Background

BBC Radio Durham was part of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's original plan to have 9 sites where local radio experiments would be carried out. It is the only one of the original stations to have fully closed down.

It opened on 31 July 1968, but after the government restricted the BBC to 20 local radio stations, the corporation responded by ceasing transmissions on 25 August 1972. Its resources were transferred to Carlisle

City of Carlisle

The City of Carlisle is a local government district of Cumbria, England, with the status of a city and non-metropolitan district. It is named after its largest settlement, Carlisle, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Brampton and Longtown, as well as outlying villages...

 where BBC Radio Cumbria

BBC Radio Cumbria

BBC Radio Cumbria is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Cumbria and broadcasts from studios in Carlisle.- History :The county of Cumbria, from which the station takes its current name, was not created until 1974...

 was formed.

It was the only one of the original stations to cover a county rather than a city. When the BBC opened Radio Newcastle which covered the north of the county and Radio Teesside (later Cleveland) covered the south, it was sandwiched between the two. Although, in effect the radio station itself was moved to Carlisle to create the new service there.

County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

 is now covered by BBC Radio Newcastle

BBC Radio Newcastle

BBC Newcastle is the BBC Local Radio service English metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, broadcasting from studios on Barrack Road in Newcastle upon Tyne.- Technical :...

 and BBC Tees.

Former BBC News

BBC News

BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...

 correspondent Kate Adie

Kate Adie

Kathryn "Kate" Adie , OBE , is a British journalist. Her most high-profile role was that of chief news correspondent for BBC News, during which time she became well known for reporting from war zones around the world...

 worked at Radio Durham, before joining BBC Radio Bristol

BBC Radio Bristol

BBC Radio Bristol is the BBC Local Radio service for the English city of Bristol and the surrounding former Avon area. Launched in September 1970, it broadcasts from Broadcasting House in Bristol on FM frequencies 94.9 MHz , 104.6 MHz , 103.6 MHz , on AM 1548 kHz and on DAB.The...

 in 1970. John Donaldson, perhaps less known than Kate Adie, went on from Radio Durham to become a familiar voice reading the news on BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

.