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Launched 20 years ago to help support the burgeoning Scottish folk scene, Celtic Music Radio has reached the final notes of its ageing studio equipment.
Already around 20 years old when the station first hit the airwaves in 2006, the equipment breaks down regularly and is starting to resist the volunteers’ efforts to coax it back to life.
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The station has now launched an appeal to raise £10,000 to replace the analogue desks and invest in portable outside broadcast equipment. This will allow live broadcasts from festivals, community sessions and cultural events.
Almost £5000 has already been raised by supporters, to the delight of chair Alex Jenkins, who co-founded the station after realising musicians within the folk music scene were struggling to be heard on the radio.
This lack of opportunity for radio recognition first came to his attention when his son Stephen was in a band.
“I thought his music was really good and deserved to be listened to, but it was virtually impossible to get his music heard,” said Jenkins.
Several years later, the opportunity came to apply for a community radio licence, and he jumped at the chance to be involved.
As a licensed radio amateur, his expertise helped the station to hit the right note, and it now has a relatively large audience of around 150,000 listeners.
“When we started, Celtic Connections was just in its infancy and lots of the more well-known names on the scene now are people we gave a wee lift,” said Jenkins.
Run entirely by music-loving volunteers, Celtic Music Radio features a wide range of traditional and contemporary music as well as folk, roots, Americana and world music.
Listeners tune in from the Glasgow area on 95FM and DAB Digital Radio in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and Bannbridge, Northern Ireland and around the world from the website and mobile apps, such as Radioplayer and TuneIn.
The station has charitable status and manages to stay on air through volunteer and public donations, fundraisers and some on-air advertising and sponsorship.
“We have managed to struggle on, but it has got to a point now where we are actually cannibalising two desks to make the other one work,” said Jenkins.
“It is incredibly difficult to find parts for desks. Ours are about 40 years old and they are not designed to last that long. Our equipment has seen its day. It’s now at a point where there are regular failings and things making noises that shouldn’t be making noises.”
He added: “We work on keeping overheads to an absolute minimum. We operate entirely with volunteers, and everything we have goes into the radio station. It’s a labour of love.”
Jenkins said he was very pleased with the response to the fundraising appeal so far.
“If all the listeners put in the price of a cup of tea every week, we would survive,” he said.
Click here to donate to the fundraiser.