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Community radio celebrates two years on air

27/ 9/2008

ROCHDALE'S first community radio station was celebrating two-years on the airwaves this week.

Since September 2006, Crescent Community Radio has been broadcasting 24-hours a day throughout Rochdale on 97.0FM and around the world via their website www.crescentradio.net.

The celebration took place at the station’s headquarters on Devon Street and was attended by the Mayor of Rochdale, Cllr Robin Parker, Mayoress Ann Jones and a number of local ward councillors and community leaders.

Station manager Faheem Chishti said the road to success was a tricky one and the station had to overcome a number of obstacles.

"Funding has always been an issue," said Faheem.

"But we’re proud to say that local sponsorship has kept us alive. This has enabled us to remain self-sustained and therefore establish ourselves as the voice of the community we serve."

The station first hit the airwaves in December 1999 broadcasting as Radio Ramadhan Rochdale, but since its inception, Crescent has continued to grow and progress into a full time 24-hour community radio station.

Prior to gaining the full-time radio licence, Crescent only had seasonal airtime during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and during Milad celebrations, which marks the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed.

But now broadcasting in English and other community languages, programmes range from religious to community shows with an aim to encourage as much participation from the local community.

Though the majority of listeners are Muslims, Crescent radio hope to reach out to people of all faiths and communities and expand its audience by developing more current affairs and news programmes.

New start-up businesses are also given a helping hand with airtime on Crescent.

The station also boasts a total of 49 volunteers who have been given presenter and news development training. The station is now hoping to deliver this training to youngsters in the community.

Said Faheem: "The week running up to and the first week of Ramadan is always the hardest.

"In the early years I often didn't get home till midnight, and then I was up again for 4am.To be honest, it’s much better now that I've got support from a sales and programme manager, two technical engineers and training manager. We’re all one big happy family really!"

He added. "People are now listening all year round, we get a constant tide of phone calls from listeners and local business have Crescent on constantly. I think we are providing an alternative choice for our listeners, and they love it."