It was built by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to improve and extend UHF television coverage in north east Scotland, and is now owned and operated by Arqiva.

[5] The ITU conference held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1961[6] led to the planning of the UHF television broadcasting network in the United Kingdom.

The station opened on 28 October 1974[8] broadcasting the BBC and ITV colour 625-line television channels on UHF band IV, using the PAL system, with horizontal polarisation.

Previously, 405-line television (broadcasting on the VHF bands I and III) had been available for many viewers from neighbouring transmitters at Meldrum and Rosemarkie (BBC)[9] and Durris, Mounteagle and Rumster Forest (ITV Grampian).

The Grantown relay is located on high ground, and two of the incoming programme sources from Knock More (ITV on ch23 and BBC2 on ch26) would have experienced adjacent-channel interference from Rumster Forest (which broadcast on ch24 and ch27).