The new PATTAYA PEOPLE RADIO – 88.25FM
(same same but different) – with Barry Upton
When I first moved to Pattaya in October 2009, I had an encounter at the local radio station 96FM Pattaya People Radio, where I was interviewed about my successful music career. A suggestion was made to me that I should join the media group as a presenter. As I’d previously done some radio presenting on stations in the UK together with a whole career in entertainment, the idea appealed to me and soon I had my own daily lunchtime show called ‘Behind The Music’.
After a while I was upgraded to presenting the flagship ‘Breakfast Show’ and not long after that to station production manager which meant supervising the playlist output. I was having so much fun and had a great reason to get up early in the mornings which was a joy. Regular guests would participate and there really was ‘never a dull moment’.At one point, while the main studio was being refurbished, we took the morning show out onto the street and had people passing by or stopping to get a coffee and joining me and my crew ‘on air’.
Guests were filmed and edited for a daily Pattaya People TV version of the morning’s antics. Some of the things we got up to you couldn’t make up (such as Friday’s regular ‘Ringo Bingo’) and it was the crazy spontaneity that made the output all across Pattaya so addictive. Eventually, we all returned back to the main studio on the 4th floor but the lunacy continued with regular traffic and weather queen Rose, making up new lyrics to established songs about the road jams in Pattaya and us performing live ‘on air’ with no rehearsal.
The fun never stopped and we had a professional team to convey that out to an unsuspecting public listening in on the FM airwaves.
Around 2016, a change of management was made at the PP Media Group and I took a break for a while but when asked to rejoin a year later, I accepted but realized the media landscape had changed somewhat with the growth of online listeners. So, I reshaped the organization of 96FM to adapt to current trends but retained the popular playlist I’d crafted over the years.
After riding the Covid wave, 96FM PATTAYA PEOPLE RADIO has continually been a high standard entertainment form but from now it will continue as 88.25FM PATTAYA PEOPLE RADIO. This is because new Thai licensing arrangements are being brought in from January 1st 2026. Frequencies have had to be bid for, and CEO Niels Colov was triumphant in successfully obtaining the only two available for English speaking stations in Pattaya.
So the original 96FM station will now become 88.25FM and the new 90.75FM will be allotted to Rotary Radio under the umbrella of Pattaya People Media Group There has been a serious amount of creative production over the last few weeks at my studio changing and re-editing all the wonderful jingles with new station idents retaining the sense of fun that has already been established over the years.
So, same same but different – the same mix of fun/upbeat/singalong/pop/rock/oldies, but now at a different frequency on 88.25FM – PATTAYA PEOPLE RADIO.
Online remains – www.pattayapeople.com Enjoy !