It was a great honour to be involved in a UK Radio first, Community Radio Environment Network were involved with just that in November 2023.

I got a call from Penny Southgate saying that she was pulling a few people together to take part in ‘Our Earth Week’ and asked if I would like to be involved in producing some programming in the North East to contribute towards the project. I volunteer for two Community stations and they both wanted to get involved.

I had been running a ‘Green Matters’ programme for Bishop FM to compliment the Green Fair held in Bishop Auckland, touching on subjects like Litter Picking, Food Waste and general environmental issues and it seemed a logical progression to talk on similar subjects to inform a larger audience across the UK.

It was simply that for me, could I raise issues on environmental issues here in the North East of England to inform and educate people all over the country to perhaps take on similar challenges and assistance to help our planet through this extraordinary crisis. Of course, this way of thinking works the other way as well, there are projects and climate change action that listeners and radio stations are involved in all over the UK that have helped our learning here in the North East. I have found that our listeners liked this sharing of ideas approach, and they want more of it.

This is good new for all of us within the Community Radio Network Environment as there is another week of radio already in the planning for November 2024, and I for one am looking forward to the challenge.

I am already planning the letter (email) that I will be sending to key contacts within our community here in the North East. The communication sets out our objectives for the series of programming and how they can participate. Also, I will be asking if there is anything that they are doing to assist in reversing climate change. For instance, last year I asked a similar question and a landlord in social housing replied that they were involved in updating their properties with new insulation as well as running advice sessions to tenants outlining how they could save on their fuel usage. So, the interviews brought out all that detail and they
were used around the country.

The whole experience culminated in CREN being nominated for an ARIAS Radio Award in the Grass Root section of the awards. I was honoured to attend the award evening at the Theatre Royal in London earlier this year and it was fantastic to finally meet up with Penny, Xan and Agathe. Well done to all.

We did not win the award, but it was reward enough that we were nominated for all of our efforts to inform our respective audiences of projects, schemes and environmental assistance to share with the whole country. Community Radio does an extremely important job within their respective communities, may we all carry on with this important work and join with CREN to help with the climate crisis!