A community radio station set up by two pals during the first lockdown has been awarded £10,000 by the National Lottery.
Lomond Radio was founded in the spring of 2020 as Leven Lockdown Radio by enthusiasts Alan Caldwell and Paul Lucas, who broadcast from their Alexandria homes.
The station quickly grew in popularity, with Alan and Paul spotting the gap for truly local radio for Dumbarton and the Vale following the demise of Your Radio.
Last year the station, which is run entirely by volunteers, took another step forward, as they moved into studios at Dumbarton’s iconic Strathleven House and changed names again - from River Radio to Lomond Radio.
Now they have grown further, with a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund set to go towards funding state-of-the-art broadcast equipment and furniture for their Strathleven House base.
Co-founder Alan Caldwell revealed that the community aspect was a major reason for their successful grant application, which he hopes will help get even more locals involved with Lomond Radio.
He said: “A key part of our bid was that we will offer training. The community is a massive part of this station.
“We don’t want our presenters to be experienced, we want them from the community. We want to let people try something new and develop their skills.
“It’s something a community station should try and do. It’s fair to say that we’ve taken the model of a normal radio station and stood it on its head. We’ve taken a totally new approach.
“We are blown away that the community fund put their trust in us to deliver for the local community and we are well on the way to doing that.”
This month the studio is set to take delivery of a state of the art digital broadcast console, with custom built furniture also on the way.
And after everything is installed, Alan and the team hope to invite everyone who has helped support the station so far to try their hand on the station.
He continued: “Once we have everything in place and the studio completed we will be celebrating with an open day where our valued sponsors and supporters can come along and see how we’ve progressed and what we spend their donations and advertising fees on.
“Following that we will open the doors to the public over a weekend so that they can visit the studio and see how everything works and hopefully recruit some new volunteers.
“We want to go out into the community and get them involved with us as much as we can. We’re going to hold open days in community centres and invite people along to tell us what they want from their station.
”They will shape our schedule.”
The National Lottery Community Fund distributes funding on behalf of National Lottery players who raise more than £30million each week for good causes throughout the UK.
Chair of the fund in Scotland, Kate Still, said: “This funding will help projects to inform, educate and build trust so they can begin to change attitudes which will, in time, effect real social change.
“This is all thanks to National Lottery players who are helping communities to thrive.”
Residents can listen to Lomond Radio via a smart speaker or at lomondradio.co.uk.
