Community experience being live on air with Vitalize Radio takeover

The station opened up the airwaves to five presenters, giving them each an hour-long show, as well as offering training and support throughout the day.

Jan Thomas, from Vitalize Radio, said: “I’ve been really impressed with our presenters today.

“We have had all ages in today. We have Les, who is a retired gentleman, but we also have Hollie-Mai who presented a show, and she’s 16.

“As part of our regular team, we have Jesse, who’s 10 and does his whole show in Welsh, so it really is open to the whole community.”

READ MORE:

• Group brought together by mental health struggles and grief over losing friend to suicide raise £19,000 for Movember.
• 'I couldn’t believe what I was seeing' - Newport mum's house lit up for Christmas in secret.
• New bar has opened to positive reviews - two years after the same site was left derelict following a fire.

Two of the presenters were Sarah Jacobs and Hollie-Mai Davies decided to take part in the takeover after talking to station manager Gavin Andrew.

“We have never done anything like this before,” said Mrs Jacobs. “Gav said to me that he thought I had the personality to present a show, so I decided to give it a go.

“Creating a playlist was a bit difficult. There are songs I wanted to play from different times in my life, but you have to make sure these are songs your listeners want to listen to as well.

“It was fun, and I have had some good feedback from some of the people who tuned in.”

“It was like an adrenaline rush being live on the radio,” said Miss Davies. “It was great fun.

“It wasn’t as complicated as I thought it would be. There’s not as many buttons as I thought there would be, and the team helped us through it.

“It’s something we would like to do again.”

Dan Williams, founder of Vitalize Radio, was impressed by the presenters, many of whom were live on air for the first time.

“It’s brilliant to watch people take to it like a duck to water,” he said. “It’s a really good learning opportunity for people in Torfaen who want to do something in the community or would like to get experience in the industry.”

Mr Williams also offered an update on the station’s school radio project.

Preparations are now underway at the station to establish the project after a successful trial in the summer term last year with Griffithstown Primary School.

“The trial period we did with Griffithstown was amazing,” said Mr Williams. “Some of the children would refuse to speak on air at first, but by the end they sounded like naturals.

“We would ask them to research their favourite bands and artists and talk about them and then introduce one of their songs.

“We have developed lesson plans for the project going forward, and some schools have set out their own ideas to fit in with their curriculums.

“We are looking for funding for the project. Because of the interest in the project, we are looking at getting another studio to allow as many schools to take part.”