The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Chat room phone-in is the secret of Fife radio sports show’s award
A Fife sports radio show has won bronze in Sports Show of the Year at the Community Radio Awards in a decorated evening for its station.
F107FM’S Saturday Sports show scooped third place in the category – one of two bronze prizes for the Kirkcaldy station, which also took home a gold and a silver from its six nominations.
The Saturday Sports Show is put together by a group of volunteers led by Graeme Kilgour.
Along with Angus Shepherd, Stuart Kirk, Scott Flemming and Blair Hopcroft they cover everything from Raith Rovers to Kirkcaldy Rugby Club and from Fife Flyers to Kirkcaldy & Dysart.
It is its innovative use of Twitter Spaces that impressed judges.
The presenters host a football phone-in-style show using the recent addition to the social media platform known as Twitter Spaces.
In September, Kilgour told Courier Sport that they were the first community radio show to do this.
The awards recognise the work done by community radio, often carried out by small teams of volunteers. It is the Saturday Football Show’s second such award in as many years.
The ceremony was held in Bedford on Saturday alongside the UK Community Radio Network conference.
At the conference K107FM was given a platform to share the secrets behind its successful use of Twitter.
Alex Airnes, of the station’s programming team, was asked to present this innovative approach to delegates at the national event.
He said: “Graeme’s adoption of Twitter Spaces has had a huge impact. The levels of engagement, audience interaction and participation are like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
“Traditional ways of communication in radio have been disjointed with broadcasters asking a question, and then looking for an individual call, text, email or social media post to interact with.”