Siren, Lincoln’s only community radio station, based in the heart of the University of Lincoln Brayford campus, is set to uncover a different look and feel. The station now hosts voices from both the local community and students from the university, in an attempt to bring Lincoln together in new ways.
The radio station is currently undergoing a phase of rebranding and Andrew David, managing director of Siren, said: “The station will finish the year quite different to the way it started.”
Leon Sherman sees it as a great honour to have taken over as the presenter on “No Adults Allowed”, formerly Louie Werth’s programme: “I know [Louie Werth] is spoken of in quite high regard here, so to be taking over his show is a pretty good feeling. When someone is held in such high regard, it’s good to be taking over his reign as the 3 to 5 [pm] king of community radio.”
Sherman, a recent university graduate who has moved back to Lincoln, wants to bring “good tunes and big personalities” to his show. Although he may be a newcomer to the community radio station, he is also aware of the changes: “From what I have seen, there has been an influx of new presenters and Andrew David always strives to get more people in, give more people a chance to be on radio.”
Josh Jackson, a second year Journalism student, will continue with the work that Dom McAndrew started, as the new Siren news co-ordinator. Jackson plans to “improve news gathering skills and try and make sure that every bulletin has plenty of audio.” He also has plans to improve the website by introducing a playback feature, posting news online and staff blogs.
Jackson is thankful for the new role because “news is important and I really enjoy doing radio news, and this was a great opportunity not to be missed.”
Andrew David also highlights that Siren will begin to have more of an online presence once their server has been upgraded, which will make sure that the station continues to run smoothly but also “gives us a chance to do more exciting things with the website.”
However, David points out that the changes to the station are not just an update in technology but also a change in sound: “We now have a 60/40 student-community mix, in favour of the community. It could be that some of the community were formerly students so it’s the same sort of feel, but it makes us much more sustainable because we are vulnerable to the way students ebb and flow. They ebb and flow because of term times, of course, and in May they all disappear until September.”
David says that the greater community involvement is also improving programming: “We are listening to what people want.” One such show is “Out and Proud” on a Friday evenings, which is put together by the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender community in Lincoln: “They came to us saying ‘We are an identifiable part of the Lincoln community landscape, so can we have a programme?’ It was a no brainer.”