4th August 1997, 8:00am. In Los Tajinastes in the centre of Playa Las Americas, the team from Oasis Fm nervously gathered to ‘go live’ for the very first time on 101Fm across the south of Tenerife, as the brand new English language radio station was ready to broadcast.
Oasis Fm was started by the Elkington family, who already had a very successful bar on the island called The Snooty Fox, and saw an opening at the time to supply news, music and information to the British ex-pats with many of the local cabaret artists and DJ’s being in the first team of presenters.
They included Phil De Kettley, Maggie Lennard, Roscoe (in his first stint at the station), Simon ‘Batman’ McLachlan, Alan Taylor, Dave Scott, ‘Scouse’ Joey, Tango, Chris Merrick, Dirty Chris, Leighton James, Stevie D, Anita Bohannon, and The Elk.
In those early days of ‘dial up’ internet, when there was one PC in the corner where DJs had to log when they had connected and disconnected from the net, Sales and admin led by Lance King was handwritten or by typewriter, and Production Manager, Ian Lennard used the latest mini-disc technology.
Many people have asked over the years why it was called Oasis Fm and who named it. Was it because of the Britpop Oasis v Blur head-to-head at the time? No. The name came from Val Elkington who one day said, why not call it Oasis, because an Oasis is a ‘watering hole’ in the middle of the desert, and Tenerife is a ‘watering hole’ in the middle of the Atlantic! Incidentally, this is also where Chris Merricks ‘Watering Hole Gang’ came from.
The original team outside the studios at Los Tajinastes in 1997
A few kilometres up the TF-1 motorway in San Isidro, the new weekly newspaper in English had not long distributed its first issue, the Canarian Weekly had hit the streets targeting readers from El Medano to Los Gigantes, an amazing feat on an island where everything was still manual, ie design, discs had to be delivered to printers etc, and some of the fortnightly publications said ‘they’ll never last’.
Covering some of the notable highlights during the last 25 years, it’s amazing to think that this was all just a couple of months after Tony Blair became the prime minister, and four weeks before Princess Diana was killed in Paris.
In November 2003, Oasis Fm agreed to buy the Canarian Weekly and printed its first issue (there was internet by now!) which was number 329. This caused quite a stir with other publications who didn’t like the headline of ‘Highest distribution in Tenerife’ claiming they printed more copies and delivered to more locations. However, this was a play on words following a trip on the cable car to the top of Mt Teide to deliver papers to workers, hence, the highest distribution in Tenerife!
Over the next couple of years, the Canarian Weekly grew by printing more copies, increasing distribution, going ‘full colour’, having a TV guide, and its own website.
The very first issue (number 1) and the last one printed in March 2020 (number 1147)
At the same time, Oasis Fm continued to grow as well. Transmission increased to two frequencies in the south, and over the years in the north and Gran Canaria aswell, plus Oasis Fm Ibiza opened, and they also launched the Tenerife Entertainment Awards.
Then, the recession hit.
There have been three notable ‘difficult’ periods in the last 25 years, the first after the euro replaced pesetas as prices all went up quite considerably, the second was the economic crisis from 2008, which as always took longer to affect us here on a holiday island, but then also took longer to recover from, and of course the most recent one, which we’ll talk about later.
Anyone who was a business owner during the ‘crisis’ will acknowledge how difficult ‘staying afloat’ was during that period. There was no furlough or government grants as in the Covid pandemic (there was some help but very limited), and the effects lasted for several years leaving the islands in a very difficult economic position.
Following this, Oasis Fm and the Canarian Weekly continued the TEAs and also started Tenerife Loves Karaoke, and the Cyder Cup bi-annual golf tournament, and then in 2017, for the 20th anniversary, TributoFest, with the world’s leading Bon Jovi tribute band at Magma.
During this time, the company’s founder, John Elkington, stepped down for well-deserve retirement handing the baton to his son, Chris Elkington, who had always been involved, but now took on a bigger role, running the whole company.
On Friday 13th (had to be!) of March 2020, the Canarian Weekly team unknowingly published their last physical copy of the newspaper, number 1147, due to the Covid pandemic, the third ‘difficult’ period of the last 25 years.
However, the press never sleeps.
During lockdown, which was particularly tough in Spain and the Canary Islands, all staff were put on ERTE, and only Chris could broadcast on Oasis Fm, because he had permission paperwork from the police to do so, doing a 3-hour live show from the studios six days a week, bringing the latest news and interviews about the pandemic.
At the same time, a new website for the Canarian Weekly was launched which gave daily updates, news, stats, and as much info as possible about what was going on, not just in Tenerife, but now all of the Canary Islands.
Presenters slowly started to come back on to Oasis Fm during the pandemic, starting with Jenny T, who resumed her breakfast show, Robbie Dominic, Terry Ellens, and Justin Charles at the weekends, Liam Scott at Lunch, then DJ Dano took over from Chris, and eventually new boy Steve Ballard joined as well.
One of the most asked questions we get is: when are you printing the Canarian Weekly again? Honestly, we don’t know. Most of the team have left, started new jobs, or retired, and to be frank, it still isn’t commercially viable to restart it as it was, especially as the world has gone digital, and we have to.
Online advertising over the years, and especially during the pandemic, has reduced company budgets and Oasis Fm and Canarian Weekly are at the forefront of this with various cross-platform packages available for radio, online, and social media publicity.
There is so much more that could be written, and so many more people to mention and thank. The last 25 years has been an incredible journey, and incidentally, Oasis Fm is the longest owned radio station by British owners in the history, in the whole of Spain – some achievement.
So, to everyone who has been involved since August 1997…
The 100’s of DJs and staff that made it possible, thankyou.
The 100’s of guests (some very famous!), thankyou.
The 1,000’s of readers and listeners, thankyou.
The 100’s of clients and sponsors, thankyou.
The 100’s of competition winners, thankyou.
The 100-s of participants in our events, thankyou.
And, everyone who has helped us raise over a quarter of million euros for charities over the years. Thankyou.
Happy anniversary, here’s to the next 25!
