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Takeover.Radio Children's Media Trust was started in 2001 when Takeover Radio, a children's radio station in Leicester, created a Charity training and Media center for Kidz aged 8 to 14 years. Takeover Radio started back in 1997 when three kidz took over a Saturday night slot called ‘In and Out With Philip Solo on a radio station in Market Harborough, Leicester called Valley FM. For 2 hours Ellie(15) Sam(12) and Rayne(10) Menzies took over Philip’s show by bursting in, tying him up and creating a ‘hostage situation’ in the studio. Inspector Lawton of ‘The Radio Police’ had to promise pizza and chocolate before they would ‘release’ Mr Solo and allow him to finish the last ½ hour of his show. |
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The following year the three kidz took over a similar station in Wigston call NOW FM. This time they captured it on 4 weekends and produced 4 one hour programmes. They recorded a radio version of Roald Dahl's, The Twits, gave out video game information in The Nerd Zone, local information for kidz in Radio Activity, competitions and great music. |
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Sam and Rayne taking over Paul Travill on Big Dial 106.6 |
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They convinced Megazone, Computer Cave and Bounceaway Bouncy Castles to sponsor the four programmes and recruited more mercenaries to help the team: Ruth Truslove(14) as resident kidz reporter on Radio Activity and Seth and Louis Bland as actors in The Twits story. Megazone Laser Adventure and Computer Cave, also gave them games, computer software and promotional event tickets to give away during the programmes. There were also free tickets provided by other organisations who were not able to advertise. These were used for other competition prizes. Both these sponsors also provided, experts to come onto the shows and give interviews about their work from business, personal and technical viewpoints. |
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What their mum said about what us Kidz got out of it!
First the
simple achievement of getting through the four shows without
embarrassment. Then comes all the valuable lessons learnt on
teamwork, communications and discipline. They enjoyed immensely
proving that a kids show could work and deserve all the praise that
has been heaped on them. They learnt how to put aside their childish
squabbles for the sake of the show, concentrate even when they were
tired and push themselves and each other to do their best. They have
done some serious growing up in the past few months and we can only
conclude that the whole experience was most definitely worth it; not
just for what they have gained now but also in terms of where they
take the skills they have learned in the future.
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In 1998 we were invited to do four programmes on Big
Dial Radio 106.6 a radio station in Market Harborough. One
small piece in the local paper and we grew to thirteen regular
presenters (no we're not suppositious) after an
intensive training programme we were all ready and we again took over
the station, it was a great success raising money for local charities. We held auditions to find the ones that would help us on air and to make all the jingles, the rest helped with handing out leaflets and promotional activities. Over the next few months we all trained and prepared for our shows and by May we were ready! On 2 May 1999 we did our first takeover show on The Wall we were all very nervous including the ones that had been on air before, the shows went really well and everyone was really pleased. (there was no need to worry at all!) Kidz on the Wall was so great that we returned to take over the airwaves again in June 2000. Our programmes were so good that the Lords heard about us and invited us to the House of Lords, in London to talk about kidz on the radio. you can find out how we got on by going to the campaign page. By August 2000 we had grown so big we needed our own radio station so we took over the studios at the Wall and ran our very own station for 9 day from 9am till 9pm, this was called Radio Activity. In September 2000 we started building the new Takeover Radio Head Quarters and set up the Takeover.Radio Children's Media Trust. This is where even more children can learn how to present programmes and enjoy the experiences on offer. In July 2001 we were granted Charity status by the Charity's Commission and we were also chosen to be one of only 15 radio station to trial the new Access Radio project for the Radio Authority. This took a lot of work to get the station on the air and in March 2002 we launched the station on 103.2fm across Leicester and the web at www.takeoverradio.com. We have been broadcasting for 6 years now and the Government have agreed to allow the new authority OfCom to issue full time radio licences, we applied in 2004 and in 2005 we were awarded a full 5 year broadcast licence, the first radio station in the UK to be awarded a licence to broadcast exclusively to kidz. As well as the radio we have branched out into other areas, we are now in the process of looking for funding to set up cells around the country so other kids can benefit from the training and life experiences we have gained as part of Takeover Radio. We are also looking to set up educational outreach work and make contact with as many schools as possible. We now publish a magazine called Retune and offer work experience to 15 to 18 year olds. Well what's next ...... will you be taken over!!! If you would like to find out how you can learn to present programmes, go to the Contact. page. So this is the history but what of the future !!! We need the help and support of organisations that would like to fund project in line with our aims, if you are interested please go to the supporters page!! Do Not Adjust Your Planet We Are taking Over........................... Click on our naughty dog to find the station!
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