Top prize haul for community radio station

Highland Perthshire’s community radio station Heartland FM has won multiple prizes at the UK Community Radio Awards.

Heartland FM, a division of Heartland Multimedia based in Pitlochry, was judged to be the joint best community radio station out of the whole of the UK.

At the awards ceremony held on October 23 in Coventry, the Heartland FM team came away smiling.

This small Scottish rural station in Highland Perthshire, where the population is just 12,000, took on and beat all the other UK community radio stations, taking one gold award, two silver and one bronze.

This tally was matched by only one other station from a UK-wide group of around 300 community broadcasters.

Station manager Alistair Smith said: “Getting a silver for the ‘Best Overall Station’ category was most rewarding in that it means our industry recognises the breadth and quality of our output and our close engagement with our community.

“But we are most pleased with our gold award for the ‘Best Newcomer’, Ashleigh Keenan-Bryce, as we pride ourselves on training up local talent in all aspects of radio production.

“Our coverage of the parliamentary elections results, as a live outside broadcast, focusing on our local constituency, won us the bronze award and our silver award for the ‘Best Female Presenter’, Katherine Liley, was a well- deserved recognition of the quality we demand and receive from our presenters.”

Award chair Martin Steers said: “It’s the second year of awards within a pandemic, but organisations like Heartland FM have proven their value at the heart of their local areas. The recognition for all four awards are well deserved, and we hope it recognises their success, and encourages others to engage, represent and support their communities.”