107.8 Black Diamond FM Your Community Radio Station in Midlothian

VERY RADIO ACTIVE!
MIDLOTHIAN COMMUNITY RADIO STATION MAKES WAVES FOR 12 MONTHS

Black Diamond 107.8 FM, Midlothian’s Community Radio Station, celebrates 12 months of successfully broadcasting everyday, without a break on 29th, March 2008.

BDFM which is one of over 133 community radio stations’ established in the UK and awarded an 5 year FM broadcast licence by OFCOM, the Government’s broadcasting regulator. Black Diamond was one of the first four new Community radio stations in Scotland to start broadcasting. The station currently broadcasts 24 hours a day and seven days a week . More than 15 hours live presenter output per day to a potential audience of 360,000 listeners across Midlothian and south Edinburgh, parts of East Lothian and surprisingly East Fife

Chair of the parent body Midlothian Community Media Association John Ritchie, said:
“That is the first year of broadcasting under our belt, this has been completed on a shoestring budget, principally due to the incredible contribution of time and effort by our fantastically altruistic volunteers, of whom I am expressly proud and humbled.

We are a community based, not for profit station, a new concept in the broadcast World, and we look forward to continuing in the coming years to delivering radio for the people of Midlothian, through a large team of volunteer presenters. Being a completely voluntary staffed organisation. We have not always managed to take on board or implement some peoples ideas, as we have always endeavoured to satisfy the majority opinion rather than the individual, and by doing so we have served the democratic principles of the Community, and furthered the tenets and conditions of our Community Licence . Due to these circumstances, we have unfortunately lost a few people along the developing path, to be accurate less than 10%. However, we have been amazed that these few people have been replaced, by multiples of enthusiastic volunteers. We have also had excellent contributions from several professional individuals, for whose advice and guidance we at Black Diamond FM will always be very grateful.

This first year has been a steep learning curve for all involved, we thought creating a studio, buying the equipment and putting up a transmitter was difficult but actually providing a seven day quality service with a spectrum mix of programmes to suit all tastes while meeting the requirements of all the regulatory bodies has been a challenge. We are making great strides forward, on a daily basis. We have been helped by many different groups of people, including the staff and members of the Newbattle Community Learning Centre, Midlothian Council and the people of the Community of Midlothian, as well as a range of funders who provided help with setting up and other costs. We are now in a position to reciprocate this assistance by providing the best information service for Midlothian and the South of Edinburgh. We now have a large,local and loyal listenership, which is of primary important to us. We have also created a fairly substantial, interested, international audience worldwide on the internet. By doing so we are now furthering the international reputation of Midlothian throughout the World.

Black Diamond 107.8 FM Community radio is successfully bringing a new dimension to community life in Midlothian, providing a communication level that was not possible before the creation of Midlothian Community radio station, it is already showing benefits and we will continue to entertain, inform and energise the Community of Midlothian.”

For further details contact John Ritchie on 0131 663 4811 or chairman@blackdiamondfm.com

Milestones

• The awarding of a 5 year Community Radio FM broadcasting licence in February 2006;
• Funding obtained From the Awards for All ,Communities Scotland and Midlothian Council
• On air music service from March 2007
• Receiving our Broadcast Funding grant from OFCOM
• Going live with presenters in May 2007-
• Day-time presenters take on 2-3 hour programmes to build the audience
• Community events promoted and service providers come on air to explain what they do for Midlothian
• Music through the night with news on the hour every hour from IRN
• Web-site established including facility to go live round the world- www.blackdiamondfm.com Chris Mackrell a teenager from Bonnyrigg becomes webmaster
• The What’s New Crew establishes the 7pm-8pm slot for young people
• Sunday special –Colin McCall and his Heart of the Matter team, bring news from the schools and other community and faith organisations
• Schedule covers wide-ranging spectrum of musical tastes from country, Scottish music through to soul, jazz and dance music as well as the spoken word.
• Fully trained presenters providing over 5000 hours live broadcasting per year;
• 50 volunteers engaged – all trained in skills such as programming, reporting, presenting, technical support;
• Volunteer Presenters from 17-80 years of age
• Programmes which reflect community interest such as local bands/local sport/community news/local history.
• BDFM works with Community Planning Partnership to broadcast a series of interviews and programmes. To inform and involve all parts of the Community
• To help found the Scottish Community Broadcast Network

Notes to editors:
• Community radio, is a new broadcasting phenomenon sanctioned and robustly by the Government and regulated by OFCOM.
• Community radio stations do not seek to make money – they provide a community service while seeking to provide training and broadcasting opportunities for local volunteers.
• Community Radio is there to provide a communication tool and an informational springboard for the community for which it is responsible.
• Community radio output is designed to cover community issues, and for example, to give local community groups an opportunity to get their message out to the whole Community with little effort. The station itself at this time, is rooted in the community (at Newbattle Community Learning Centre) Newtongrange, but future development may see other stations being centred in other communities to provide a unique Midlothian focused educational & entertainment programming.

• Black Diamond FM 107.8 and live on the world wide web on
http://www.blackdiamondfm.com