Westside Radio Celebrates 10 Years On Air
Viv Ellis meets the crew behind this successful community station
( PIC The Westside crew at Westfield London hosting a free DJ Training
workshop for shoppers. © Sone Palda)
You’d think that having a business shoe-horned down a narrow alleyway at the side of a car park in Hanwell could be a disadvantage. Not for
Westside Radio – west London’s community station, now celebrating its
tenth year.
Westside specialises in Hip Hop, R&B and Grime music. When they know
a big celebrity is flying into the country for concerts or promotions they
cleverly use Hanwell’s proximity to Heathrow – and grab the star either
on their way into London or on the way back to the airport.
Station manager Sone Palda says the station’s development over the last
few years has been fantastic “We have had a lot of positive feedback
from local listeners. The station has developed into a household name in
Ealing and surrounding boroughs. And we are well respected in the
industry, including amongst all of the big artists. We are always
continually working hard to further the station”.
On air 24/7, Westside is staffed almost entirely by volunteers. This not-forprofit
station (as most are) has around 200,000 listeners on FM, online and
on their app. Their online listeners are scattered as far away as Australia,
Africa and California. Though they have one superfan 1000 km away in
Finland who somehow manages to pick up their FM signal.
Westside is more than happy to get stuck into community events. They
stage manage and provide presenters for several venues at the annual
Hanwell Hootie, are often booked by Ealing council as an attraction at
some of their official carnivals and also help at Hanwell Carnival - hosting
two stages for the past few years.
They also provide daily community
content on-air featuring the Westside Community News which rounds up
all the latest community news and events.
“We have trained hundreds of young people over the last 10 years in
radio, DJing and video production. It is especially pleasing to see the
confidence that these courses have provided young people. It’s equally
pleasing to see past students now working full time within the media
industry”.
Over the last decade the number of community stations in the UK has
grown from just a handful to around 250 with more added every month– all reflecting the local needs, or interests of their listeners, It’s reckoned
that overall 20,000 volunteers put in two and a half million hours every
year to bring original programming and content to their audiences.
Some of Westside’s past presenters have gone on to successful careers
at Radio 1, 1Xtra, Asian Network, Kiss FM, Capital FM and Capital Xtra as
well as ITV, the BBC and Sky television.
PIC Neev Spencer – one of the biggest female Asian DJs in the country.
Viv Ellis
29th November, 2017