Islands FM, previously known as Radio Scilly, is a non-profit
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 popula ...
station.
Originally launched as Radio Scilly in September 2007, the station broadcasts to the residents of the
Isles of Scilly.
Radio Scilly rebranded as Islands FM on 31 January 2020.
History
Radio Scilly was launched in September 2007, and was founded by Keri Jones, who had previously launched
Radio Pembrokeshire.
In January 2016, Jones announced he would be leaving the station, and that his position would be taken up by his colleague Zoe Parry.
In January 2019, three months after Parry passed on ownership of the station to Beth and Steve Sims in October 2018, it was announced that Radio Scilly would be closing in March unless someone else took on ownership of the station, due to the management team no longer being able to run it.
On 31 January 2020, following a new set of directors taking ownership of the station, Radio Scilly rebranded as Islands FM, with the website, jingles, logo and music playlists also changing to reflect the rebrand and the audience demographics.
Technical
It broadcasts on
FM on 107.9
MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
from the existing radio mast by the Coastguard Tower at
Telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
on
St. Mary's island. Most of the Isles of Scilly can be covered from this site.
It is one of the world's smallest radio stations,
due to the small number of residents on the islands. Its licensed service area population is slightly larger than that of the UK's smallest licensed station
Two Lochs Radio
Two Lochs Radio is Britain's smallest commercial radio station, and community broadcaster for the Gairloch, Loch Ewe and Loch Maree areas of Wester Ross, in the Highlands of Scotland. The station broadcasts in stereo on 106.0 and 106.6MHz FM. It ...
which broadcasts to an official service area population of just 1,681.
Funding
The
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...
is funded in part by a local weekly
lottery, licensed by the Council for the Isles of Scilly. It costs £1 a week to enter and there is a weekly prize of £1000. The number of players is limited to 2,000 each week. Any money remaining after the prize has been paid goes towards the cost of running the station or to local clubs or organisations that request a grant.
References
External links
Islands FM 107.9 , From And For The Isles Of ScillyOfficial website
Islands FM 107.9 , From And For The Isles Of ScillyScilly Lottery
{{Isles of Scilly
Radio stations in Cornwall
Community radio stations in the United Kingdom
Isles of Scilly
Radio stations established in 2007