A station once again
By Ned Kelly
Every summer for the last three years the airwaves have
crackled with the mad wit and irreverence of Triple FM,
the people's station. Improved beyond measure, it can
now be heard all across Belfast and up in the H Blocks.
Running over the last three weeks, and up until St
Patrick's day, Triple FM's first non-festival slot has
been a brilliant success.
The key to the station's popularity has been its
commitment to the principles of providing a platform
for people from the community to articulate their
views, giving voice to communities previously unheard
and showing the true face of Nationalist Belfast.
Financed entirely by local advertising, the radio is
staffed completely by volunteers.
The other key ingredient to Triple FM has been the
people who have involved themselves - powerful examples
of the community as a resource. Major players have been
the youth group, who have been incorporated at every
level of the station, from management meetings to
engineering, to presenting and managing the phones.
Triple FM manager Veronica Brown said, ``the atmosphere
here is brilliant, so friendly, everyone is welcome.''
From the sideways look at the day's news, care of Jake
MacSiacais and Danny Morrison, Fra Coogan's blast from
the past, the community services information slot, the
current affairs show, the prisoners hour, the
pensioners hour, or the regional slot, the range of
issues is diverse. And according to Ciaran Quinn from
the West Belfast management committee, a core aim of
the station is to ``encourage this very diversity that
reflects the experience of the community.''
From the 100,000 potential audience there have been
over 10,000 phone calls into the station in the last
three weeks, calls from all sections of Belfast. One
man from Sandy Row, who refused to stop listening
despite threats from neighbours, rang in and requested
`The Sash' and although no tape could be found an
impromptu group from the station gave a live rendition.
Loyalist prisoner Sam McCrory rang in on a live debate,
only to be frustrated by H Block regulations. Truly `a
station once again', where all are welcome.
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