David Gardiner on the relaunch of Waltham Forest’s community radio station

For the past two years a small team of local people called the Waltham Forest Community Radio Group have been recording regular podcasts at The Mill in Walthamstow and have attracted a loyal audience of about 250 listeners

Using the web domain name MillRadio.com who have provided a platform for local musicians, singers, poets, short-story writers and ordinary people with something to say, as well as hosting many lively debates on local issues such as Mini Holland, housing, education, and the NHS. Council leader Clare Coghill and World Scrabble Champion Brett Smitheram have been among our recent interviewees.

As well as our online programmes, typically a little over an hour in length, free audio CDs are handed out from The Mill reception desk for people without internet access. The project has been funded by the Markhouse Ward Forum and programmes have been recorded at monthly drop-in sessions at The Mill, as well as on the move using portable equipment.

Inspired by the success of the last two years, we are now relaunching our internet platform with a revised name and web address, hoping to reach out to a much bigger cross-section of the Waltham Forest community and attain a higher profile.

The new incarnation of the group goes by the name of Forest Radio, and our programmes can be heard at ForestRadio.co.uk, although the old web address will continue to reach the station as well.

Our new programmes under the Forest Radio banner will be available alongside all the older ones, dating back to an early oral history project, and will remain permanently available in a large searchable archive.

Forest Radio would love to hear from anyone who makes music, writes stories or poems, or has anything they would like to say to the rest of the Waltham Forest community.

To find out more and to download the latest podcast:

Visit ForestRadio.co.uk

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