Two Lochs Radio is Britain's smallest commercial radio station, and community broadcaster for the

Gairloch Gairloch ( ; gd, Geàrrloch , meaning "Short Loch") is a village, civil parish and community on the shores of Loch Gairloch in Wester Ross, in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. A tourist destination in the summer months, Gairloch has a go ...

Loch Ewe Loch Ewe ( gd, Loch Iùbh) is a sea loch in the region of Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The shores are inhabited by a traditionally Gàidhlig-speaking people living in or sustained by crofting villages, the most notab ...

and

Loch Maree Loch Maree ( gd, Loch Ma-ruibhe) is a loch in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. At long and with a maximum width of , it is the fourth-largest freshwater loch in Scotland; it is the largest north of Loch Ness. Its surface a ...

areas of

Wester Ross Wester Ross () is an area of the Northwest Highlands of Scotland in the council area of Highland. The area is loosely defined, and has never been used as a formal administrative region in its own right, but is generally regarded as lying to t ...

, in the

Highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Albania * Dukagjin Highlands Armenia * Armenian Highlands Australia *Sou ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The station broadcasts in stereo on 106.0 and 106.6MHz FM. It also sustains the Lochbroom FM service for the

Ullapool Ullapool (; gd, Ulapul ) is a village and port located in Northern Scotland. Ullapool has a population of around 1,500 inhabitants. It is located around northwest of Inverness in Ross and Cromarty, Scottish Highlands. Despite its modest size, ...

and

Coigach Coigach () is a peninsula north of Ullapool, in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The area consists of a traditional crofting and fishing community of a couple of hundred houses located between mountain and shore on a peninsu ...

areas on 96.8 and 102.2MHz FM. For about 60 hours per week the station broadcasts programmes produced by volunteer presenters and partner stations, with the remaining airtime occupied by

Smooth Scotland Smooth Scotland is a Scottish independent local radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Smooth network. The station replaced Saga 105.2 FM in 2007. As well as being carried on FM in the Glasgow area, the station is also broad ...

during the day and Magic or Smooth Scotland overnight. The station operates on a not-for-profit basis for the benefit of the community, and is dependent on advertising, local fundraising and donors for its continuing existence. Membership of the station is open to all who support its aims. Unusually, Two Lochs Radio also provides a telephone listening service by an ordinary phone call to 0330 998 1114 (UK) or 518 500 1063 (US). This service is limited to telephone audio quality, but doesn't require FM reception or an Internet connection.

History

In April 2008, Two Lochs Radio launched an online "Listen live" streaming service, accessible from a button on its homepage, and also in the Reciva database for Internet radios. In January 2012, Two Lochs Radio joined the large number of UK commercial and BBC stations also available via Radioplayer. It is also available via

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 compan ...

Future

Two Lochs Radio is currently developing plans for expansion of its service to a larger part of Wester Ross currently not served by any local radio. This would cover the communities around Little Loch Broom,

Loch Torridon Loch Torridon ( gd, Loch Thoirbheartan) is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland in the Northwest Highlands. The loch was created by glacial processes and is in total around 15 miles (25 km) long. It has two sections: Upper Loch Torridon ...

and

Achnasheen Achnasheen (Gaelic ''Achadh na Sìne'') is a small village in Ross-shire in the Highland council area of Scotland. The village is situated on the River Bran at the junction of two roads built by Thomas Telford. Despite the size of the village, ...

. However, this project is subject to the station raising sufficient funding, particularly to sustain the ongoing increased costs of four additional relay sites.

Programming

Two Lochs Radio's programme schedule includes daily breakfast and afternoon shows, plus a range of individual music and local interest programmes, including Gaelic broadcasts and recordings from local events. The station also broadcasts Gaelic programmes produced by

CKJM-FM CKJM-FM is a radio station, broadcasting from Chéticamp, Nova Scotia, Canada on 106.1 FM. Owned by La Cooperative Radio-Chéticamp, the station has broadcast as a full-time French-language community radio service since 1995. History CKJM's his ...

Cape Breton Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18. ...

, and shows from several other independent Scottish radio presenters.

Awards

Two Lochs Radio was given the "Calor Scottish Business in the Community Business" award in 2004 and is a three-times winner of the Wallace Sword award for the best Gaelic magazine programme produced by a Highland community radio station. It was also nominated for the Scottish Countryside Alliance rural enterprise award in 2009.http://www.ruralgateway.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=2513

References

External links

* {{Coord, 57.7310, N, 5.6986, W, source:wikidata, display=title Radio stations in Scotland Mass media in Highland (council area) Radio stations in the Highlands & Islands Gairloch