An East Clare based community radio station is celebrating ten years of broadcasting this week.
The seed for establishing Scariff Bay Community Radio was planted by Chair and Station Manager Jim Collins as an outlet for local communities to tell their stories, play their music, speak their truth and connect with others.
“We’ve gone from a core group at the beginning of 6 people to a roster of over 80 volunteer broadcasters, engineers and producers. Over the ten years the station schedule has grown and blossomed as we broadcast programmes in three languages: English, Gaelige and Ukrainian. We have featured county and inter county camogie and hurling, along with rugby, soccer and other sports,” Mr Collins said.
“We have broadcast radio documentaries on history, politics and culture. We have travelled to London and Brussels to record as well as broadcast live. We broadcast a radio play festival, we feature live theatre from musical societies, and embed ourselves in local festivals in Mountshannon, Scariff, Feakle. Tuamgraney and Bodyke to name but a few. The most important part of our programming though is allowing the ordinary people of Clare to chat, tell their stories, play their music and connect with others through the medium of radio,” he added.
“We started all this in a little broom closet inside the GAA hall in Scariff and have graduated to a fit for purpose, fully kitted out studio in the newly renovated Derg Active Alliance Building, where we are still hosted by our friends in Scariff GAA.
We are now able to broadcast on FM nearly everywhere throughout East Clare with the recent addition of a third transmitter, in Killaloe, which covers the area around the Sliabh Bernagh Hills. Online we attract listeners from all over the world as they tune in to hear the news and gossip from home, or to hear how their local team is doing in the Championship,” Jim said.
Scariff Bay Community Radio is in the final part of the application process for a 10 year licence from Coimisiún na Meán and we hope, soon, to be able to broadcast, on FM and online, on Fridays as well as Saturdays and Sundays.
The Board of Scariff Bay Community Radio, the volunteers, and all the broadcasters want to thank each and every one of our listeners whose love of community radio and its stories has pushed us on to produce great community driven radio.
In the next ten years we will continue to make radio programmes that entertain, inform and even sometimes, educate the people of County Clare as well as our diaspora. Keep listening, as we are The Talk of East Clare.
