Community Radio Changes Lives

Author: Kim Townsend

I�m from a small town in rural north Shropshire called Whitchurch. Whenever I tell people in London that they say �ooh its lovely there isn�t it?� and I try to resist the urge to say �no, not really!�. Don�t get me wrong, there are beautiful parts of Shropshire, and I do have a fierce loyalty to my home town, but I can�t deny that Whitchurch has suffered its fair share of rural deprivation.

I remember as a teenager growing up in the town and feeling like we were the laughing stock of the area. Our mayor had recently hit the headlines because he had got drunk one night and had been caught urinating on the town�s war memorial; the only school in our town (the school I went to) was classed as �unsatisfactory� by Ofsted and seemed to churn out a worrying amount of unmotivated, uninspired young people who would hang around on street corners binge drinking; due to funding
cuts our fire station was under threat, then our hospital, and then our magistrates court � it seemed like if the government had their way there would be nothing left. And if you told anyone locally that you were from Whitchurch you would get a knowing look as if to say �that�s a shame�!

The knock-on effect of all this was that the morale of local people was incredibly low. They would just moan the whole time about how Whitchurch was so rubbish and how they wanted to get out. It wasn�t the most inspiring place to grow up!

Then when I was about 14 some mobile DJs from the area decided that it would be a good idea to set up a community radio station � Whitchurch FM � that would broadcast for a couple of weeks once a year. It was the first initiative I�d heard about in a long time that was trying to do something positive in the town. Anyone who was interested could have their own show, they promoted local businesses and opportunities, and questioned local councillors. It was great to listen to people talking positively about Whitchurch on the radio after we had had so much bad press of late.

I got involved in answering phones, making tea, and even doing the odd bit on air. I loved every minute of it and after a couple of years became responsible for the local news bulletins and even got to interview local decision makers myself. I�d like to say it was the education I got at school that shaped my future, but it really wasn�t. This radio project, that only happened once a year, and broadcast from a tiny room on a tiny budget, had a huge impact on my life.

I decided that radio was what I wanted to do and spent the next five years doing work experience at local radio stations and enrolling in a Broadcast Journalism course at University. Since then I�ve worked for the BBC as a Broadcast Journalist and have won Sony Radio Awards for a community radio project I worked on with prisoners at Brixton Prison in London. I guess I�ve come a long way since I was making tea for Whitchurch FM DJs as a teenager, but when I look back none of it would have been
possible if it hadn�t been for my local community radio station
inspiring me when I needed it the most.

Source: http://kimjtownsend.com/2010/09/how-community-radio-changed-my-life/

6/9/2010