Newport City Radio is a

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

radio station serving the city of Newport, in south east

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It broadcasts online via its website and the

TuneIn TuneIn is a global audio streaming service delivering live news, radio, sports, music, and podcasts to over 75 million monthly active users. TuneIn is operated by the company TuneIn Inc. which is based in San Francisco, California. The company ...

service. It was previously named Urban Circle Radio.

History

The station was launched in 2007 by Ali Boshk. It remains the only

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popular ...

station in the city, and was established when the station benefitted from a 3-year funding grant from the

National Lottery Community Fund The National Lottery Community Fund, legally named the Big Lottery Fund, is a non-departmental public body responsible for distributing funds raised by the National Lottery for "good causes". Since 2004 it has awarded over £9 billion to ...

. The station began as part of the Urban Circle projects, a social enterprise led by young people focussed on offering broadcast media training to young people in Newport. Current Managing Director Ian Lamsdale joined the organisation in 2008. Between 2008 and 2010 the station was broadcast on 87.9FM under an

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

community radio licence. In 2011, the station refocussed following the end of its grant funding. The organisation already engaged with a diverse range of people across the city, and stated on its website that it would change direction to aim to "(empower) people of all ages, all abilities with training and development in radio broadcasting". It was also in 2011 that the organisation registered on the Mutuals Register as a

Community Interest Company A community interest company (CIC, colloquially pronounced "kick") is a type of company introduced by the United Kingdom government in 2005 under the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004, designed for social ente ...

Current activities

The station now has 50 active volunteers broadcasting to a 100,000 plus population in the region. The station can often be seen at events in the city, such as Newport County and

Dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

sporting events, major entertainment and cultural occasions, and the 2019

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

in the city. Each year the station organises the Love Live Music Song Contest, aimed at exposing local songwriters and composers to a wider audience, with an awards night held at

The NEON The former Newport Odeon, currently trading as The NEON, is a large Grade II listed building in the city of Newport, South Wales. It is located at the junction of Clarence Place and Chepstow Road on the east side of Newport city centre, near ...

each year. In 2017, the station took part in #WeStandTogether, an event held in tribute to the victims of the

Manchester Arena bombing On 22 May 2017, an Islamist extremist suicide bomber detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb as people were leaving the Manchester Arena following a concert by American pop singer Ariana Grande. Twenty-three people were killed, including ...

, alongside

Newport City Council Newport City Council () is the governing body for Newport, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. It consists of 51 councillors, who represent the city's 20 wards. The council is currently, and has historically been, held by the Labour Party. ...

, SEWREC, and the Islamic Society of Wales, with the occasion led particularly by young people and families of the same age as those who were victims of the attack. Young people from the station provided a live music set and words of reflection.

References

External links

Newport City Radio website

NCR - Twitter

NCR - Facebook

Newport City Radio on TuneIn

Community Media Association website

Ofcom website
{{coord, 51.591474, -2.990636, region:GB_scale:5000, display=title Community radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations established in 2007 Urban adult contemporary radio stations 2007 establishments in Wales Community interest companies in Wales Community interest companies