This will be the last post in a while here on Radiolicious. (Well, it’s also the first post in a while!)

I’m pulling the site and its archives offline for the time being. The reason? I just don’t have time to keep the thing up to date. University work, travel plans and general exhaustion mean I can’t give this site the attention it deserves. And there’s nothing worse than a boring old out-of-date blog. I’ve had fun keeping up with the world of community radio, something that’s grown further than I could have imagined in the past couple of years. And that’s actually part of the problem; there are so many of you now that I can’t keep up with what you’re all doing!

I’m keeping the archives of the site backed up here, but I’ll be taking the domain offline so I’m not paying to host it while I save up cash. At some point, I might bring it back–you never know. I’d like to thank everyone who’s supported Radiolicious since 2006 and wish you all luck with whatever projects you’re working on at present and in the future. Hope to catch up on the other side!

Andy (andy@andyking.eu)
Radiolicious

Radio Teesdale, which has been broadcasting to the Barnard Castle area of County Durham on 105.5 FM since last year, has added a new transmitter which extends coverage to the Upper Dale, meaning the station now covers the whole of the Teesdale region. The 100-watt transmitter, on 102.1 FM, was switched on in mid-December and good feedback has been received by the station about improved reception. In a message on Radio Teesdale’s website, station manager Peter Dixon says:

This was a highly significant day in the life of Radio Teesdale and the culmination of a lot of hard work by a great many people from the community of Teesdale over the last five years. We very much welcome listeners located in the Upper Dale and hope you will enjoy the broadcasts and, even more importantly, become actively involved in this fantastic community initiative.

Radio Teesdale broadcasts a broad range of community programming featuring many aspects of life and culture in the area, mixed with a wide selection of music.

Long-standing Manchester community radio station ALL FM is set to move to a state-of-the-art new home in a local church. The Levenshulme United Reformed Church is planning an ambitious project under the Levenshulme Inspire banner, incorporating a community café, social housing units and an arts space. According to the station news page:

Levenshulme Inspire aims to redevelop Levenshulme United Reformed Church, into a vibrant, multi-purpose community venue, which will provide activities for everybody. The new centre is planned to include ALL FM’s new state-of-the-art radio station and recording studios, a community café run by YASP volunteers, training facilities and support for new businesses, and space for community activities, performance arts and Sunday worship. Above the community space there will be 14 unique social housing units, which will be rented to local residents.

They’re asking for the views of local residents in an online survey. ALL FM currently broadcasts on 96.9 from a studio on Albert Road in Levenshulme, with satellite stations in Beswick, east Manchester and Hulme, south-central Manchester.

Doncaster finds itself with two community stations after today’s awards

You can’t accuse Ofcom of going home early for Christmas: they’ve been hard at work sorting out more community licence applications and have announced the final six awards of 2007. Remarkably, Christian station Flame CCR on the Wirral, known as Flame FM throughout its numerous RSLs, has been given an AM licence just six weeks after the application deadline in the recent North West and North Wales round. Other awards go mainly to stations in South and East Yorkshire, notably long-running RSL group Vixen 87 in Market Weighton. Also awarded licences are Doncaster stations Thorne and Moorends Community Radio and Sine FM, plus arts-based Redroad FM in Sheffield and Penistone Community Radio, which is set to appear on AM.

Meanwhile, commiserations to YMCA-operated RB FM in Barnsley, far-fetched “Christian Hit Music” station The Light in Rhyl and Wrexham FM, all of whom have been refused licences today.

Wirral community radio station 7 Waves Radio is set for a 1 March launch on 92.1fm. The station, which somewhat controversially received £2.2 million in funding earlier this year, will be based in a brand new Media Centre close to the existing Leasowe Community Centre. Training will be a key aim of the new service, with the facilities used as a learning environment for various media skills as well as a live radio station:

The centre will house two broadcasting studios, a ‘live room’ where local bands will show off their talents and provide live entertainment and a mobile unit will bring residents local news as it happens and a further two training suites, expanding considerably upon the space and amenities of the existing Seven Waves station.

It will be kitted out with top of the range radio equipment and provide the space and amenities required to train more students.

More places will be made available to residents wishing to pursue the broadcasting training course, which will comprise of a variety of disciplines, including digital photography, editing, interviewing and scriptwriting.

It will make the station’s facilities even more accessible to local people looking to pursue careers in the media or to simply improve their job prospects.

The money will also be used to refurbish the existing Leasowe Community Centre, which will undergo extensive work to make the building more accessible to people with disabilities and will also be fitted with new windows and flooring.

Pictures and more information can be found on the 7 Waves gallery page.

