Community unites over the airwaves

Residents of Kensington have come together to put Liverpool’s only community radio station back on the air.

KVFM 87.7 FM, which stands for Kensington Vision FM is broadcasting from a glass box in McDonalds where the children’s play area normally is.

The community station ran in May last year on a restricted service licence which lasts for 28 days. This time the community group have decided broadcast for just 12 days in the build up to Christmas.

Steve Faragher from KVFM said: “You find with other community radio stations that they last for the full time, that it seems like margarine that has been spread too thin.

“Here all our shows are two hours long and are aimed at things the community are going to be interested in. This is a community radio station so we don’t even think about competing with the commercial stations like Radio City and Juice, it’s not about that.”

The Kensington radio station allows anyone to have their own show providing they go through radio broadcasting training given by the KVFM team before they take to the microphone. Children as young as ten host their own shows which can be based on anything that interests them and adults follow the same idea.

The station’s timetable features shows focusing on netball, whilst another will be a pharmacist’s Christmas Hangover special. The only editorial guideline is that they have to have a community aspect.

The organisers consider the best thing about the community broadcast is its ability to bridge the gap between young and old, bringing the community closer together through interviews, discussion and a common love for KVFM.

Wendy Miller from the community station said: “The children have training like everyone else. They have to arrange their own guests, write their own scripts and create their own jingles – they absolutely love it.”

Through playing such a big part in the production of KVFM, it’s hoped that the children are developing skills that are not normally taught in school like confidence building and to care about their local community.

Councilor Marilyn Fielding said: “I'm delighted that the Kensington community will once again have its very own local radio station. It is a great facility that will benefit the whole community. The station is perfect for use by community groups to provide training and services and to let people know what the city council and its partners are doing to bring about lasting improvements to the area.”

Licensing laws prevent Steve and Wendy from running KVFM for another six months but they admit their goal is for the community radio station to become full time in the future.

Steve said with a smile: “It’s difficult to know how many people are listening. We’ve struck up a deal with a local chippy where if people go in and say KVFM they get a free pot of peas, we don’t advertise it anywhere else apart from on air so hopefully we’ll get an idea from that.”