The idea
Red Kite Radio is a not-for-profit radio station broadcasting on 107.2 FM 365 days a year from our transmitter in Haddenham. We pride ourselves on our close links with local communities in Buckinghamshire and South Oxfordshire. As part of this, we attend open days and events in our area, such as village fetes, beer festivals, bike nights and charity fun runs. When we go to events, we record interviews with members of the public and the people running them. They have to be recorded because we don’t have the equipment to broadcast live. With new equipment, Red Kite Radio can broadcast remotely in real time at a huge range of community events, such as Aston Clinton Beer Festival, Cuddington Fete, Haddenham Summerfest and Winterfest, Thame Arts & Literature Festival and more. We’ll have closer links with listeners, and the output will be transmitted in real time straight to the live audience as well as to listeners everywhere else. As a community station, we’ll broadcast your event now!
What we'll deliver
- Provide portable outside broadcasting equipment that enables community events to be broadcast live as they happen
- Deliver live coverage of indoor and outdoor events, from village fetes and fun days to beer festivals and carnivals
- Enable community participation in live broadcasts, playing music requests and inviting people to make birthday shouts
- Provide listeners with a better, more relevant experience
- Build awareness and interest in community events transmitted live
Why it's a great idea
At present, when we cover community events, we can only record live interviews for later transmission. We have broadcast from an event the same day, but because we don’t have the right equipment, recording must be done an hour in advance so that our playout software has time to build the interviews into its broadcast playlist. That’s time-consuming and specialised, so not many Red Kite Radio presenters are able to do it. We know more presenters would do more outside broadcasts if it was easier.
Now, when people listen, they’ve either missed the event or it’s already well underway. By broadcasting live as they happen, community events will have greater impact and by inviting listeners to ‘come on down and join in the fun’, attendance is likely to increase.
By covering more community events live, more people are likely to attend, making them more viable and raising additional funds for charities and good causes.
Live coverage is more fun, whether you’re there in person or listening in.
Steps to get it done
- Verification of quotations obtained for outside broadcasting equipment and purchase of the equipment
- Survey of key events in the year ahead and schedule in presenters who will cover these events
- Look at new opportunities and events that could be covered as outside broadcasts and schedule these in
- Be alive to opportunities, as yet unknown, and be ready to use outside broadcast as the best means of reporting on them.
- Attract new volunteer presenters
We first broadcast as Summerfest Radio for two years before launching as Red Kite Radio in June 2017. We’re proud to be supporting our local community and continue transmitting coverage of both Haddenham Summerfest and Haddenham Winterfest, as well as many other local events, including Kingsey Fete, Oakley’s Oakfest, Worminghall Fete and Chearsley Family Fun Day. Our presenters have taken part in varied events like the Florence Nightingale Midnight Walk in Aylesbury and the Thame Carnival. We’ve even done a Firewalk, walking across hot coals in aid of charity. Last year we put together a full show from rehearsals and behind the scenes activity at The Players Theatre’s Pantomime in Thame. More recently we were at the Kop Hill Climb and Haddenham Feast Festival. Just think how much more exciting and immediate these events would have sounded if they had all been broadcast live! Red Kite Radio has been shortlisted in September 2019 for the national Community Radio Awards.
