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
.