Community station better off to tune of £2,750 (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Community station better off to tune of £2,750

RADIO Winchcombe is celebrating a £2,750 grant from the National Lottery's Awards for All programme.

The grant will enable the community station to buy equipment including an aerial, transmitter, processing unit, cable feeds, and mobile mini-recorders to carry out outdoor interviews for outside broadcasts from schools, workplaces and public events.

Spokesman Mike Rafferty said the station, which goes on air twice a year, currently has to hire its equipment at a cost of £500 a time. It also costs £540 for a broadcasting licence.

"Community broadcasting is an expensive business," said Mr Rafferty.

"We've somehow kept going thanks to the generous financial support of Winchcombe Town Council and the local business community, and we hope this support will continue, but equipment-hire has been a recurring expense we could ill afford.

"With the lottery award, we can now be confident of staying on the air two or three times a year. We feel a sense of achievement in qualifying for the award. The application process is quite rigorous and rightly so. We had to answer a whole list of questions including gauging the numbers of listeners - we had 4,000 hits on our website during the last broadcast in April - and the ethnicity of listeners!"

The station began as a pilot scheme for community radio last year and has made three two-day broadcasts. The first, in April 2005, was a trial funded by Arts Council money allocated through Tewkesbury Borough Council and administered by Forest of Dean Radio, who acted as mentors. The other two broadcasts were in October 2005 and April 2006.

Mr Rafferty added "We have met our twin objectives of informing and entertaining the local community. We are producing programmes of quality and providing a showcase for local talent of all ages and backgrounds. Feedback from listeners has been enthusiastic. The 4,000 hits on our website just before and during the last broadcast shows a tremendous amount of interest."