BCB Newsletter – February 2021

BCB – Making Bradford Sparkle!

You may have seen this but if not, a few weeks ago BCB was featured in Sparkling Bradford. We’d been nominated as an organisation that makes Bradford Sparkle so well done to us! Click here to read more

BCB – becoming an anti racist organisation

At BCB we have been committed for over 25 years to creating a platform for many different people to have a voice and share their stories, passions and experiences. We pride ourselves on the wide range of voices we hear on our airwaves, and the people we welcome into the building.

​Our vision for BCB is one where we want everyone to feel valued and central to all the work we are doing. We know from the Black Lives Matter Movement that not all black people and people of colour feel valued or central in the workplace or in society as a whole. As an organisation that has strived for 25 years to reach out to the many diverse communities, we care about the impact of racism on our staff and volunteers and we want to learn from you and work together to develop strategies that eliminate it.

We want to keep developing our vision of a united BCB where no one gets left behind. We want every single person to be valued and cared about and central to all the work we do.

We know there are many causes of inequality and oppression and we will continue to address all the ways our staff and volunteers experience oppression. However racism is one of the key oppressions that is dividing people at this point and therefore a good place to start.

We have already started this work as a staff team where we meet every week to read information about racism, have difficult conversations, and support each other to face really uncomfortable feelings at times. We have listened to each other uninterrupted and become stronger in our relationships with one another. There is no blame and no shame just an honest space to learn from each other.

We are also working on a new database that will give us better information about all our volunteers to show us if we are being representative of all the groups in our city. It also allows us to ensure that our volunteers are being included in all the work we do.

We know from our day-to-day conversations that this is an issue that others, in and around our organisation, also feel strongly about and are looking for ways to make a difference.

If you would like to work with us to continue to build a united BCB radio where no one gets left behind we’ll be holding a zoom meeting very soon so watch out for more information.

IWD on BCB March 8th

Things are coming together for our International Women’s Day ‘Radio Venus’ broadcast. We’ve held some really good of planning meetings via zoom and Julie Longden has been supporting lots of women to record programmes for the day – many women making programmes for the first time which is exciting. We are particularly encouraging programmes from Black Women and Women of Colour this year. We’re delighted that new women have got involved and we look forward to hearing their contributions on IWD. The schedule will be on the website once its finalised!

‘She Talks’ on BCB March 2021

As reported last month, ‘She Talks’ will feature on BCB throughout March 2021. We want to get contributions from as many women as we can from across the Bradford District – opinion pieces, interviews, conversations, poetry, stories, programmes etc. If possible we would like women to record pieces on their phone or other devices and send them to us – they can be just a few minutes long and focus on just one aspect of your life, your experiences, thoughts, hopes, life after lockdown… etc. Please encourage any women you know to contribute! For more information contact mary.dowson@bcbradio.co.uk

LGBTQ+ History Month on BCB 106.6fm

Throughout February we’ve broadcast a unique range of distinctly Bradford programmes, interviews and features to mark and celebrate LGBTQ+ history month. To name just a few we’ve had The Brick Box’s Rosie Freeman presenting a queer reading of the Brontes, community organisation Free2B-Me telling us about the work they do supporting the LGBTQ+ community in Bradford, a drag special from Sew Keighley Pride and a whole host of shows from The Equity Radio show team. As always none of this would have been possible without the hard work of BCB’s volunteers and staff so a big thank you to everyone who worked hard to mark the month!

You can take a look at everything we’ve done for LGBTQ+ history month here (thanks to Shi Blank for putting this all together)

MILES Erasmus project

We may have formally left the EU but BCB is delighted to be partners to a new 2 year European project starting in April 2021! The project has just received approval and is part of the Erasmus Adult Education programme. It’s a partnership with Community Radio Stations in Austria, Spain, Hungary, Luxembourg and Ireland and is focusing on developing Media and Information Literacy skills through involvement with Community Radio. More info to come over the next few months.

Featured Programme Of The Month

Whittaker’s World is a new programme on BCB hosted by Clive Whittaker, who some of you may know as the host of With A Little Help. The show goes out every Wednesday and Friday 2.15 – 3pm.

On each show Clive picks a topic and investigates it further with a series of guests. Previous shows have looked at complementary health and Shiatsu with Carol Deane and Azim Nobeebaccus from the Northern School of Shiatsu, the journey of refugees with Ethiopian and Congolese refugees and retirement with Peter Tate (ex-Youth Officer and Teacher) and Bhulla Singh (Ex Area Co-ordinator at Bradford West Neighbourhood office). So as you can see it’s a show that covers a lot of topics!

Bradford Music Network – Steering Group

You may have heard of the Bradford Music Network. They put a call out for steering group members late last year, and as a result ‘BCB’ has been given a place on the group. Other BCB people may have applied independently, and may already have a place. We’d like to see the BCB spot taken up by someone who’s really into making Bradford a better place for music, and who is also happy to bring feedback from the group to the rest of the BCB organisation.

​If you are that person, or know who that person should be, please get in touch with David Carpenter – david.carpenter@bcbradio.co.uk (by 5pm on March 5th please)

The first meeting of the steering group is on March 10th 4pm – 6pm via Zoom – If we don’t have anyone else by then, David will attend. (If you want to do it but can’t make this first meeting, get in touch anyway. If you miss the deadline, but are interested, get in touch anyway.)

Depending on the response, we can sort it out from there.

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