7 Waves Background:

The 7 Waves radio project started back in May 2001 when Wirral Met Tutor Paul Smith was running an introduction to Media Studies course at Leasowe Community Center, one of the students on the course was John Martin who had an idea for a community radio station to serve the seven coastal towns of the Wirral, both he and Paul started working on on how they could go about setting up a radio station with help from Kenny Peers the college development worker the project was under way. After several meetings funding was found and work began on the studio in January 2003. Pauline Murphy was appointed project coordinator and the studios were completed in March. An open day was held on April 21st and 26 students enrolled on the first radio course which began on May 12th. The station now applied for a RSL licence to the Radio Authority and was awarded a 28 day licence broadcasting on 87.7fm .The station went on the air for the first time at 7.00am on Monday August 11th 2003 and the launch day was attended by over 200 guests. The station broadcast 24 hours a day across Wirral a variety of programs from dance to disco ,soul and country music the web site alone got over 32,000 hits during the broadcast. The station went off the air at midnight on Sunday September 7th 2003. Following the success of RSL 1 the Radio Authority granted the next licence to run from February 2nd 2004 for a further 28 days. The next open day on October 4th, 24 students enrolled on the 2nd radio course, 7 Waves Community Radio is now looking to the future and applying for a access radio licence, the next RSL intends to be a practice for a full community licence with the station broadcasting over 20 access programs where groups and organizations will be invited to make use of the airwaves to make their own radio programs. The station also plans to broadcast rock, country, pop jazz, soul, dance, and disco music plus a nightly Community Hour of topical issues between 6pm -7pm every night. There will be community updates on the half hour during the day, and a team of 34 presenters will be on air during the 28 day broadcast. 7 Waves Community Radio 87.7fm will go live on air at 6.00am on Monday February 2nd 2004 until Sunday February 29th 2004. The station then plans to broadcast again in August 2004 and February 2005. 7 Waves Community Radio has come a long way since 2001 and this is only the beginning .