Delight for community radio station after it lands five-year licence
ACOMMUNITY radio station is celebrating after being granted a fiveyear FM broadcasting licence.
Groove City Radio, which is based in Kinning Park, was previously an internet-based station and is now taking to the airwaves on 88.6FM.
Station manager Michelle Harkness has said she is ‘delighted’ that they will be able to reach more people through an FM radio broadcast.
She said “It’s huge. It’s a stepping stone to open up a lot doors.
“The main thing is, because it’s a community station, nobody is in it to make money because we can’t make money. Anything we get we will put it back into the community.
“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet, I’m still having a wee bit of ‘wow we’ve done it!’ When we got awarded the licence, it was like ‘Oh my god! This has happened’.”
Groove City is Glasgow’s first dedicated dance music station which Michelle says is great for the community.
She added: “Even for our dance music community, having an FM station that’s dedicated to dance music is massive especially just now as the clubs are shut.
The station, which has been running since 2013, runs regular fundraisers for organisations such as SAMH and the Kinning Park Complex which was recently threatened with closure.
As well as that, the station also trains young people in radio broadcasting and helps them gain work experience as part of their college or university courses.
Michelle added: “We’ve got a lot of younger guys who come to us, they learn the ropes.
“It’s a really good thing for them to get involved in. We’re held back at the moment because the colleges are shut but we’re reaching out on social media for students to get in touch with us if they want to come and work with us and train.”
Groove City was originally based in a city centre bar where the DJs used to perform sets for people going out to clubs later in the evening before moving to their current premises which Michelle describes as a “mini warehouse”.
The station did not launch in the way that it had planned, however Michelle considers themselves lucky that they have come through the pandemic.
She added: “I work in events as well and we’ve not worked since last year. We’ve been really lucky as we’re self-funded, we never got any funding and we’ve watched other studios close because they haven’t had any money.”