BAI Meeting

Plans for a radio station to serve the communities of Westport and its surrounding areas advanced a stage further with a well attended open public meeting on the 15^th July  last in “The Bakehouse” Henehans Bridge Street Westport.

Councillor Mr Keith Martin acted as chairperson for the meeting and opened proceedings with a big “ Welcome to Westport” for Ms. Elisabeth Farrelly and Ms. Niamh Ni Bhroin of the BAI ( Broadcasting Authority of Ireland) and a big thank you for all assembled “ on a very wet and windy evening” and apologies “for those with clashing commitments” who contacted him.

Mr. Stephen O'Brien chairperson of the steering commitee for Westcoast Fm then went on to introduce Ms Farrelly and Ms Ni Bhroin and invited them to discuss what is involved in planning for a local radio station and what a community based broadcasting service can do for a locality. An ongoing question and answers format quickly evolved from this, reflecting the diverse age profiles and backgrounds of all attending. This took the meeting at that stage to well over the hour mark.

In closing Mr O'Brien firstly thanked Mr Michael Henehan for the kind use of the venue, the informative and welcome inputs from the BAI  and above all the attendance and active participation of all those who attended. He went on to say “ One of the most interesting things to come out of the meeting was the emphasis on the word community”

This too was the core message from the BAI on the evening “ All the successful local broadcasting models are very much community driven from inception, initial fundraising, and right through, and most importantly to programming formats and content” Mr O'Brien further endorsed this by commenting “ When it is up and broadcasting Westcoast Fm will of course aim to be  firstly entertaining and informative, but it will also act as a platform, a stage, and most importantly a catalyst that combines the many and varied communities within the town and town lands of Westport.”

What next for Westcoast Fm? “ As with all projects of this nature a certain amount of funding has to be generated locally” stated Mr. Michael Kelly PRO Steering Committee for Westcoast Fm. He went on to say “ A local radio station for Westport would be a major “Give back, get back” project, the benefits for those groups, commercial enterprises and organisations that kindly get involved in our fundraising drive are numerous and many fold and we would ask them all to keep this in mind when we do get in touch , to review our business plan and model with them” On a less formal note and perhaps one that reflects the true essence of a community based broadcasting service Mr Kelly also stated that “ We are beginning to put plans together for a major fundraising “Night with the Stars” this would be a showcase for all local artists, groups and organisations with some big name national stars mixed into the equation for good measure we would hope this will happen in early to mid Autumn and I would urge anybody interested to get in touch with us on info@westcoastfm.com. These are the kind of people that will form some of the many strands of our programming content it will be recorded and hopefully provide a rich source of archive material in the future.