Hundreds of young people across Carlisle found themselves faced with planning, creating and presenting their own live radio programmes when they reported back to school at the beginning of September. They are among the lucky ones being chosen to launch a brand new youth radio service in the city this November 1.

Carlisle Youth Radio (CYR 87.7 FM)2 launched at 11 am on Monday, 12th November and closed down at 3 pm on Tuesday. Programme teams from 14 local schools were responsible for providing 15 hours of the schedules. Other programmes included a live music competition “The Battle of the Bands”3, and “Meet the Media”, in which a panel of regional TV, radio and newspaper personalities answer questions from a live studio audience of young people.

The project is being managed by the Cumbria Business Education Consortium (CBEC)4 with sponsorship from the region’s leading companies, including Carlisle Renaissance5, Stead McAlpine and Pirelli and Nestlé is allowing the transmitter to be hosted on the top of their building to ensure maximum coverage.

All programmes were broadcast live from studios set up especially for the project at Caldew School in Dalston. They can be heard by anyone with a domestic or car radio tuned to 87.7 FM.

The primary aim of the project is to harness the “coolness” of radio to inspire young people to be creative and enterprising. Creating radio programmes gives them experience in a wide range of transferable skills that will stand them in good stead for life.

“This is not about giving young people a chance to do a bit of disc- jocking,” said CBEC’s chief executive, Fay Davis. “This project delivers serious educational goals while at the same time giving young people a taste of the pressures of life in the modern workplace.

“Making radio programmes for everyone to hear just happens to be an exciting way of engaging their interest and directing their enthusiasm,” she added.

Those involved will be deploying a wide range of skills that include reading, writing, researching, planning, team working, presenting, performing and evaluating and covers a wide area of the school curriculum.