At Long Last: 107.5 FM

[Felixstowe Radio]

We are nearly there. It's been three years since we sat around a table talking about the idea of a community radio station. We had to understand the technology, raise some money, start broadcasting in the front room of a small terraced house, and then to complete a 54 page application form to apply for a licence. A search for premises, and more money, followed.

The studio's were built, with great support from a number of sponsors - all of whom will be recognised in due course, and a music shop opened, and a start date for FM broadcasting set.

Then we hit a brick wall. It was necessary to ask France, Belgium and Holland if they had any objections to our use of 107.5 FM.

This week we were given clearance. It's all systems go. So the technicians have been scurrying around, fantastic people with brains sharper than razors, whose fingers flash across the keyboard as text jumps across a black screen responding to their every command.

Broadcasting on 107.5 FM will start very soon.

What shall we make of this new facility in Felixstowe? Essentially it's a platform that anyone can use. Music will play a large part but we will not be just a music programme, at least 30% of our broadcasts will be speech-based, perhaps interspersed with music. We will broadcast continuously, with as many live programmes as we can provide.

In the bag already is a morning show - to get you moving, with news, interviews, telling you what's happening locally that day or in the near future. Then a young presenter takes over, with a mix of music and chat. At least three days a week we will have a magazine programme, staffed by a group of local ladies who plan to discover what's going on, to talk to people, to motivate the town. An after-school programme presented by VIth formers follows before Drive Time, a news and information programme. Each night of the week is likely to be devoted to a specific musical genre; folk is planned for Monday, rock for Thursday, modern alternative on Friday. Couple that with sports news, tide tables and anything that you want to say and we hope to bring you an informative and entertaining mix. We'll not please all the people all the time, but everyone should find something they enjoy.

If they don't, then they'd better come to the studio a Great Eastern Square and make a programme they do enjoy.