Programmes

We are a small, rural radio station that works hard to reflect the values of the community we serve. The whole programme structure of Wayland Community Radio depends upon the skills and talents of the people in the community and the interests of our audience

At the moment we have presented programmes from 7am – 10pm Monday to Thursday and 7am – 9pm Friday to Sunday. 

Day-time programmes have a mixture of interesting content and popular music, combined with a regular input of news and events.  Hourly news is provided by IRN and the music is chosen by scheduling software, with a different series of “clocks” for each show.

A specialist music programme is the focal point of each weekday evening, at a time when other radio stations in the area are either become regional or voice tracked.  We have a weekly Portuguese language programme and would like to add other foreign language broadcasts once we have teams in place.

The content of all broadcasts is specific to the Breckland area and relative to the lives, interests and opinions of our 25,000 potential listeners.

The Past

Our first short term broadcast took place over 6 days during Easter 2006.  We had a small team of amateurs and professionals and were able to broadcast 6 days of live programmes from 7am – 10pm.

We broadcast a wide range of music including pop, classical, ska, jazz and folk, interviewed local people and offered National and Local news bulletins. We also included a 2 hour programme in Portuguese (the first in the UK!). The local community loved what did and were surprised when we had to stop. The success of this first broadcast then made it clear that we should continue.

Our second broadcast period was over the Easter period in 2007 and this time we were on air for 25 days, again broadcasting live programmes from 7am – 10pm. We had a bigger team and were able to add a 2 hour programme in Russian. We had also received funding from EEDA for a fully equipped studio, transmission equipment and a 20m mast.

We undertook our third broadcast in Oct/Nov 2007 over 28 days, the maximum allowed for an RSL (Restricted Service Licence). The team had grown again and we continued to provide a mix of music, interviews and news. We broadcast stories written and recorded by children from a local school.  We added internet streaming, and a programme on Friday nights aimed at a youth audience. Instead of the Russian language programme, we had a 2 hour programme in Polish.

We subsequently undertook another 2 RSLs, with a similar format, during Easter and December 2008, during which our audience continued to grow and during this time we received funding for a second studio from Breckland Council.

After applying for our licence in the Autumn of 2008, we received notification our full-time licence in February 2009.
In preparation we upgraded our transmission equipment with a more powerful 150w transmitter, processor and custom built aerial (paid for by a lottery grant).  In the studios we installed playout and scheduling software (Myriad) as well as delta1010 sound cards (a grassroots grant).  When we started full-time broadcasting on the 28th August 2009, you could certainly hear the difference!