Forth Valley College’s innovative student multi-media platform, Connect Forth Radio, has once again reconnected live with its listeners – and is gearing up for a busy February covering LGBTQ+ History Awareness Month.
Connect Forth Radio is now broadcasting 24/7 across the Stirling, Falkirk and Alloa campuses, with live shows on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 12-2pm – and that’s just for starters. A mix of music and pre-recorded speech based content will be heard across the schedule.
The initiative is still built into the curriculum of the Media & Communication Department's delivery and will broadcast a range of interviews, feature packages, byte size audio clips, fun facts and music. The station has been working alongside Monica Medina FVC’s Student Services Diversity Coordinator in the creation of on air content for the LGBT+ History Awareness Month project.
The five strong Connect Forth steering group: Janie Stevenson (2nd year HND Media & Communication), Samuel Loaiza (2nd year HND Media & Communication), Kaitlin May (2nd year BA Digital Media), Lewis Brown (2nd year BA Digital Media) and Kornelija Kuzmickaite (2nd year BA Digital Media), have been instrumental in managing the station from broadcasting, scheduling to training.
Students and staff can tune in by visiting here and are encouraged to get in touch at any time with questions, requests, ideas and feedback through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @ConnectForthFVC.
Gavin Orr, Media and Communications Lecturer and Connect Forth Radio Station Manager, said: "Finally we are back on air and it’s a long time coming. I am over the moon. An amazing platform - but then I would be bias - for connecting all campuses and giving our students a voice. The possibilities for the College having its own radio station are limitless."
The platform officially went live on Tuesday 12 November 2019 when FVC Principal Dr Ken Thomson was the first guest to be interviewed as the Stirling Campus based Connect Forth Radio hit the airwaves from 12-2pm.
Initially the station hoped to broadcast live, using industry-leading Myriad software, and be available to listen to via Moodle on a Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but the platform was just in its infancy when the lockdown restrictions came in at the end of March 2020 and students and staff had to work from home.
Connect Forth Radio content is mainly produced via the wide range of media students from BA Digital Media, HND Audio Visual and NC Media cohorts who will offer a mixture of music, news and pre-recorded documentaries, dramas, interviews and feature packages.
BA Digital Media students Craig Paterson (22) from Bo’ness and Adeel Ahmed (27) from Falkirk, were the first ones to broadcast live on air in November 2019 as they presented the first schedule programme. The first song played was All Over The World by ELO.
Connect Forth offers impressive radio, video, social media and online platforms under a striking newly designed brand and will be using these to promote and enhance the new live radio broadcast stream. It is integrated with academic study within the media department while also offering extra-curricular opportunities for students across the college.
Complete with a full management, social media and production structure – as would be found in any industry media organisation – Connect Forth offers Media and Creative Industries students the opportunity to apply for management and production roles to create the perfect content which can be broadcast to the full Forth Valley College student and staff body.
All previous student management teams have been instrumental in helping the station to take the next step forward and leave a legacy for future students to improve upon even further. They have been fully supported and mentored by the Creative Industries Media Team and this year’s cohorts will be no different.
For more information visit the Connect Forth website here