared this journey with us. Here’s to the next 13 years and beyond.