6 minute read
Kickstart Creative
HaltonCommunity Radio
By the people,for the people
by Mia Ridehalgh
COMMUNITY TALKS
Tell me a little bit about Halton Community Radio and what the station offers. Matt: HCR is about the experience that the station provides to its presenters and all those involved. It is about giving the people of Halton a community where they can come and learn about radio and meet people who share their interests in radio and music. Stations such as the BBC and other commercial radio stations provide a service for the benefit of their listeners. Commercial radio stations want to provide a product that will keep people engaged in order the make profits. What we focus on at Halton Community Radio is primarily the experience that the presenter has. We don’t mind if no one listens, or if we don’t have a huge audience. What we really care about is that the presenters enjoy themselves and gain skills such as confidence that are transferrable to other aspects of life. I came to HCR when I was sixteen and I loved it. I saw it as a work experience and thought that maybe I could do this when I was older. I wrote comedy sketches and played records that me and a friend would buy for the show and I really enjoyed being a part of the project. I was always involved with the project as a presenter but when I got involved behind the scenes about five years after I initially joined HCR I realised that the purpose of the project was to improve the lives of the presenters, rather than to provide a product for listeners. I realised how much it had done for me, my confidence and self-esteem had improved so much and being a radio presenter was such a huge thing for me. It gave me an identity. People would ask me on the bus to sixth form college what I was going to play on my show, and it made me feel like Steve Lamacq or John Peel! HCR allows people to come and express themselves and have some fun. Your show can be whatever you want it to be. The focus of HCR is to use broadcasting to change people’s lives for the better. What does the station offer for young people? How can people get involved with HCR? Matt: So, anyone aged eighteen or over can come and present their own show once they have been shown how to use the equipment which consists of a very small amount of training. Right now, however, the station has no staff that can supervise under-18s, so if anyone under eighteen is interested in presenting a show we ask that they team up with an adult who is eighteen or over. It can be anyone from a parent or carer, to a friend or schoolteacher, as long as there is a person aged eighteen or over in the building with them. All you need to do to get involved is email the station.
What impact does HCR have on the local community in Halton? Why is it important to have a community project like HCR?
Matt: I don’t think there are enough things in Halton that specifically belong to Halton. We need to have pride in our community, and I believe HCR offers that. It is amazing to be able to put local people from within our community on HCR talking about local things. It gives Halton something to be proud of and a form of identity. Halton Community Radio is ours. It doesn’t belong to Liverpool or Manchester or London, it belongs to us. It’s great to have something that can play a part in the life of our borough and impact the local community so positively. It’s great to broadcast a local voice from local people that understand how our community works, and what is important to the people of this community. You can talk with your own voice and about what matters to you. Radio as a medium is timeless – the world is constantly moving on with new technology, but radio always persists.
How does Halton Community Radio survive?
Matt: Well, there aren’t a lot of community radio stations that do survive for as long as HCR has. Halton Community Radio has been surviving since the 1990s and it’s great to be interviewed by outlets such as Serial Culture to help get our name out there. HCR was born out of Halton College in the early 1990s as part of a college project and it has just evolved since then into what it is now. Up until 2008 HCR was on air every now and again whenever we could get a one-month licence. We then received a full-time community licence in 2008 and we’ve never been off-air since. The biggest reason we have survived is the fact that we have always stayed true to our purpose – to put the presenters first and provide people with an outlet to express themselves. We don’t focus on making a profit or spending lots of money on advertising. We’ve always been much more interested in the experience of our presenters, rather than increasing our listening base as much as possible. When we are asked if we’ve changed anyone’s life we can honestly say yes as that is our main focus at HCR and it is why people love to get involved. There is a section on our website called ‘How HCR Has Changed Lives’ and it shows exactly why we do what we do and why people believe in Halton Community Radio. We can firmly say that we are a community radio station because our focus is on the local community and the experiences that we provide for the people of Halton. How do people that you talk to receive HCR? What do they think of it? Matt: Initially, anyone that I speak to about the station always asks me how many listeners we have, and I have to tell them that that’s not the point of HCR. People tend to look at me like I don’t really know what I’m doing because commercial radio is always aimed at the listeners. People don’t see the point of running a radio station if you don’t focus on the listeners. But when I explain to them that it’s about the experience we can provide for our presenters, and I tell them about presenters we have at the station whose lives have been changed by HCR, people then understand what I mean when I say we don’t care about the number of listeners we have, and they see how beneficial it is to have a project like HCR available within our community.
What advice would you give to the younger generation who are considering a career in broadcasting? Or to anyone who might want to join HCR?
Matt: I would say you’ve just got to give it a go! If you don’t enjoy it no one is going to force you to do it, but there’s every possibility that you will fall in love with it and have the most amazing experience. You will have fun and it’s so creative and awesome. You can make your show into anything you want! Also, even if you don’t want to pursue broadcasting as a career, the skills that you will learn as a radio presenter will help you at school and university, and they will certainly help you at job interviews and in workplace situations. It really helps you to improve essential life skills and there’s so much you can learn. You never know where it might lead to! Some of our presenters have even gone on to pursue professional careers in broadcasting and for them, it all started at HCR. It’s a really fun and creative hobby and you have nothing to lose by giving it a go.
