Radio station back again at breakfast

Volunteers at a Leyland-based online radio station are waking up listeners to further helpings of their popular breakfast show.
Rev Marc WolversonRev Marc Wolverson
Rev Marc Wolverson

Encouraged by the success of the month-long series of shows in February - which attracted almost 3,000 listeners - Leyland Festival Radio’s team of presenters are back with a further eight-week broadcast, which began yesterday.

The station, which is broadcasting online from its studio on Hough Lane, wants to become the licensed Ofcom community radio station for Leyland.

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Producer Brian Ashman explained: “The one-hour weekday breakfast shows will be hosted by Leyland and Cuerden Valley Lions president Derek Westall, Leyland-based Methodist minister and school chaplain Phil Gough, Leyland Leader publisher, Keith Bradshaw, and the Rocking Reverend Mark Wolverson, vicar of St James’, Leyland.

“The four will be joined by a number of guest presenters throughout the two-month period.

“Each show will feature an interview with a local trader or professional, councillor, public official or active community member, a look at what’s going on locally and an eclectic mix of music personally selected by the show host.”

The breakfast shows will start at 8am, Monday to Friday.

Also new for this run of shows is a community action spot, which gives local voluntary, community and faith groups and organisations one minute of regularly repeated airtime to tell Leyland about their purpose and activities.

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The station will also be introducing the City Cottage show, 30 minutes of recipes, culinary hints and tips, and music.

Leyland Festival Radio was a three-month project - April to June 2015.

It culminated in three full days of hyper-local community radio broadcasting on 107.9 FM in June 2015, supporting Leyland Festival and enhancing community identity and pride in Leyland, Farington and Moss Side.

The project directly involved up to 30 local people, across generations and backgrounds, giving them opportunities to develop the transferable skills, including production, presenting, research and feature-making, necessary to make broadcasts.

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It offered both structured training - 16 places on one-day Introduction to Community Radio course - and informal training, including peer-to-peer learning.

Leyland Festival Radio worked with a wide range of individuals, organisations and businesses, including South Ribble Radio, Runshaw College and SLEAP, the local charity that provides emergency accommodation and assistance to young homeless people.

The project offered business and creative experience to Runshaw students, gave local artists opportunities to gain media experience and exposure for their work, provided abundant interview opportunities for local organisations and individuals and fostered community cohesion generally.

The eventual aim is to bring permanent community radio to the Leyland/Farington/Moss Side area.

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A post-project evaluation period enabled those involved to reflect on experiences and start planning and managing the next phase which began in November 2015 and runs until next month.

To listen, visit the website www.leylandfestivalradio.com and click Listen.

Leyland Festival Radio, with sponsorship support from letting agency New Lease Residential Lettings also has a Facebook page, where messages and requests are recovered.

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