Join the fUSe FM Ballymoney team from 8.00am on Monday 21st November, 2011 for “fUSe 10”...
The fUSe Ballymoney group are preparing another 28 day run of popular Ulster-Scots radio station fUSe FM. Operating from their purpose built studio on the first floor of the Ullans Centre, 4-6 Victoria Street, Ballymoney, the Ballymoney team will launch “fUSe 10” on 21 November 2011 and will be broadcasting live from 8am until 1am the following morning for 28 consecutive days.
The Ballymoney team have now completed nine runs of fUSe FM and each one has been as popular as the one before and evidence indicates that during each run, the station becomes even more popular. As well as broadcasting only in Ulster-Scots, the team made maximum use of the text system whereby the public could contact the station by using their mobiles to send messages. As well as playing requests, shout outs and promoting local businesses, the team organised a very successful charity drive.
Gary Blair, Regional Development Officer for the Ulster-Scots Agency commented “The Ulster-Scots Agency created the fUSe FM concept back in 2007 as a medium for the promotion of the Ulster-Scots language and culture. It was a great idea and has been adopted by groups in Newtownards, Listullycurran, Rathfriland, Ballycarry and Maghera. However, the success of the project in Ballymoney has been exceptional. The group there has bought all their own radio equipment and constructed a purpose built studio with a separate part for making adverts and promotional recordings. I think the group have spent somewhere in the region of £6,000 of their own money to make fUSe a success and they have done so. They have also raised money for charities every year since December 2007.and I am delighted to be associated with the success of fUSe Ballymoney and I am proud of this great achievement. The Agency pays for the broadcasting licences and copyright fees and the fUSe team does the rest. It has proved to be a very worthwhile partnership”.
Based in the Ullans Centre, the station has proved very popular with people from all ages and backgrounds in the North Antrim area. Language Development Officer at the Ullans Centre, Anne Smyth commented “fUSe FM has made the Ulster-Scots language popular and part of the twenty first century here in north Antrim. For centuries the Scots influence in our speech was wrongly interpreted as an inability on the part of the speaker to pronounce words properly in English. Projects such as fUSe FM have given the people of the area back the pride they naturally have in their language. The fUSe team have developed the station well and literally dozens of local people are now competent in presenting shows and dealing with technical issues”.
The fUSe team here in Ballymoney have raised quite a lot of money for different charities. In December 2007, we raised £1,100 for CLIC Sargent and the NI Hospice. In 2008 we had a bed push through the Toon and raised just over £1,500 for the local Palliative Care unit in the Robinson Hospital. We have made this an annual event every Christmas, raising thousands of pounds for the Northern Ireland Children To Lapland Trust.
In December 2009 we broke all previous records in terms of the number of texts we received. When we first went on air in 2007, we attracted 2,500 texts over a two week broadcast and in 2009 we brought in an amazing 77,281 texts over 28 days.
Of course the real champions here are the folk of the Toon and surrounding areas because without their support, we would have nothing to show for our work. Also the volunteers who present, sort out technical issues and do all that it takes to make fUSe the success that it has been.”
If you are an Ulster-Scots speaker and would like to learn how to use the radio equipment, please do not hesitate to call at the Ullans Centre at 4 -6 Victoria Street, Ballymoney or telephone 028 2766 8897 in January.
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