A new radio station serving part of Perthshire could be taking to the airwaves in time for Christmas.
It has been a busy two months for those getting Radio Earn off the ground.
But Creative Crieff has now secured a High Street home, and work will soon be under way to fit out the premises.
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And there was more exciting news this week as Youth Music announced a grant of more than £20,000 for the project, which will enable Creative Crieff to offer two posts at the station – specifically for young people aged between 18 and 25.
The Creative Crieff award is part of a £2million Incubator Fund designed to help music industry organisations harness the potential of young talent by offering grants of up to £30,000.
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Creative Crieff secured the whole amount applied for – £23,500 – and was the only Scottish recipient of an award.
Cathy Phillips Brady is Creative Crieff’s development manager.
She said: “We are hoping to launch the station in December, just in time for Christmas.
“The money is specifically ring-fenced for two projects we have coming up.
“One of them is for Radio Earn and two one-year, fixed-term, posts for young people to come and work part-time with us at the radio station.
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“There will be two separate roles, working on the technical side of radio broadcast under our station manager and also boosting our volunteer DJs and journalists, who are all waiting to get going.”
Cathy continued: “There will be another project which runs alongside the radio project.
“We haven’t got a title for it yet but it’s going to be about songs and stories that come from around Strathearn, and we are going to be creating a special album of music that is written and performed by people from around this area.”
The charity’s creative director Graham Scougall – otherwise known as ‘Scoogz’ – said he was delighted that the significant grant from the Youth Music Incubator Fund had been successful.
He said: “It’s testament to the high quality work we have been doing and the exciting projects in our pipeline.
“Youth leadership, training and opportunities are at the forefront of our aims and this grant will support leadership of our soon to be launched community radio station Radio Earn and impactful, large-scale participatory creative work in 2021.”
Matt Griffiths, CEO of Youth Music, commented: “The organisations we’re funding are trailblazers in their own fields
“They recognise the huge creative and commercial opportunities to be gained from nurturing the diverse talent that our music industry needs.
“We constantly campaign to rebuild a more inclusive music industry and our Incubator Fund allows us to propel the forward-thinking organisations sharing that vision.”
