Broadcast from studios at Albert Quay in Leith, the station was billed as radio for Scotland's thinking classes but was unable to create a clear identity for itself, while changing its format to focus on more populist content, including less speech and more music.

In early 1993, the Radio Authority invited applicants to bid for a new regional FM licence covering Central Scotland and serving a potential audience of 3.3 million listeners.

The Radio Authority argued that the station would extend listeners choice and could demonstrate financial stability and professional qualifications appropriate to launching and maintaining the service during its eight-year licence period.

The company's founding chairman, Sir David Steel (a non-executive director of Border Television), pledged the majority of its programming would be a unique Scottish view of Britain, the world, and Central Scotland's place in it.

[4] Problems arose even before the station went on air - none of the thirteen presenters listed in its original application schedule had remained with the company and its target of 50% quality speech output at peak times could not be achieved.

[12][13] The station replaced its syndicated Reuters Radio news bulletins with an in-house service, although this had limited resources and was reportedly under-staffed with inexperienced young journalists who were even forced to travel by bus to help cut costs.

Both departures and those of several staff, who disagreed with Graham over a schedule revamp, led to a drop in listening figures,[23] with half of its audience share disappearing - Scot FM had been reaching 16% of the population in the east and 14% in the west.

IRG Chief Executive Michael Connolly claimed the station's new schedule was starting to regain lost listeners, while speaking of a three-year plan to turn its fortunes around.

[24] By the end of 1997, Jeff Graham was replaced by John Collins,[25] prompting another programming revamp and the arrival of more new presenters, including Gary Marshall (breakfast), Dougie Jackson (mid-mornings) and Donny Hughes (drivetime).