Cheshire will have six new stations if all applications are approved. Photo by Mike Peel

The latest round of community radio applications, for the North West and North Wales, is in and it seems that anyone who’s anyone wants to be on the radio full time! Twenty-four applications from all corners of the region have been duly sent down to Ofcom, seven of which are in the already-crowded Greater Manchester region.

Some familiar names are in the list, notably central Manchester’s Gaydio, one-time commercial licence applicant Unity Radio and popular Lancashire station Preston FM. No applications from the City of Liverpool have been put forward, but flying the flag for Merseyside are AM college station KCC Live and recently-formed Radio Together in St Helens.

Further south, Cheshire is another hotbed of application activity. Canalside in Bollington, who were unlucky in the first round of licensing, are back for another try while The Kat in Crewe, Christian CCM in Congleton and online station Radio Worm from Warrington have also put themselves forward. Meanwhile, Tameside Radio’s Kenni James is going for the hat trick, applying for two licences in the affluent areas of Altrincham (Halt FM) and Alderley Edge (Tatton FM).

As always, the very best of luck to all applicants. If your station is going for a licence, email hello@radiolicious.co.uk and let us know all about it!

from xkcd

Apologies for not posting this earlier, but I’ve been in a period of sporadic computer access. Oh well!

Ofcom have awarded the latest four community radio licences covering areas in Yorkshire and the north east. Radio Hartlepool will positively promote the work of community groups in that town, while Bishop FM in Bishop Auckland will provide a general community radio service. Meanwhile, rural station Drystone Radio, refused in the first round, now has a licence to cover South Craven and the final AM Garrison Radio station, at Catterick, will be moving to FM.

The news isn’t so good for the two Bradford stations Asian Community Radio and Peace Radio, Radio Paigham in Huddersfield, Valley Radio from Keighley and Wharfedale Radio, all of whom have been declined licences.

Exeter-based community station ECFM (which will announce its actual on air name and frequency in November) has announced its launch date as 15 February 2008. It will be based out of two custom-built studios in the Phoenix arts and media centre in the heart of Exeter and will also have access to recording facilities and practice rooms.

The group behind ECFM, which has over 130 active members and will broadcast to 120,000 potential listeners, have underlined their commitment to publicise and support the arts within the Exeter area. They have also teamed up with the University of Exeter and Exeter College to provide courses in support of the station and its training needs.

Seaside FM, the community station for the Holderness area of East Yorkshire (it’s that bit near Spurn Head, south-east of Hull), launched last week and is now broadcasting from 7am-12pm, seven days a week. The station promises a mix of programmes to suit a wide variety of listeners across the area, including a novel twist on the traditional breakfast show duo!

The Big Boys at Breakfast bring listeners three hours of talk, music, newspaper reviews, competitions and more from Simon and Tim – who are more than co-presenters – they’re twins as well. Co-presenter Simon said, “There’ll be a real mix of things on our show, but the one thing that we can guarantee is that if you listen, you’ll laugh. After all we all need a bit of a laugh first thing in the morning.”

Station Manager Justin Macartney said, “We’ve been getting ready to launch on FM for months now, so it’s great to finally be on air. We think that people will be pleasantly surprised by the quality and range of programmes that we’ve got on offer.

“We’ve worked hard to make sure that there’s something for everyone – whether they want to listen to chat, music or just keep in touch with what’s going on locally.

“We’re one-hundred percent Holderness – and that’s why I think people will love us once they’ve listened to us.”

Tory MP Graham Stuart, Mayor of Withernsea Gordon Hodgson, Vice Chair of East Riding Council Bryan Pearson at Launch

As the nights draw in, the transmitters light up all over these islands. Here’s the first in a new series of monthly Radiolicious roundups of new stations, upcoming stations and past features.

New stations last month

• Aston FM (89.1) in Birmingham came on air during September
• Greater Manchester stations Salford City Radio (94.4) and Tameside Radio (103.6) both made it to air at 1pm on 30 September
• Radio Cardiff (98.1) started transmission at the end of September
• Diversity FM (103.5) in Lancaster now broadcasts from 11am to 4pm each day
• Pendle Community Radio (103.1) in Burnley began broadcasting at the start of Ramadan (thanks Vinnie Lo for info)

New station news

• 209 Radio in Cambridge launched today, 1 October on 105.0.
• Aberdeen’s shmuFM has announced its launch on 20 October using 99.8, covering north and central Aberdeen
• Sheffield Live is due to hit 93.2 FM in October from studios in the Sheffield Hallam students’ union
• IÚRfm in Newry, County Down is set for a November launch on 101.4 FM

What have we learned this month, kids?

• We looked at the Logik IR100 web radio and thought about what it might mean for community broadcast groups
• We found out how open-source software could save your station money and time
• …and we asked you if you’d like to get involved with your favourite blog in the whole wide world (that’s Radiolicious, by the way).

Keep visiting over the next month for more fab stuff.