The short version!
"I'm just an anorak standing in front of a website hoping to fill it with amazing retro #radiomerch!"
Inspired by the existing brilliant work of the likes of AircheckDownloads and @RadioMugs, we're on a mission to try and build an extensive online repository of UK radio memorabilia spanning the decades.
We're aiming to unearth treasures of mugs, clothing, stickers, photocards, badges, and a whole host of other nostalgic items that bring back memories of the brilliant stations and brands that have played their part in making UK radio history.
Find out how you can get involved with the project.
The longer version!
We'd been mulling over an idea for a while for a new website - The UK Radio Merchandise Archive - which would be a digital archive of UK radio merchandise/memorabilia from across the years, aiming to bring together a wide variety of fantastic radio-related items from the many collectors out there.
We love seeing lots of great #radiomerch posts both on Twitter and in various Facebook groups, and certainly we're not wanting to tread on the toes of any of those feeds/groups with this new website. However, we always find that social media posts can be pretty fleeting, easily missed and things soon get buried underneath newer posts. It can also be difficult to browse/search through all the posts for specific items, especially across different platforms. So this new website aims to create a permanent, searchable archive.
Back in 2022, we worked with the brilliant aircheckdownloads.com to build their new website, to make their huge collection of amazing audio content easier to group, browse and search. This new #radiomerch site is similar to that in terms of the way it organises content and makes it accessible to find by station, era, type etc.
We're aware of a previous website (radiothings.com) that did something similar a few years ago but it's sadly no longer running. We contacted Michael, who ran it, and he's been more than happy for us to pick up the baton! He's also been very supportive in letting us have the radiomerch.co.uk domain from him and also handing over the running of his previous Twitter account. @radiomerch too. Thanks Michael!
We mentioned the idea for the radio merch website at the outset to a few fellow radio anoraks on Twitter, all of who have also all been supportive of it (thanks @airchecks and @RadioMugs especially!)
Key to the new website is the ability for users to upload photos/details of items in their own collections to help to build the Archive. Users can have their own profile on the site, effectively giving you your own webpage to show off your radio merch collections!
We hope you enjoy visiting the website and that it brings back some memories for you as well as hopefully building into an extensive online repository of the #radiomerch slice of radio history. Get involved if you have your own merch to share and thanks for visiting!