Ian Perry is on-air every Sunday morning from 10am easing you into a 'Lazy Sunday', and can also be heard on the hourly news and sport bulletins from Erewash Sound, and as cover for other presenters too! You might also spot him when Erewash Sound attends local events and provides public address services.
Listening to offshore radio station Laser 558 in the mid-80s and the launch of commercial radio in Derby in 1987 gave Ian the radio bug. The airwaves called, and Ian joined Derby's hospital station, Radio Link. Several happy years - around a decade in fact, were spent as a producer and presenter on request, magazine, specialist, sports and general entertainment programming. He also fronted the station's fundraising department and was frequently at the helm of the Roadshow with what was then future BBC Radio Derby presenter, the late Andy Potter, who would eventually go on to be Best Man when Ian married his wife in 1997!
Whilst with Radio Link, he met BBC Radio Derby presenter Dave Halls whilst interviewing pop stars at a nightclub. Dave invited Ian onto his BBC Saturday night show to present vox-pop features and album reviews. When Dave left the BBC, Ian carried on work for Devon Daley until a management decision saw the end of Devon's show, replaced by network programming from BBC Nottingham studios.
The 90s saw Ian join charity station Radio Cracker, and in 1996, he joined Valley Radio in Ripley on the weekend line up, whilst at the same time, presenting the Saturday night late show on Chesterfield's Trust FM - a station which would go on to make an albeit unsuccessful application for a full time licence in North Derbyshire. Ian spent some time on the planning committee working on the licence bid.
In 1997 Valley Radio presenters moved city-bound to form Pride FM in Derby. Ian was later elected as Chairman (later Director) overseeing one of only 25 Millennium services across the country, and a 2002 Jubilee Broadcast to commemorate the Queen's 50th reigning year, 75 years of the Derby Cathedral, and 25 years of Derby having City status. The Pride FM project ran for a total of 5 years.
Sitting around his dining table with Jeff Martin, together they fomulated plans to launch Erewash Sound in late 2004 and this led to a short-term FM trial from Ilkeston in 2005, the launch of the internet-only service in 2007 and the successful application for a licenced FM service which was launched in March 2010.
He has long been of the firm belief that that the people of Erewash deserve a radio station just for the area and now that they have Erewash Sound on their radio dial permanently, they will realise just how poorly served they had been by local radio before. This is why he is so proud of the local achievements of the radio group so far, and, as an Erewash resident, looks forward with great excitement to the potential of Erewash Sound.