Almost since radio became commercially viable, community radio has also existed. Given how amazing some of the content is on community radio stations, you may be surprised to know that it was only in 2004 that the UK regulator, Ofcom, invited applications for licenses.
BCfm, our home station, was one of the early applicants, hitting the air on 93.2fm across Bristol in 2007. Avid radio fan Terry Starr, our founder, had been tuning in since the start and loved the station. But with so many community stations springing up, one thing was becoming clear - there was little to no LGBT+ content broadcasting on any of them.
Knowing this wasn’t a project he could tackle all on his own, he enlisted the help of friend and sound recordist Mary Milton.
Whilst they set about making a plan to approach BCfm, they also posted on Facebook asking for others to help, which is how Andy Shilton found out about the project and joined the team.
After talks, BCfm agreed to give ShoutOut a 30 minute slot on Monday afternoons. On the 7th June 2010, ShoutOut hit the air waves for the first time.
It wasn’t even a month before ShoutOut proved such a hit that the then station manager, Phil Gibbons, realised the show’s potential and asked us to move to 7pm on Thursdays. We stayed in that slot until 2025 when we moved to 8pm to make way fo the Mon-Fri 2 hour feature shows that BCfm wanted to follow "getting you home".
Bringing a mix of chat and fun, interviews and information, the news, plus coverage of major events, ShoutOut really hit a chord with listeners and it wasn’t long before other community stations started to approach the team about taking the show. Not all community radio stations are able to get enough LGBT+ people involed to make shows of their own, so ShoutOut now offers our own shows while we work with those in that coverage area to send us content.
To date, we have worked with and broadcast on over 25 stations. We boast an approximate audience of a quarter of a million listeners, as well as providing the show as an edited podcast that’s now available on all good podcast platforms.
