08/11/2020
The home station on which “Shoutout” appears and is produced on, Bristol’s multi-ethnic community radio channel B.C.F.M., announced on Monday afternoon that it would maintain as near to as full schedule of programmmes as is normal during England’s four week lockdown which comes into force on Bonfire Night, 5th November. Reporting for BCFM, lunchtime DJ Tristan B explained that many community radio stations had remote studios built from the last lockdown in people’s houses and that these would allow many programme commitments to continue with little disruption. BCFM’s sentiments were taken up by the whole family of stations on which “ShoutOut” appears, with all of them pledging to continue as much as possible to serve their communities during lockdown. Terry Starr, who helped cofound “ShoutOut” in 2010, added that community radio, internet radio services and podcasts would be a great friend to people during the coming weeks, just as they were during the Spring lockdown. In a world where sometimes the mass newspapers and TV news networks can be sensationalist, the entertainment and news from community radio and other smaller services is rounded, focused on recovery and presented by genuine members of the locality. Terry said that it was a good mental health discipline to switch off from constant news and encouraged people to take the opportunity to explore new bands, enjoy community programming and download interesting podcasts.
