Community radio is great for innovation

Reflecting on last weekend at the Community Radio Awards in Bradford. I had a really good chat with Dean Kavanagh that really resonated with me - about how CR stations are a brilliant space for technical innovation..

It’s the kind of environment where you can just try things without worrying too much if they break. That freedom taught me so much. I built a website and CMS from scratch, developed a studio switching system & rigged some studio cameras on a budget (which worked surprisingly well!)

All from a bit of curiosity and trial and error.

As someone who dropped out of a computer science course, community radio gave me the confidence to keep doing what I was actually good at - and also merged my passion for radio too.

I can’t imagine having the same space to experiment in commercial radio, where corporate/enterprise networks and tight networks mean you can’t tinker with things (understandably)

It’s those community stations where a lot of real innovation starts, and that’s one thing I miss ❤️