Friday April 12th 2019
Black Diamond FM writes
Based in Newbattle Community Centre in Newtongrange, Black Diamond FM has been broadcasting to Midlothian and parts of the City for the last twelve years.
Run by a voluntary management team the community radio station has a volunteer team of presenters that varies in number but sits around fifty people at any one time. The Station is embedded in the local community and has great support from the voluntary and community sector as well as Midlothian Council.
Recently steps have been taken to improve our transmission signal by finding a new location high up in Mayfield with the result that programming can now be heard on FM radios in most of Gorebridge and at last our chairperson Bob Miller can hear the station in Pathhead.
The Community Radio Fund has grant-aided a post of temporary Business Development Manager who has successfully engaged with local businesses resulting in an upsurge in local advertising, including, for the first time, sponsorship of the Breakfast and Mid-Morning shows, as well as weather and travel updates
Midlothian is the fastest growing area in Scotland and we want to reach all the new residents as well as reconnecting with parts of the audience that have not had a good signal over the last year or so.
An application has been submitted to OFCOM for the means to extend the transmission to ensure that the new community of Shawfair to the North and the areas to the South and West of Central Midlothian are served.
Nowadays it is not just about the house radio with more people able to listen on all manners of devices including mobiles, tablets and smart TV boxes. Currently we use Tune-in or stream through our own website but we plan to develop our own app to make this even easier
Black Diamond FM is on your airwaves from 7am to late plus non- stop music from a machine called ‘Ethel’. She is our most reliable presenter, plays good music through the night without a mistake but less chatty than the day-time team! During the day, our anchor is mid-morning presenter Geoff Ruderham surrounded by a team that takes you from Breakfast to Drivetime with a range of easy listening music not forgetting Geoff’s Motown Hour. After six and at weekends, Black Diamond FM has a programme to meet nearly every musical taste from Rock to Classical not forgetting Reggae to Folk and all things in between.
On Wednesdays, Russell Aitken presents 2 hours of talk about Sport happening in the local travel area and on Saturday he presents a sports roundup that features all the teams representing the towns and villages of the Lothians.
Specialist programmes such as the faith based Heart of the Matter features on a Sunday and Moira and Margaret take over Wednesday afternoons for ‘Women on the Loose’.
Full Listings at www.blackdiamondfm.com
Backing the presenting team is an incredibly hardworking Technical Director in Chris Mackrell. Chris has been with Black Diamond FM since the beginning when he was still a student at Lasswade High School and he more than anyone else ensures that the station complies with OFCOM rules and continuity of the broadcast signal.
The Reith doctrine for the BBC was to entertain, educate and inform and with interviews, features and community news we deliver that albeit with a focus on Midothian.
Although operating in a world where the listener has almost unlimited choice of station across the globe, the decision of OFCOM to allow commercial radio such as Forth and Clyde to operate on a Southern Scotland basis will be a challenge to them to maintain ‘localness’ with its existing audience.
Black Diamond FM is ready to rise to that challenge and anyone who would like to train as a volunteer presenter should contact the station at admin@blackdiamondfm.com
For everyone else it is 107.8 FM at the top of your dial or use your device to listen in.
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