Graham Wright has been a familiar voice on East Midlands Radio since the mid-eighties.  His current full-time job is with Rutland Radio - a station granted an eight year licence from December 1998 to provide a dedicated local radio service to England's smallest mainland county (on 107.2FM) and the neighbouring historic market town of Stamford in Lincolnshire (on 97.4FM).  Being the holder of a Yorkshire passport, Graham's entry into Rutland back then was viewed with a little suspicion by Oakham customs officers.   But having checked his car boot for excess tripe and illegal whippet smuggling - and then discovering he'd already lived in the East Midlands for sixteen years - he was allowed in as presenter of the station’s weekday Daytime Show.   He's since moved to the Afternoon/Drive slot, daily from 2pm until 7pm, along with Sunday lunchtime between noon and 4pm and the "Nine O'Clock Nostalgia" hour.   He's now also Features Editor and works with the Station Manager to schedule the varied music output and assist with most aspects of the day to day running of Rutland Radio.

PERSONAL
Anyone tuning in to Graham will discern his key interests as music, going to concerts (primarily classic rock), real ale & traditional pubs (being a long time CAMRA member), local cinema, Ordnance Survey maps, collecting 7" singles (new & old) for his jukebox, cycling, boating (Graham is working with groups aiming to completely restore and reopen the Grantham Canal ), cycling to pubs, visiting pubs by boat, pub walks, etc, etc .... plus Rover cars (when NOT visiting the pub!).

"Being one of the original launch team I'm very proud of what we achieved in such a short space of time " says Graham.  "Starting a brand new radio station (with no listeners!) and quickly having over a third of the entire population tuning in to Rutland Radio each week is amazing.  One RAJAR research sweep showed us to have gained a bigger weekly reach in our area than any other local or national commercial or BBC radio station.  We've been hailed within the industry, too, winning the Radio Academy "Nations and Regions" Gold Award for East Midlands Radio Station of the Year in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, nationally nominated for Radio Station of the Year at both the 2000 ntl Commercial Radio Awards and 2004 Sony Awards, and WINNING the accolade of ntl Commercial Radio Station of the Year 2004 .  It's a real credit to our small team of professional, hard-working staff - on a radio service with a tiny budget, but big ideas."
 
TRULY LOCAL
"Being part of the Lincs-FM group, not only is the Rutland Radio music policy less repetitive and more diverse than most commercial stations, but we do much more than just play great current & classic chart songs" says Graham.  "We feature, and sometimes playlist, local artists - with often dramatic effects for their CD sales and downloads!  For our more mature listeners there is 'Nine O'Clock Nostalgia'  on a Sunday night - an hour of melodies from the 1930's to the 1970's - which ALWAYS features Frank Sinatra ... my vocal hero since childhood.  Our news, weather & travel service is rooted in Stamford & Rutland as is the free publicity for local charity, fundraising or non-profit making events.  Many of the organisers appear as guests on my shows, along with celebrities such as Rutland Water birdwatcher Bill Oddie, singer Hazel O'Connor, former "Crossroads" and "Coronation Street" star Holly Newman and former Harringworth resident Dave Bartram of Showaddywaddy, who've all visited our Oakham studios.  But it's our localness that really counts - having built up a rapport with our listeners and advertisers that only an accessible radio station right on their doorstep really can.

A BRIEF HISTORY
Graham's interest in radio started as a young boy in West Yorkshire - putting together mock music radio shows with his best friend on a portable cassette player in his bedroom - to be inflicted regularly on his parents!  But his interest found a wider audience when, as a student, he became involved with Nottingham Hospitals' Radio at the Queen's Medical Centre.  As well as presenting two weekly shows - one of them being being a rock show called "Shockwave" (aimed at all "hospital headbangers!") - he served as both news editor and programme controller.

Graham's first paid radio job was in November 1986 when he joined Leicester Sound as one of the presentation team for its new "Careline" service.  A year later he found himself working behind the scenes at sister station Radio Trent in Nottingham before being finally allowed "on air" as a fully fledged music radio presenter when East Midlands gold station GEM-AM was launched in October 1988.  During this time he graduated from overnight shows, to Early Breakfast, to Lunchtimes - as well as becoming producer of the Tony Lyman Breakfast Show and many radio commercials for the GWR group.  Voiceover work also became part of his portfolio.

Sadly all good things usually come to an end.  A lamentable management decision was taken to "network" more and more of GEM's output with other Classic Gold stations in March 1998 leaving Graham (and many other long established presenters) with no job.  But an enjoyable and lucrative eight months were then spent freelancing at new East Midlands Station Radio 106FM (which became 106 Century FM and is now Heart 106) before Graham secured his current full-time role in Rutland.