[comradio-l] Celtic Music Radio at Celtic Connections

[bruce]

Hi,

Celtic Connections 2009 kicks off in Glasgow on Thursday next week.
It's probably the biggest folk/traditional music festival in the
UK.  18 days, over 500 performers or bands, a dozen venues...

And it's a very wide variety of music - it's not the stereotypical
"blokes with beards, and fingers-in-ear, singing songs about dead
lighthouse keepers" image that lots of people have of traditional
music...  in fact, it couldn't be further from that.  Think about
people like Eddi Reader, Cerys Matthews, Michael Nyman, Youssou
N'Dour, Kate Rusby, Sharron Shannon, Edwyn Collins, Lau, King Creosote,
Roddy Woomble, Sly & Robbie....

http://www.celticconnections.com


Celtic Music Radio will be broadcasting live from the festival for
around 8 hours every day. And you can join in too - see below!

On weekdays, our outside broadcast kicks off at 11am with Mark
Sheridan's "Festival Focus", with music, guests, previews and
reviews.

At 12.30, Iain Anderson, of Radio Scotland fame, has his "in
conversation" series, a "chat show" in front of a live audience,
with guests and live music.

At 1.30, Gordon Hotckiss hosts his afternoon "Hotchpotch" - with
live performances from some of the festival artists, interviews,
music and blether.

>From 5pm-7pm, we cover the "Danny Kyle Open Stage" - 5 new and
up-and-coming bands playing every night, around 80 bands and solo
performers in total, competing for fame, fortune, and a main-stage
support gig next year.

We're also intending to broadcast concerts from another venue every
night from 8-10pm - Can't say which one until it's confirmed, but
we're expecting the OK from the organisers within the next day or
so.

And overnight we'll be putting out a "highlights" package, including the
open stage recordings.

We'll have a broadcast facility in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
for the entire festival, with a link back to our studios. We will
be broadcasting it all on 1530kHz around Glasgow, and streaming via
our website.  We're also planning to transmit via a couple of other
routes - watch this space!

So how can you get involved?

We're happy to provide any of this live material to other community
broadcasters, for you to retransmit. It will probably be of relevence
to your local area - there are 80 unsigned acts on the open stage
- some are solo, others may comprise a dozen performers. So that's
several hundred performers from throughout the UK.

So, if you've got a gap in your schedules, why not take some of
this material?

Or maybe think about taking our overnight highlights - including
the "Iain Anderson In Conversation" and the open stage - instead
of your usual sustaining service.

And before you say "nah, that's not the sort of stuff we play", and
hit the delete button, think about this - what is community radio
all about? What best serves your "social gain and inclusion"
committments? Are they best served by giving airplay to unsigned
artists, new talent and locally-produced, non-mainstream music? Or
are they best served by sticking on yet another copy of "Now That's
What I Call Tedious Vol 32" overnight?   :-)


Let me know if you're interested in taking any of this material and I'll
sort out a high-quality stream.

And if you're planning to attend the festival, come and visit us -
we'll be in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, exhibition hall, beside
the Scottish Power stage, every day, broadcasting live from 11am
until 7pm. There's a nominal entry fee for the Iain Anderson gig, but
Gordon's 1.30-3.00 and the 5-7 open stage are FREE ENTRY.

Bruce.
-- 
Bruce Rodger
Celtic Music Radio
http://www.celticmusicradio.net/
bruce at celticmusicradio.net