Supporting Youth on the Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight has incredibly concerning statistics regarding the Youth population in respect of education, rural and social isolation, mental illness, youth poverty and disability. The Islands youth are amongst the 20% most deprived areas in England and there are 4,655 children, under the age of 16 living in poverty. Statistics also suggest there are around 1,800 young people that could be experiencing mental health problems on the Island as well.
The Island has an excellent FM commercial radio station catering for the 30 – 55 age group and two FM community stations catering for varied demographics. What is lacking is a dedicated platform catering purely and simply for the 13 – 25 year olds. Of which there are 20,000.
An FM or DAB station is not relevant to this demographic, because this age group doesn’t consume their radio listening via FM. Therefore, this would make it unviable to run with any degree of sustainability. As Youth Radio Rocks exists purely as a digital broadcast platform, the Isle of Wight can, in the same way that it was for Marconi, be a pioneering location for a new era of radio broadcasting and audio dissemination. It can also bring Youth participants together.
Youth Radio Rocks exists to give the Youth a doorway into a globally styled radio station that they can engage and express themselves on. The statistics speak for themselves when it comes to youth poverty, health and wellbeing but also disability. By using a broadcast medium as a platform, it helps forge social cohesion, education and training; achieving better prospects for future employment.
A break from commercials
We don’t run adverts or sponsorships as it gets in the way of creativeness. We are primarily a training, experience and digital broadcast entity. It’s not about the percentages, it’s about the people. We are driven by the passion of our participants.
No news is good news
Although we have journalist mentors, we aren’t a news service so we don’t rival any other outlets in that regard. There are many others that provide news in a way that we could never do. We feel it’s better to build bridges with news providers whilst focusing on what we do well.
Digital revolution
It is the 15 -24 year olds that dominate the growing ‘listening to radio via mobile phones’ market and as we have found, were the biggest set of listeners to Bath City Sound. It is also that age group that wanted to actively take part and get involved. That figure has risen steadily from 2015 and is going ever upward as we enter 2020. The world is your listener.
S for Success
In Bath we had 58 full time presenters in the 13 – 25 age group, 2 of which have won the coveted ‘Sony Award’. Another two were runners up in the UK wide, Money for Life Challenge. We have helped 9 individuals get full time employment and 4 have appeared with Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2. Another 2 have featured with Nick Grimshaw on BBC Radio 1. Since Youth Radio Rocks has been on air, working with entities such as the National Citizens Service; over 3,000 youngsters have taken to the airwaves with positive results. And that number is rising…
Get involved with Youth Radio Rocks
If you have a story to tell, an opinion to share, something to chat about. Then we want to hear from you. This is YOUR opportunity to become of something empowering, positive and cool.
You can come to the Youth Radio Rocks studio and get behind the mic and record you piece for our official Podcast. You can become part of the team with your input to our output. You’ll be helped on the way and pick up some top quality training. Join the radio revolution for 2020.