Target reached!
Once we hit our initial funding target, anything extra will be used to help fund our...
Launching Bedford Radio
Bedford, England, United Kingdom
Aim
Help us launch Bedford Radio. Local and community-based radio for the people, businesses and communities of Bedford and the surrounding area
What is Bedford Radio
Local Radio is a powerful means of creating a collective sense of purpose. It provides a platform on which all those who need it can make their voices heard.
Bedford Radio is unique in that it is community-focused and designed to serve as a hub which will provide training and ongoing support to groups within the community, developing skillsets in individuals within those groups, and facilitating engagement with a diverse local audience.
We're already established as a producer of quality podcasts and on-demand content. We want to grow this to create a space for training and volunteering, offering opportunities for individuals to learn presentation and media skills, and then helping them put those skills into practice to the benefit of themselves, their communities and the town as a whole. (Listen here: https://bedfordradio.org.uk/content)
(Some of those who attended our recent free training course)
We're geared to helping communities within the area have a voice on the issues that matter to them, and engage with other local groups. Our ethical code is based on honesty, openness and balance. We intend to make ourselves the local radio station of choice for the whole of Bedford, regardless of age, culture, ethnic background, religion or class.
Bedford has a wealth of cultural events, community organisations, and commercial enterprises, all of which make the town a great place in which to live and work. We are currently establishing ourselves within the area and hope to play a role in creating an even better Bedford for future generations.
(Couple of the young people who are part of our Media Youth Group)
What we will sound like
Our broadcasting will have a daytime mix of speech, discussion, and current affairs. Presenters will discuss issues of the day with guests, listeners, and the community at large. Our music policy will have a broad appeal, modelled on BBC Radio 2, BBC Local Radio output, and popular commercial radio stations such as Smooth, Capital, and Heart.
Evenings are planned to deliver more community-focused content, aimed at specific groups among Bedford’s broad range of cultural and ethnic communities.
At weekends we will focus on special interest programmes, allowing contributors to share their passions, and highlighting the vibrant nature of Bedford’s cultural life.
In addition, we aim to develop a community news team, to produce regular local news reports and bulletins keeping listeners informed about what is going on in their area.
What are our plans
We already have some initial funding that has been pledged by a local community trust, but we need to raise a little more before that will be released.
The funding is needed to pay for our studio and broadcast equipment and software, music database, marketing and materials, our licenses as well as some core running costs for our launch period. Anything raised in addition to our current funding target can help with more equipment and also used to cover more of our running costs.
Once we know we can hit our funding target we can start training volunteers and begin the preparations to launch.
We hope to launch as an online station before the end of 2019, and develop our volunteers and station while we prepare to launch on SSDAB late 2020 (depending on the regulator Ofcom).
This project successfully funded on 1st October 2019