Brixton prison radio up for four Sony awards!

[editor]

Fantastic!

Inmates compete for radio awards

A London-based prison radio station has received four nominations in the prestigious Sony Radio Academy awards.

Electric Radio Brixton's interview with Jonathan Aitken, the former cabinet minister who was jailed for perjury, will compete for the interview award.

The Brixton prison station was also shortlisted in the community, speech and listener participation categories.

Launched in 2007, the station's content is developed and produced by prisoners and it broadcasts 24 hours a day.

Tim Blackmore, chairman of the Sony Radio Academy Awards, said: "Every year we try to adjust the categories to match the continual evolution of our industry and this year's entries have shown once again that alongside their heritage of 27 years, these awards remain truly contemporary."

The station aims to help inmates develop communication and IT skills.

Furthermore, it has become the principal source of information for the prison population in the south London jail.

In the interview, Mr Aitken describes the fear he felt while "in the cage" at HMP Belmarsh and discusses the physical threats he received.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7988295.stm

 

[London_Calling]

Brixton Prison radio

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/06/jonathan-ross-russell-brand-sony-awards

It is an unlikely awards ceremony where Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand are overshadowed by a bunch of prisoners. But while Ross and Brand were frozen out of the nominations for this year's Sony awards, the radio industry's answer to the Oscars, Brixton's prison radio station earned a quartet of nominations

Really good article about it here:

It was a gig a lot of people would have paid a lot of money to see. Mick Jones, formerly of the seminal punk band the Clash, playing an acoustic and oh-so-gentle version of the band's classic stomper Should I Stay or Should I Go - and Billy Bragg, unchallenged master of conscience folk rock giving a deliciously cutting rendition of Rotting on Remand - "I said there's no justice/ as they led me out the door/ and the judge said 'this ain't a court of justice son/ this is a court of law'."

Introduced by Radio 1 DJ Bobby Friction, the two national treasures were performing live at the launch of Electric Radio Brixton - the first prison radio station in the UK to broadcast via satellite, and the first to broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It is an ambitious project. But Phil Maguire, chief executive of the Prison Radio Association, a charity founded 18 months ago by Roma Hooper and Mark Robinson (who were instrumental in the setting up of the radio station in Feltham Young Offenders Institute 13 years earlier), has even more ambition yet to fulfil. "We want to see the establishment of a national prison radio network," he says, "serving every prison cell in England and Wales and broadcasting material produced not just in Brixton, but produced by prisoners serving sentences in prisons all around the country."

, etc.


Nice.

 

[Mr Smin]

I can't find any info on how to pick it up. Article says it's via satellite, but is it free-to-air?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I don't know but email this chap to find out. He's part of the charity that has set up prison radio

Andrew Wilkie, Station Manager HMP Brixton

andrew AT prisonradioassociation.org

 

[editor]

There's already a thread here: http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=285351

I'll merge them.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Can you leave a re-direct in the Brixton forum please?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Might explain the racket we sometimes hear coming from the prison. Not a riot but gigs

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Can you leave a re-direct in the Brixton forum please?

Or in the music forum

 

[DJWrongspeed]

big up Brixton Prison!

I'm glad they're getting some respect and exposure. As for the Sony Awards, they have some weird 'oscar' like conformism and are pretty bland & crap unfortunately.

 

[psycherelic]

So I still can't work out how to listen

 

[skyscraper101]

How do we tune in?

 

[London_Calling]

You can't listen to it. It won two awards last night.

Nice article: 'A bit like Radio Five, only much more interesting'

 

[skyscraper101]

Nice one.

Shame we can't listen to it though.

 

[London_Calling]

Yep it is, though you can understand the concern: "Park the removal van against the wall on the north side and throw over three ropes. . ."

 

[Etymologist]

It seems odd that we can't listen to it. Any particular reason why?

 

[Bob]

It's in the Guardian today.

 

[hendo]

It's in the Guardian today.

It's really interesting. Apparently the prison governor responsible for it is more afraid of the Daily Mail than the inmates. Don't blame him.
Maybe that's why we can't hear it, which is a shame.

 

[Oswaldtwistle]

Some other prison radio stations have LPAM transmitters (Low Power AM) but I can't see the station on this list http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/radiolicensing/rsls/longterm_rsls.htm

Not sure when that list was last updated though...

Failing that, it may be cabled into the cells.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Brixton prison radio up for four Sony awards

but the judge let em off as it was a first offence