A PIONEERING community radio project is closing down after five years reporting in Ryedale.

Radio Ryedale was set up by David Sumner, a former Yorkshire Television director, in 2002. Now the internet radio station is closing down - because it's been too successful.

The station, at www.radioryedale.co.uk, was entirely run by volunteers, and Mr Sumner said the demands of listeners had become too much for the small team.

"There comes a point where we just can't keep churning out more stories," he said. "We've tried to get more volunteers, but they come and go."

He also said technology had moved on since the station's inception.

"Our original remit was to provide a platform for people to have their say," he said. "But now with Youtube and blogs and all the rest of it, people can set up their own websites," he said.

In a statement on the station website, Mr Sumner said: "The company's success, in terms of its ever-increasing audience, has imposed operational demands on our few volunteers that they are now unable to satisfactorily meet.

"We have tried hard to recruit more volunteers and explored the possibility of some other not-for-profit organisation, with similar community objectives, operating the service, all without success."

Mr Sumner said he had found working on the station very rewarding.

"It was significant for me, because after being in television virtually all my working career servicing other talents, to be there and calling all the shots was a privilege," he said.

He also gained a lot of satisfaction from giving some of their volunteers a stepping stone into production work.

The station covered topics from current affairs to the arts, and from business to religion.

"I think the stories which had the most community relevance were the unedited recordings of district council meetings, and similarly, the recordings of church services we did," Mr Sumner said.

He said he had personally enjoyed interviewing researchers at the Central Science Laboratory, at Sand Hutton, near Stockton-on-the-Forest.

"We were bringing to the layman the scientific relevance of what they were doing," he said.

He thanked sponsors, volunteers, interviewees, performers, writers and the station's listeners.