A community radio station for the Isles of Scilly is enjoying national television coverage at the moment thanks to a BBC2 TV programme about the area.
An Island Parish follows people as they go about their lives on the islands, including Radio Scilly founder and manager Keri Jones. In Episode 7 of series 2, Keri arrives with a studio in the back of a transit van, and has just a few days to launch the station. Keri also travels to Milan to record the jingle package for the station using an Italian session singer.
Keri told RadioToday.co.uk: When you are single-handedly trying to move house to an offshore island, build a radio station, train 67 volunteers and sell airtime in a village on a rock 2 and a half hours boat ride from the nearest PC World or Currys the last thing you want is to have a TV crew follow you and try and catch you crying in the toilet when you’ve had a mini nervous breakdown because there are no extension leads left in the hardware store and the next boat won’t come for 3 days.
That said, it has been the most rewarding professional experience of my life and I am glad that I had the BBC to provide me with a video diary of the most fun, crazy, stressy, mad 6 months of my life so I can remember what has become a happy blur. At last, something of value from my licence fee. Oh and it is true. The camera does put 10 pounds on you.
The programme is available on BBC iPlayer, and is repeated on Friday evening on BBC 2. Next week the programme continues and will show the launch of the station.
